A 💘 for meliorists

Natural Selection/"Romance in the Climate Crisis"

…All of us deserve to be ringed by concentric circles of care, but when those systems never exist, or do not aid us—the weather gone rogue, international treaties failing us, politicians disappointing us, social systems frayed—we are forced to lean on those closer in. We require more from our loved ones when we get less from everyone, and everything, else…  

To clock what is gone is to clock all we can still save. A world where we are mad, but we're working out of love. Building better systems of care. Fighting for a place where the dragonflies can shimmer in the light. It's one of the reasons I think we need to keep telling—and living—love stories, even as the forests burn. Because falling in love can mean falling into a new way of being…  

Climate change isn't conceptual; it's affecting us now. The philosophers of our time know this. A friend recently sent me a photo of a new Tinder ad in her subway station: Two people hold hands while facing a towering monster of trash. The copy at the bottom reads: "Someone to save the planet with."

—Erica Berry
https://orionmagazine.org/article/natural-selection-relationships-dating-climate-change/