Climate journalist Emily Atkin is a pessimist. Or maybe she’s a realist. Or maybe she’s actually hopeful? One thing’s for sure: she’s not going to stop calling out tech and oil company billionaires or the politicians who are in their pocket.
This week, Katie and LaFonda had a fascinating conversation with Emily on our podcast about the environment and whether you need to be an optimist to work for change. Emily started her Substack, Heated, back in 2019 — almost the exact same time that Katie started Red Wine & Blue — and while the climate is such an important issue on its own, it can also stand in for almost any cause we care about when it comes to what motivates us to work for change.
As Americans (even those who voted for Trump) seem to be turning away from MAGA, personally we’re starting to feel… dare we say, a little optimistic?… about November. Then again, we also felt optimistic in 2024 and got our hearts broken.
If appealing to hope and optimism makes you feel nervous, or even annoyed, that’s okay. You don’t have to believe that everything is destined to turn out all rainbows and sunshine to work for what you believe in. You just have to do the work.
We love good news and hope around here, but there’s no shortage of causes that can feel hopeless, from climate change to fighting corruption to women’s rights to racial equality. If we waited to know for certain that our efforts would pay off, no one would ever take any action at all!
Not to mention, the people in power want us to feel hopeless. There’s nothing they’d like more than for us to all throw up our hands and stay at home doomscrolling instead of standing up for what we believe in. And that’s exactly why we have to keep fighting.
As Emily said, “the future is still being decided and I’m not gonna surrender my part in deciding it.” We couldn’t agree more.