In the course of a single year, University of Maine climate scientist Jacquelyn Gill lost both her mother and her stepfather.
She struggled with infertility, then during research in the Arctic, she developed embolisms in both lungs, was transferred to an intensive care unit in Siberia and nearly died. She was airlifted back home and later had a hysterectomy. Then the pandemic hit.
Her trials and her perseverance, she said, seemed to make her a magnet for emails and direct messages on Twitter 鈥渁sking me how to be hopeful, asking me, like, what keeps me going?鈥�
Gill said she has accepted the idea that she is 鈥渆verybody鈥檚 climate midwife鈥� and coaches them to hope through action.
Hope and optimism often blossom in the experts toiling in the gloomy fields of global warming,COVID-19 and Alzheimer鈥檚 disease.
How climate scientists like Gill or emergency room doctors during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic cope with their depressing day-to-day work, yet remain hopeful, can offer help to ordinary people dealing with a world going off the rails, psychologists said.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 because they see a way out. They see that things can be done,鈥� said Pennsylvania State University psychology professor Janet Swim. 鈥淗ope is seeing a pathway, even though the pathway seems far, far away.鈥�
United Nations Environment Programme Director Inger Andersen said she simply cannot do her job without being an optimist.
鈥淚 do not wish to sound naive in choosing to be the 鈥榬ealistic optimist,鈥� but the alternative to being the realistic optimist is either to hold one鈥檚 ears and wait for doomsday or to party while the orchestra of the Titanic plays,鈥� Andersen said. 鈥淚 do not subscribe to either.鈥�
Dr. Kristina Goff works in the intensive care unit at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and said at times she felt overwhelmed during the pandemic. She keeps a file folder at home of 鈥渓ittle notes that say 鈥榟ey you made a difference.鈥欌��
鈥淚 think half of the battle in my job is learning to take what could be a very overwhelming anxiety and turn it into productivity and resilience,鈥� Goff said. 鈥淵ou just have to focus on these little areas where you can make a difference.鈥�
Alzheimer鈥檚 disease may be one of the bleakest diagnoses a physician can convey, one where the future can appear hopeless. Yet Dr. Ronald Petersen, director of the Mayo Clinic Alzheimer鈥檚 research center and a man colleagues describe as optimistic and passionate, doesn鈥檛 see it that way.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 depressing. I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 gloomy. It鈥檚 difficult. It鈥檚 challenging,鈥� Petersen said. But 鈥渨e鈥檙e so much better off today than five years ago, 10 years ago.鈥�
The coping technique these scientists have in common is doing something to help. The word they often use is 鈥渁gency.鈥� It鈥檚 especially true for climate researchers 鈥� tarred as doomsayers by political types who reject the science.
Gill, who describes herself as a lifelong cheerleader, has also battled with depression. She said what鈥檚 key in fighting eco-anxiety is that 鈥渞egular depression and regular anxiety tools work just as well. And so that鈥檚 why I tell people: 鈥楤e a doer. Get other there. Don鈥檛 just doomscroll.鈥� There are entry level ways that anyone, literally anyone, can help out. And the more we do that, 鈥極h, it actually works,鈥� it turns out.鈥�
It鈥檚 not just about individual actions, like giving up air travel, or becoming a vegetarian, it鈥檚 about working together with other people in a common effort, Gill said. Individual action is helpful on climate change, but is not enough, she said. To bend the curve of rising temperatures and the buildup of heat-trapping gases, steady collective action, such as the youth climate activism movement and voting, gives true agency.
鈥淚 think maybe that鈥檚 helped stave off some of this hopelessness,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 go to a scientific meeting and I look around at the thousands of scientists that are working on this. And I鈥檓 like 鈥榊eah, we鈥檙e doing this.鈥欌��
Northern Illinois University meteorology professor Victor Gensini said that, at 35, he figures it鈥檚 his relative youth that gives him hope.
