by Andrea O’Ferrall
When I was in High School, I decided I didn’t like the way my name rolled off the tongue. The final ‘a’ of my first name and the ‘O’ of my last name when said together are a bit of a mouthful. I thought Andrea Rousseau had much better flow. My parents smiled and said, “That’s nice. But you’re an O’Ferrall” and that was the end of that. Now, I think I should change my name to Cassandra. My first name, that is.
“Who is Cassandra?” asked my son when I mentioned this.
“Cassandra was a priestess of Apollo in Greek mythology. She was given the gift of prophesy. Then she was given the curse that no one would believe her,” I answered. “Pretty rough position to be in.”
“And you are Cassandra?” he asked. “You’re telling people about climate change?”
“Yes, hon, and people don’t believe. They don’t want to know how bad the situation is. They don’t seem to want to think that our lives must and will change,” I added.
Who exactly doesn’t believe? So many people that I interact with.
What does denial look like? My friends and acquaintances aren’t denying climate change — they’re denying the need to act. They’re not taking up the cause. Whether it’s fear or defensiveness, they struggle with the concept of transformative change. They can’t imagine a different world from the fossil fueled one we’ve been living in.
Basically, there are groups of friends I have tried to talk with to impress upon them the urgency of our climate crisis. I’ll start with my tennis buddies because they have been the most challenging. They are the toughest group because they seem to revel in the warm weather and not to have a care in the world. The juxtaposition of their lack of worry and my climate stress and grief can be jarring for me. The tennis folks are mostly retired, but some are stay-at-home moms or self-employed — people who have some flexibility in their schedules that could be used for good.
When the heat dome was hitting Seattle in late June, we sat under a tree one morning waiting for a court to open.
“This is what global warming looks like,” I said. “It’s happening now. This is why I bring it up,” I said.
“How do you feel when it’s hot out?” asked Chuck. “I don’t feel well.”
“Me neither,” said Bill.
I could tell we were in for another “deep” conversation.
“That’s why we should do more about it. If you don’t want to spend your time, then you can at least donate money to 350Seattle,” I said.
I was frustrated by their puzzled looks. “The climate change organization? 350 stands for the parts per million of CO2 in the air? The level we should have stopped at and now were up to something like 420 and climbing…?” I had discussed this with them before. I scanned their faces for recognition.
“Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?” asked Chuck.
“No, of course not!” I replied happily, ready to begin a true discussion.
“Where did you get your sneakers?” he asked.
I realize that I COULD be making this up, but I’m not. Where did you get your sneakers?!? My sneakers are pretty beautiful, pink New Balance sneakers with orange highlights, but I’m trying to discuss climate!
This type of interaction has continued over the last couple of years. My buddy Jim, the one who organizes our groups for tennis doubles, tells me I need to be patient. I need to keep trying. There are times I give up and stop playing for a while. Then I work up my mojo and try again. Jim gives everyone in the tennis group a nickname. Mine is ‘The Commodore’ because I took a sailing class a few years ago. I think I’ll ask him to change it to Cassandra.
Another group I’ve tried to engage is the folks from my church. About 5 years ago I tried to get parishioners to join a carbon tracking team I had set up through Sustaining Earth, Our Island Home, a web-based carbon tracker. The tracker assigned points for such activities as changing to LED lightbulbs, composting or having your attic insulated. There were many ways listed to lower one’s carbon footprint and teams got points for actions they had already done or changes they were making.
In the church newsletter, I explained its purpose and how to join. I followed up by discussing it with groups of people at coffee hour. One week I even brought my computer to coffee hour so that people could sign up. And how many did I get to sign up?
Five… FIVE!
Our team got quite a few points, because I did or was doing EVERYTHING on the list.
It took me a few years to get the Creation Care team, which consisted of a church friend and me, to be part of the service and outreach team. Creation Care is the name of the ‘green team” for the Episcopal church. My plan was to grow awareness of the climate crisis and engage parishioners to act. I knew for sure I would plan for us to join some forest restoration projects at local parks.
I met with some of the other ministry leaders. One, in charge of providing meals to the homeless one evening a month, another coordinating meals for those in need one Saturday a month. They seemed to have a hard time looking at caring for the earth as service or outreach. In fact, my Creation Care ministry kept being left off the list of ministries. How did it feel to have my plan to do good works for the planet taken off the team? Ask Cassandra.
Now, 5 years later, people from church at least know to think climate when they see me. But now they are thinking about individual actions.
“I walked to church today,” says one.
“I have all LED lightbulbs!”
“I am a vegetarian!”
“Plastics are a big problem!”
Folks make sure to let me know they’re trying. But as is popular to say in climate circles, it’s too little, too late. Now I know that the individual carbon tracker was developed by the fossil fuel company BP to lay the onus of the climate crisis on individuals. Fossil Fuel companies have been manipulating us for decades.
Now I’m trying to get out the bigger message. Listen to writers like Naomi Klein. Capitalism has been sucking life from the earth. It’s not sustainable.
To quote a report from the United Nations, “Emissions must drop 7.6 percent per year from 2020 to 2030 to keep temperatures from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius.” Every year. My message to anyone is that we need to get off of fossil fuels NOW. If I thought it would work, I’d be standing on a soap box on the corner with a megaphone sharing the news. Cassandra could share the truth, but who would be listening?
Finally, there are my long-time friends.
“Yes, Andrea, climate change is terrible. But what do you want me to do about it?” they say.
“I want you to join 350. I want to see you at the meetings. I want you to join Stop the Money Pipeline, Stand.earth, Shipitzero.org, Extinction Rebellion, the Justice Democrats, the Sierra Club, Greenpeace… need I go on? But YOU need to do this. I don’t mean join them ALL, but pick one thing and take it on. You can’t just appreciate me for all the work I do,” I say.
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“I’m busy. I just signed up for a creative writing class,” says one. “and I just got a new dog,” says one.
“I’m busy. I’m becoming a master gardener,” says another.
“Oh really, planting native plants?” I ask excitedly.
“No, why would I do that?” they respond. They obviously haven’t been listening.
“My cause is finding homes for abandoned dogs. Everyone should have a cause. Yours is climate change and I appreciate that.”
“But climate chaos affects everyone. I think it’s a little bigger issue!” I plead. Did Cassandra plead?
But there is some good news. I needed to write this now because I may not continue to feel like Cassandra, prophesying the truth but not being believed.
I called my mom last week to see that she and my brother were safe. I had just seen on the news that there had been flash flooding in New York due to Hurricane Ida. Her house and neighborhood were fine, but it had taken my brother 3 hours to get home the evening before, a drive that would normally be 40 minutes.
“I had to keep turning around to go a different way. Everything was flooded. I even saw cars floating in some places,” he said. “But mom, did you tell her what your friend said?” he added.
“Oh, right, Diana said ‘maybe Andrea is right’,” added my mom.
“Wow, maybe I am,” I said with surprise. We all laughed.
This was one of a few small signs, that I may not be Cassandra for much longer. Climate is causing crisis. People are living it. I think they are listening and believing.
Andrea O’Ferrall
September 2021
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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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