Reading · Climate Change in an Aging Society

“After the last fish has been caught, only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.”

-Cree Indian Prophecy

Sweet Darkness (a poem)
David Brower: Eco-Elder
Information Overload
We Were Made For These Times
Climate Action Now
The Sun
Caring for Future Generations (A dream)
Trump Talk
Recommended Reading
Items of Interest
Coming Events

by David Whyte

(From The House of Belonging)

Time to go into the dark

where the night has eyes

to recognize its own.

There you can be sure

You are not beyond love.

The dark will be your womb

tonight. The night will give you a horizon

further than you can see.

You must learn one thing.

The world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds

except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your darkness

to learn anything or anyone

that does not bring you alive

is too small for you.

David Brower

Benjamin Franklin said: “Work as if you were to live a hundred years, and Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.” What is makes this seemingly contradictory position possible for human beings in the last stage of life? How was it reflected in Franklin’s own career as an elder presiding over the making of the U.S. Constitution?

We can find a clue to Franklin’s call in the phrase “late freedom” (Spaete Freiheit), or the unique capacity for liberation in later life, as described by the Austrian gerontologist Leopold Rosenmayr (1983). Late freedom means to go beyond the kind of care or concern that is self-protective. It means moving toward into a level of liberation that Tornstam called gerotranscendence.

There is no better expression of the Late Freedom than these words of the David Brower, lifelong environmentalist, written at the age of 79 (Terkel, 1996):

“At my age, they can’t do much to hurt me. I have a new freedom. They can’t change my career, I’ve got it made. If I go to jail or am executed, it doesn’t matter--though I’d rather stick around. I’d rather be out of jail than in, but not at the expense of this new-found freedom. Young people don’t have this liberty. They’ve got years ahead of them, families, need for income. They can’t alienate themselves too much from the system. I say to people my age, ‘You have this freedom. Please use it. You’ve had a role in whatever’s happened to the earth, and it hasn’t been that good. You now have a role in doing something about it. If you’re going to die, make sure your boots are on. There are so many of us… More and more of us….. You’ve got to sound off. The older you are, the freer you are, as long as you last.’ “

David Brower was the long-time Executive Director of the Sierra Club, America’s most influential environmental organization. Later, in his old age, he became founder of another important advocacy group, Friends of the Earth. David Brower lived according to the ethics of the Late Freedom which he expressed so eloquently. He died in 2000 at the age of 88, still laboring on behalf of future generations. It was Brower who loved to quote the African proverb “We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children.”

A sleepy man in a robe gazes at his front door as the entire Earth pushes through it. The caption reads, “Too much, too soon.”

(From The New Yorker)

I know we live in an “Attention Economy” but I worry that I may be contributing to the overload problem—with this newsletter! (If you want to unsubscribe, just tell me).

The big problem is that information on climate disasters comes at us day after day—through the front door (as in the cartoon above). Digital detox is not the answer. Hope means action and action is the right response.

Is listening to news about climate change getting you down? Think again:

“My friends, do not lose heart. We were made for these times. I have heard from so many recently who are deeply and properly bewildered. They are concerned about the state of affairs in our world now. Ours is a time of almost daily astonishment and often righteous rage over the latest degradations of what matters most to civilized, visionary people…

…especially do not lose hope. Most particularly because, the fact is that we were made for these times. Yes. For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement…

In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much is wrong or unmended in the world. Do not focus on that. There is a tendency, too, to fall into being weakened by dwelling on what is outside your reach, by what cannot yet be. Do not focus there…

Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good.”

From Clarissa Pinkola Estes, at:

https://www.awakin.org/v2/read/view.php?tid=2195

See also “The Outer Work Project”

I’m a long-standing supporter of Elders Climate Action (ECA). I downloaded the Climate Action Now app for my cell phone: I use it every day and recommend it to others. It’s what I did just before even starting this newsletter! They only ask for 5 actions each day, but you can do a lot more, as I do.

Look at Climate Action Now at: https://climateactionnow.com/

For more about Elders Climate Action, visit:

https://www.eldersclimateaction.org/aboutus/

Solar energy" | Etta Hulme Cartoon Archive

“You Think They’re Beginning to See the Light?”

