Hope can bring solutions to climate despair

Can we find hope in a hopeless place? Earth 2022 can certainly feel hopeless, given our greater awareness of climate related health emergencies, such as floods in Pakistan and famine in Somalia (doi:10.1136/bmj.o2407, doi:10.1136/bmj.o2413).12 The effects of climate change on vulnerable populations—disabled people and migrants, for example—are easily ignored (doi:10.1136/bmj.o2387, doi:10.1136/bmj.o2389).34 Yet hopelessness, though understandable, can lead to climate despair. Hope, however abstract it may seem, helps “protect wellbeing and foster activism in the face of adversity” (doi:10.1136/bmj.o2411).5One advantage of hope is that it can also lead to solutions. As populations continue to be failed by governments and industry, and as this year’s climate change conference (COP27) struggles for global attention on the climate emergency (doi:10.1136/bmj.o2391),6 the need to focus on and prioritise solutions is urgent and imperative. This is do or die on a grand scale. The apocalypse is now.Instead of reacting with the speed and commitment required, people…
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