A recent New York Times article by David Gelles—A Different Approach to Climate Action—referenced Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist and climate expert, who encourages individuals to take action on climate change by tapping into their skills. In her 2022 TED Talk How to find joy in climate action, Johnson suggested that people use a Venn diagram to determine where they should take action to help protect the planet.

So where do we each begin? Here's my best answer. A Venn diagram. The first circle is: What are you good at, what are your areas of expertise? What can you bring to the table? Think about your skills, resources and networks. The second circle is: What is the work that needs doing? Are there particular climate and justice solutions that you're keen on? Think about systems level changes, things that can replicate or scale. Things like composting initiatives, insulating buildings, restoring wetlands, getting climate candidates elected. And electrifying everything. There are heaps of options. The third circle is: What brings you joy or satisfaction? There is so much work to be done. Please do not choose something that makes you miserable. This is the long haul. So it's critical to avoid burnout. Choose things that enliven you.

There's so much packed into that one little paragraph:

Johnson is not asking anyone to try to boil the ocean, in other words, to take on the whole of the climate problem. She's encouraging individuals to take action in areas where effort is required and where they can use their talents and express their passions.

On the need for a more hopeful portrayal of climate change, Gelles quotes Johnson:

"When we look at climate media, whether that’s filmmaking or newspaper headlines, it’s often really apocalyptic," she said. "That can be overwhelming, depressing and—most concerning to me—demotivating. It can feel like, 'We’re screwed, so why bother?'"

But we need to bother, she insists. Even though she is focusing on the doable rather than the doom, Johnson objects to being labeled an optimist:

"Optimism assumes that the outcome will be good," she said. "That’s unscientific. I don’t harbor any sort of assumption that it will be OK in the end."

This reminded me of something a former colleague and now dear friend used to say: "Hope is not a strategy." What I think she meant by that is that you can't just hope that things will get better; you need to take steps to help ensure that things will get better. Johnson would likely concur, describing the word "implementation" as "the sexiest word in the English language."

What I like most about both Gelles' article and Johnson's TED Talk is the idea that when we portray an issue as all doom and gloom and a challenge as requiring massive effort, we risk depressing people to the point that they lose motivation to act.

I've seen this first hand with ovarian cancer. While people facing the illness need a realistic picture of what was described to me as "a tough disease," they also need information to give them hope—hope that will spur them to learn about ovarian cancer, ask questions, take charge of their health, reach out to others, follow their treatment plan.

One of the things I've tried to do with this blog is to authentically share my experience with cancer—the good and the bad—but to do so in a way that doesn't overwhelm someone who might read these words after being diagnosed with cancer themselves. Those of us who find ourselves dealing with ovarian cancer have no more assurance that our treatments will be successful than the people tackling climate change have that our collective actions will slow or stop the rising temperature of the Earth. But optimism or hope has to be part of the equation. Without it, we might say, "We're screwed, so why bother?"

I also like Johnson's Venn diagram and her three questions. It brought to mind Terry Fox, who could have had such a Venn diagram. What was he good at? Being an athlete and persevering. What needed doing? Increasing people's awareness of cancer and raising money for cancer research. What brought him joy? Running for the cancer patients who couldn't run themselves.

For my part, I would answer the three questions this way: I'm good at writing, people need to know more about ovarian cancer, and helping others brings me joy.

Gelles article includes both realism and hope:

While there’s plenty of bad news to go around, it’s not unreasonable to imagine that enduring progress is within reach. Practically every day, there are encouraging new signs that after decades of dithering, the world is finally getting more serious about tackling climate change.

Just as there are encouraging signs with respect to climate change, there are encouraging signs in the field of ovarian cancer research. As I wrote in Solving the puzzle of ovarian cancer, Dr. Barbara Vanderhyden—a senior research scientist with the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the Corinne Boyer Chair in Ovarian Cancer Research at the University of Ottawa—is excited about the possibilities for new treatments for ovarian cancer and encouraged by the growing number of researchers focused on the disease.

Hope without action risks leaving things to chance. But calls to action without hope risk overwhelming people. We need both.

Whatever opportunity or challenge you are facing—be it global, local or personal—ask yourself what you are good at, what needs doing, and what brings you joy.