“This is the solstice, the still point of the sun, its cusp and midnight, the year’s threshold and unlocking, where the past lets go of and becomes the future; the place of caught breath.” (Margaret Atwood)

This past week, we just passed the summer solstic (June 21), the longest day of the year. Earth Overshoot Day (July 30) is the day of the year when we will have used up Earth’s resources for year. But 2026 isn’t over year. That means we’re operating on ecological deficiet. But there’s no deficit in sunlight, which can be our source of electricity. The shift to solar power is happening all over the planet, even if the USA, despite the efforts by the Trump regime to stop that shift and keep fossil fuel production gaining profits for the fossil fuel industries (oil, gas, and coal).

Can we do things to help America get in the step with the rest of the world?

“I woke up with a start. My heart was racing - I knew I was late. I must have forgotten to set the alarm. I needed to get to the SAGE meeting. There were going to be hundreds of seniors, folks like me, who were committed to helping the next generation. They would be waiting for me.

I started getting dressed before I realized it was all just a dream. I told my wife how real it felt, how anxious I was. She laughed, reminding me that I never have first person, realistic dreams. She then went and got a copy of a literary magazine; she wanted to share something she had just read. She said it sounded like my dream. It was a Greek proverb:

‘A society grows great when its elders plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in./

Hearing that proverb took my breath away. I nearly wept. Although there was no such organization as SAGE, Senior Advocates for Generational Equity, that name was as clear in my dream as if I had seen it on a banner.”

This dream is from Ward Greene, who, inspired by this dream, went on to create SAGE as an actual thriving enterprise, which it has been now for many years. More about SAGE at: https://wearesage.org/

El Niño, “A super El Niño threatens disaster. Trump is handling it recklessly”

Trump: Must Tell the Truth. At least about climate change on public lands: “Judge orders Trump administration to restore signs changed at national parks”

Curbing Whistleblowing. Trump is trying to silence federal workers who might reveal things he wants kept secret. This move could have stopped the events behind Watergate from ever being revealed.

Yes, We Can Overcome Trump. “Trump administration reverses decision to scrap ocean monitoring system” Move to dismantle $368 million sea observatory initiative faced opposition from experts and lawmakers.

Peter Coyote. He’s a voice you’ll recognize, but read this “Interview with Peter Coyote.” He’s more than an actor or narrator. His insights on Trump are remarkable: https://substack.com/@petercoyote1

INTRODUCTION TO MODERN CLIMATE CHANGE, by Andrew E. Dessler (third edition, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2021).

CLEARING THE AIR: A Hopeful Guide to Solving Climate Change in 50 Questions and Answers, by Hannah Ritchie (2026).

CLIMATE CHANGE: A Very Short Introduction (4th Edition) by Mark Maslin (Oxford Univ. Press, 2021).

Support for Climate Action Is Still Strong. “US public still favors action on climate change despite Trump’s fossil fuel drive” Two-thirds of Americans say they are worried about climate but level of media coverage does not reflect this.

The Heat Is On. “Woefully unprepared’: extreme heat will double US hospitalizations by 2040” Sharp rise in hospital visits will in turn drive up annual healthcare costs for heat-related conditions to over $1 billion. Increasing age means increased vulnerability to heat.

Seniors Taking Action. A mobilization of elders: climate advocacy needs this.

Consciousness. “Joanna Macy and the Great Turning” by one of the great Eco-Elders.

CLIMATE ACTION. “Fifteen Minutes for Our Future” (June 29, 2026, 9 am ET) Countdown to Midterm Elections. Sponsored by Third Act Vermont.

More about Fifteen Minutes for Our Future:

CANVASSING VOTERS. “Yes, We Can(vass)!” (June 30, 2026, 7 pm PT). Door-to-door connection with voters to boost turnout. Sponsored by Third Act, San Francisco Bay Area.

EMBRACING ELDERHOOD. “Embracing Elderhood on Behalf of All Life” (Sept-Oct., 2026) This is not a free offering. It’s an on-line offering on a sliding scale and it is offered by someone I know personally: Constance Washburn. It is guided by the “Work That Reconnects” and inspired by the late Joana Macy. More information at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfxjYeOj09w77cqFy6DlJZi0OI6122s7Nz87liR5KgbYnvFFA/viewform

More background about the Spiral Process behind this work.

More about Constance Washburn at: www.constancewashburn.com