What a year, eh?

I had a draft of a newsletter queued up for last Friday and then... y'all, the news just did me in. We've got oil invasions and extrajudicial killings and cuts to social services and and and and. And that's just domestically? Honestly, what the hell do I say in the midst of that?

I can tell you what other sustainability newsletters are saying. They're talking about hope. But they're talking about it like it's this wispy, ephemeral thing. Oh, sure, we're invading countries for their fossil fuel stockpiles and profits, but here's an organization that does carbon accounting offsets so businesses can still hit net zero. (Insert rant about "net" being an accounting term, and not actual zero.)

With each email that arrived in my inbox, I was increasingly enraged by the passivity. What are we doing? What are you even talking about?

And that's when it clicked for me: hope isn't passive. It's not thoughts-and-prayers nonsense. Hope is active and takes effort. You can tell your sick neighbor that you hope she feels better, or you can bring her some soup. You can hope that the woman you're tutoring at the library has an easy, uneventful appointment with Homeland Security, or you can help her read the letter (an impenetrable wall of text with conflicting information) and allow her to show up as prepared as possible. You can hope that someone steps up to fill the gaps for missing social services, or you can volunteer your time at the food bank.

Things don't get better just because you wish and hope them to be so. They get better because you're so angry and frustrated that you have to do something about it. We don't have to live like this. We can seek better methods that deliver better outcomes. Suffering is not noble. Joy is not frivolous.

I can't do everything. I can't fix everything. But within my lane? Within sustainable content? I can do this. And you can, too, without ever hoisting a protest sign or filming arrests or even having to read the increasingly dismal news. This is within your wheelhouse.

Those of you who are readers of this newsletter? I'm preaching to the choir. What I need is your help in spreading the word. Book sales. Corporate engagements. Conferences. Whatever you can think of. Because this is how we channel our skills into something productive.

This is how we build hope.

"[The Geiger study] defines hope as a cognitive-motivational process that orients people toward goal-directed behavior.... Hope requires empowerment."

Alisa Bonsignore
Sustainable Content: How to Measure and Mitigate the Carbon Footprint of Digital Data
Now available

What I've been reading

The U.S. has backed out of climate agreements, global governing bodies, and basically anything else that keeps the country connected to the world.

What about the U.S. AI agenda one year in? I'm going to be attending the Data & Society webinar that discusses "How should we understand the administration’s actions when it comes to AI? What dynamics are driving these changes in AI policymaking? What might be the downstream consequences for Americans? And how should we respond?"

How do we manage increasing climate risks? Probable Futures looks at a variety of approaches to mitigation and management.

Shameless and unsolicited cross-promotion of interesting stuff!

Ever wonder what goes on at the World Economic Forum in Davos? FT Live is hosting free daily reports on what's happening at these meetings. I've registered and will do my best to keep up, despite the time zone differential.