During a camping event, conversations among Bay Area lesbians shifted from casual topics to climate change and its effects on mental health. Concerns about wildfires and the future of California emerged as a shared dread. Participants discussed their anxieties, including thoughts about relocating and the dilemma of having children given their carbon footprints. One individual emphasized that material solutions, like owning an electric vehicle, are insufficient against the backdrop of broader systemic issues like neoliberalism. The collective feelings expressed highlighted a sense of overwhelming fear about the climate crisis.
The conversation among the group floating in the lake quickly turned from bad dates and the depressing housing market to climate change and mental health. The future, we agreed, was decidedly bleak, especially in California.
Another couple disclosed their anguish about whether or not to have children, citing carbon footprints. A woman with bleached hair piped up about her electric vehicle, to which another replied by pointing out the perils of neoliberalism and climate change.
"You can't buy your way out of this," she snapped, spreading her hands wide. No one asked her to clarify what this was. Crumbling coral reefs? Disappearing wetlands? Climate refugees fleeing their homes, only to be turned away at the border?
"It's terrifying," I said. The woman shook her head in disgust. "Terrifying doesn't even begin to cover it," she said.
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