At the end of this bleak but oddly comforting long-read from Marlowe Hood—whose name suggests he missed out on a potential career as a noir gumshoe character—is this quote from one of the many climate scientists and activists Hood has interviewed over the years:

“Hope is an active verb,” said [Clover] Hogan. “We continue to hurtle toward climate collapse. That’s what the science says. But you have to be willing to hold both truths, to hold hope and despair in the same breath. They are not polar ends of a spectrum, they’re very much one and the same.”

Yes, yes—another entry for my self-congratulatory collection of Definitions Of Hope From Other People That Happen To Coincide With Mine! Thanks for noticing.

But if you can leave aside my endless beating of that particular drum, what’s important about Hook’s essay, here—and that quote in the context thereof—is that it’s about his recognising the emotional and metal toll of knowing so much about climate change, and feeling it’s your job to do something about it. It’s too long and too particular to be summarised, so I’ll just recommend you go read the whole thing.