How to Be Hopeful About Climate Change

Abstract

Why do people in climate-vulnerable regions of Kenya and Namibia express more hope for the future than many in Germany, despite facing greater environmental threats? Drawing on ethnographic research and the philosophy of Gabriel Marcel, we make two arguments. First, in contrast to structural theories, we see hope as tied not to economic security but to experiences of “captivity” or constraint. In Germany, the second half of the 20th century was marked by a diminished sense of captivity, and this led to a diminished capacity for hope. Second, in Kenya and Namibia, climate change is experienced concretely, through failed rains or livestock losses. The concrete experience of climate change allows people to respond, in Marcel's words, with “techniques of liquefaction,” which imagine an alternative future within a given framework of goals, and “acts of transcendence,” which reorient aspirations toward a radically different future. By contrast, in Germany, climate change is often perceived in the abstract, through scientific discourse and the media, fostering feelings of despair and powerlessness. We suggest that reengaging with climate change on a human scale and embracing socially creative or religious forms of transcendence may help reawaken hope.