Bool Review: Hope Matters (Eline Kelsey)

I had the privilege of listening to Elin Kelsey speak at the Global Education Benchmarking Group (GEBG) this past April. I had come across the book earlier and it had intrigued me as a great provocation for a course we were designing at Havergal College. But when I heard her speak, I knew I was going to dive into this book, and I also knew that I was going to love it, both as an educator and as a parent.
…”If everyone is doing all this stuff for conservation, has anything gotten better?” It was such a good question [from my 10yr-old nephew]…the information that would help us answer it was surprisingly difficult to fine. His question set me on a solutions-finding spree, interviewing scientists wherever I was in the world and asking them to share their best examples of hopeful, environmental successes that were backed by scientific evidence.” (pg. 179)
Hope Matters is the culmination of this spree, and it is uplifting and full of great provocations to encourage your students, and families, to have hope in the future, and how to have hope enough to become a part of the solution.
You would be interested in this book if you…
(1) Were interested in climate anxiety in youth, and how to move towards alleviating it.
(2) Are in education and curious about moving towards more sustainable teaching and practices
(3) Are interested in engaging in changes in ways we think about and approach the climate crisis
(4) Teaching anything that can be related to UN SDGs
(5) Looking for hope when it comes to the environment
Three Different Kinds of Hope
(1) Hope to Drive our Individual Action: “Where there is a will, there is a way”, this is the type of hope that not only believes that something can be done to make things better, but also the belief that we have the tools and strategy to get it done. (Kelsey, 50)
(2) Hope to Power Societal Transformations: “Hope, says Henry Giroux of McMaster University, makes the leap for us between critical education, which tells us what must be changed; political agency, which gives us the means to make change; and the concrete struggles through which change happens.” (Kelsey, 56)
(3) Hope in the face of Hopelessness: This type of hope is personally tied to your own sense of purpose and meaning. In this way, hope is referring to the feeling that something, your actions, your choices, etc… make sense, regardless of how it turns out. (Kelsey, 63)
These definitions of hope urge us to look deeply and realistically at
things as they actually are. Hope is possible in the face of climate
change, not because we pretend the complex issues impacting the
planet don’t exist, but because we fully embrace the truth of the
situation. (Kelsey, 63)
These are powerful ways to frame hope for our students and children. Hoping isn’t wishing, it is combining knowledge, agency and action with purpose. This combination is a powerful frame for thinking about how we teach and how we lead others as well. How might we tap into meaning and purpose to connect it to collective hope and collective action to improve our environment?
Hope and Wellbeing
If you work in education, or in many different industries, you’ll know that the wellbeing of students and employees is top of mind of organizational leaders. We are in the midst of a well-documented wellbeing crisis in youth. This book doesn’t shy away from the doom and gloom that the news producing daily; nor does it avoid talking about how youth are intimately in tune, and devastated by the state of the world. What Kelsey does very well, is provide concrete facts, scientific evidence, beautiful examples, as well as strategies to address eco-anxiety. 82% of children between 10 – 12yrs old in the US, expressed strong feelings of fear, sadness and anger when discussing environmental problems.
I want to underscore that these are kids who have not
directly experienced [environmental trauma]…The reason
I thin that is such a sad and important point is that children
are suffering emotional and psychological anguish not from
their lived experience, but as a result of their anticipation
of a dystopian future they believe is inevitable. They see
planetary destruction as a foregone conclusion. (Kelsey, 32)
These emotions result in several different coping behaviours: shopping more, being numb to it all, ignoring it, denying it, and engaging positively with the struggle. It is our role as family-members, and as educators to reframe the struggle so that we have youth engaging positively. Kelsey provides some great entry points throughout, and supplies excellent examples that inspire optimism.
Briefly, she writes about how our environment is incredibly resilient, citing examples of coral reefs of of 13 mile island coming back to life, and the population of whales surging to numbers higher than before the mass hunting of the late 1800s and early 190os. She cites the example of the forests surrounding Chernoble as being “Broken, Beautiful or both.” (Kelsey, 72)
But the most powerful part of this book is in the strategies put forward.
Three Ways to Reframe our Thinking:
I found that there are three ways that Kelsey, either intentionally or unintentionally, asks us to reframe the way we see ourselves in the world and in the climate crisis. These are additive frames that result in a new approach to climate action:
(1) Rethinking Human Exceptionalism: Kelsey describes the different ways that animals play an active role in environmental activism. It is well known that Wolves architect rivers, that whales overcome many sturggles to navigate purposefully shipping lanes, and that trees communicate with one another. It is also becoming scientifically apparent that humans are not the only creatures to have unique personalities or live purposeful lives. “Recognizing animals and plants as active agents challenges the tacit assumptions of human exceptionalism.” (Kelsey, 126) If we recognize this, then we also recognize that we are a part of nature.
(2) Recognizing Injustice: the inherent colonialism and racism in a way that acknowledges the history of a transactional relationship with land. “The climate crisis is the culmination of a long history of exploitation of people and other species. It if fueled by an unsustainable economic system that privileges endless growth over justice and equity.” (Kelsey, 55) Students and youth are wired with compassion at the cellular level (Kelsey, 155) This is the awareness of the suffering of others, coupled with the desire to do something to relieve that suffering. If we can attune ourselves, our students and families to think differently, think compassionately, then we can seek out a different way to see and be in the world to make a positive impact.
(3) Adopting Indigenous Ways of Knowing Being and Doing: in her section entitled, “Indigenous-led Conservation”, Kelsey shares her learning from elders. “Strengthening Indigenous and community land rights is a critical human rights issue, and it’s crucial for solving the climate crisis and conserving biodiversity.” (Kelsey, 99) In particular, it is holding the environment as a value, holding the ecosystem as an equal, that is truly hopeful for Kelsey.
In 2019, four years after a massive algal bloom cut off
drinking water to half an million people, the city of Toledo,
Ohio, granted Lake Erie legal personhood.Such new legal
developments signal the awakening of a re-evaluation of
the place of humans within the global ecosystem. They
challenge the “Humans at the top” regime that views nature
as property. (Kelsey, 100)
By reevaluating our position in the ecosystem, and that the current system is based on unsustainable principles and a history of social injustice, we can look to IWKBD to see a path forward and write a new story. Just as in Lee Maracles book of the same title.
The New Language of Climate Hope: Hopepunk & BrightSpots
Kelsey identifies that there is a new emerging language for climate hope. Brightspots are where researchers are investigating and reporting on places where a species or ecosystem is doing far better than one might expect given the stresses they face. The goal is to understand what they’re doing right.” (Kelsey, 175)
These bright spots are fuelling Solution-Journalism, where reporters are are bringing the same rigorous skills and research to butt the trend of only doom-journalism. They report on what is working and focussing on outcomes, not just good intentions. This approach is not only spreading to major news outlets, but also to journalism schools.
These are two ways that we are rewriting the story of the climate crisis through hope, writes Kelsey. Another way is through the genre of HopePunk, an alternative to the genre commonly referred to as “grimdark” and dystopian genres. It works against those common storylines, and even that of fairytales, where HopePunk “…situates heroism as a collective response. It’s about committing to what you believe in and acting as a force for good.” (Kelsey, 140) These are ways that we can begin to rewrite the story of our future through hope.
We can choose the stories we live. We are shaped by the stories we tell.
I highly recommend this book for any educator and leader and any parent / guardian that is seeking ways to engage themselves and others in the climate crisis, in a way that is hopeful, and that is driving towards positive engagement, agency and wellbeing.