鈥淲hen I think about would could be, I gain a sense of optimism and create an attitude that this is something I can do something about,鈥� Gensini said.
The U.N.鈥檚 Andersen is a veteran of decades of work on ecological issues and thinks this experience has made her optimistic.
鈥淚 have seen shifts on other critical environmental issues such as banning of toxic material, better air quality standards, the repair of the ozone hole, the phase-out of leaded petrol and much more,鈥� Andersen said. 鈥淚 know that hard work, underpinned by science, underpinned by strong policy and yes, underpinned by multilateral and activist action, can lead to change.鈥�
Deke Arndt, chief of climate science and services at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration鈥檚 National Center for Environmental Information, said what buoys him with an overwhelming optimism is his personal faith, and remembering all the people who have helped his family over the generations 鈥� through the Dust Bowl for his grandparents and through infertility and then neonatal issues for his son.
鈥淲e鈥檝e experienced the miracle of hands-on care from fellow human beings,鈥� Arndt said. 鈥淵ou kind of spend the rest of your life trying to repay.鈥�
鈥淲here people are suffering not through their own purchase, that makes me want to recommit as a scientist and a Catholic,鈥� Arndt said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got to do as much as we can.鈥�
What鈥檚 more, Gill and several others said, the science tells them that it is not game over for Earth.
鈥淭he work that I do inherently lends me a sense of agency,鈥� Gill said. 鈥淎s a paleo-ecologist (who studies the past) and climatologist, I have a better sense of Earth鈥檚 resilience than a lot of people do.鈥�
It helps that she studies glaciers. Even though they shrink, they鈥檙e still there when she returns to visit them, so far. She pointed to Georgia Tech climate scientist Kim Cobb, who spent much of her career diving and studying the same coral reef in the Pacific, only to return in 2016 and find it dead: 鈥淕od, I cannot imagine what a gut punch.鈥�
Cobb laughed heartily when she heard how Gill described the life of a reef scientist.
From 1997 to 2016, Cobb dived at one of the tiny islands of Kiritimati in the Pacific, monitoring the effects of climate change and El Nino on a delicate coral reef there. Super hot water killed it in 2016, with only faint signs of life clinging on.
That fall, Cobb made one last trip. It was during the elections. A big Hillary Clinton fan, Cobb was wearing a Madame President shirt when she heard the news that Donald Trump was elected. She said fell into a pit of despair that lasted maybe a couple months.
鈥淎nd then on New Year鈥檚 Eve, I decided that I probably had enough and I know my husband had enough, my kids had had enough. So people needed their mother and their wife back,鈥� Cobb said. 鈥淚 decided to grope for another path out there.鈥�
鈥淚 am not able to wallow for so long before I start asking myself some questions like, 鈥楲ook you know how you can put your position to work? How can you put your resources to work?鈥欌�� Cobb said.
She and her family cut their personal carbon emissions 80%. She doesn鈥檛 fly on planes anymore. She went vegan, composts, installed solar panels. She works on larger climate action instead of her more focused previous research. And she bikes everywhere, which she said is like mental health therapy.
She tells people when they are anxious about climate change, 鈥渢here鈥檚 not going to be a win, a shining moment where we can declare success,鈥� but 鈥渋t鈥檚 never going to be too late to act. It鈥檚 never going to be too late to fix this.鈥�
NOAA鈥檚 Arndt said the climate of the 20th century he grew up with is gone forever. He grieves the loss of that, but also finds mourning what鈥檚 gone 鈥渨eirdly liberating.鈥�
With climate change 鈥渨e have to kind of hold hope and grief at the same time, like they鈥檙e kind of twins that we鈥檙e cradling,鈥� Maine鈥檚 Gill said. 鈥淲e have to both understand and witness what has happened and what we鈥檝e lost. And then fiercely commit to protecting what remains. And I don鈥檛 think you can do that from a place of hopelessness.鈥�
鈥擲eth Borenstein, The Associated Press
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