HOW TO SEE THE FOREST

Originally published 2023

“Are we in the hardest part of the climate transition?”

Uh, maybe?

It’s a question my friend, journalist, author, and frequent pod guest Akshat Rathi asked recently and the answer is:

It’s complicated.

“…it depends?” Is that better? No? Yes?

“Where are we in the climate transition” (Quinn’s note: or democracy, or bird flu, or…) is a pretty loaded question.

Do you mean in electrifying our power sources? Or transportation? Or vis a vis sea level rise? Or crop migration? etc., etc., etc.

There’s a very good chance it’s both less and more complicated for me to answer this than for you.

Why?

Because there’s also a very good chance you’re some sort of specialist, even if you don’t consider yourself one. I am…not. I’m not a specialist in anything but microwaving a specific brand of quick-cooking rolled oats.

You are probably a state senator, a 3rd-grade teacher, a recent retiree with a pension, a tech lobbyist, a medical resident, a grad student, a high school student, an activist, a neuromuscular surgeon, a grant writer, a fiction author, a food journalist, a screenwriter, a climate investor.

Your job is not to see the forest — like, the entire forest — through your very specific breed and collection of trees. Those being, more specifically, your beat, your students, your fundraising, your book reports or daily word count, your board meetings, your patient list.

Everything is a lot without taking into account (waves hands) everything else.

Of course, you’re good at what you do, and you’re here reading this, so you give a shit a little bit. You care about not only your own employment status, but also how it affects your family, your town, your state, country, and the world. A little bit of the forest creeps in, on some days, when you’ve got six seconds to think about it. Look at you! So worldly.

And/but when you do — it’s a lot to let it all in. Can feel like a mistake. Believe me. The forest is my job and I hide under blankets a lot of the time. My therapist spent an hour yesterday yelling at me for “bullshitting my way through a victory lap” after I asked for 1) more therapy and 2) more medication. So.

You’re not alone, though. America is laden with specialists. Just look at American medicine. We focus less on public health than ever before (whoops!), and so (in part) we have a huge shortage of primary physicians and nurses.

But that’s not like there isn’t a place for specialists in all this — sometimes you need a specialist, or seven. But what you might also really need is for them to be in open conversation with one another, and that’s…rare.

In fact, in most US health care systems, anything but surgery is basically disincentivized. So fun.

It might feel that way to you, too, like trying to see the forest is a waste of your precious time.

On the other hand — consider tunnels.

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