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snow of tomorrow

Snow of Tomorrow | Searching for meaning at the turn of the year

Fear and hope

by Lea Hartl • 01/04/2021
LH
LH
The new year is young and many hopes are still pinned on 2021. May it be better than 2020, more normal, less characterized by uncertainty. Twitter memes and feature articles look back with disgust and forward with optimism and cynicism in equal measure, spurred on by the turn of the year, which may only be one night among many, but is nevertheless highly symbolic if you are looking for a reason to leave the past behind.

So what to do with the first Snow of Tomorrow issue of the new year? The column is thematically broad, as is the much-vaunted umbrella term sustainability. A list of the extreme weather events of 2020 - a sober list of disasters that aren't called corona? Or something more philosophical? I can't think of a suitable year-end-climate-corona-winter-sustainability conclusion.

The idea that corona will make us focus on the essential things, fly around the world less and somehow save the climate in passing is too soap-boxy for me. I can't see any significant change of heart in myself in this regard: I learned to find a certain amount of peace in baking sourdough in 2020, but I would also really like to fly on vacation again. I would have about the same amount of guilty conscience as before. The old pandemic year will seamlessly transition into a new pandemic year, but now with a vaccine. Temperatures will continue to rise, with all the consequences. It is harder to find a positive "but" here.

In the bubble of academic meta-discourse on climate change communication, there are recurring topics of contention. One such is the question of how hard one should try to always find a positive "but". Do you have to convey hope when you point out the urgency of the problem? After all, fear can also be very motivating. However, fear motivation quickly turns into "now more than ever"defiance or nihilistic "never mind"apathy when the situation seems hopeless. Those motivated by hope write books and poems about everything we can save. The camp of the so-called "doomers" considers it misleading not to also discuss the extreme ends of the probability distribution of possible futures.

LH
LH

If you are in the mountains in winter and want to avoid avalanches, it's a good idea to adopt a "doomer's perspective" and think about what would happen in a worst-case scenario: The situation report states that fresh drift snow is easy to trigger. Triggering in deeper layers is unlikely, but can become large. - Is my staging area still safe if the whole slope comes down and not just a small packet of drift snow?

On the mountain, we are used to dealing with uncertainty. Sometimes decisions are easy because the danger signs are very clear, or sometimes everything fits perfectly. But we often find ourselves in a gray area where we have to deal with over-snowed drift snow or low-probability high-consequence old snow problems - and all this in combination with our own ego, which is sometimes also very complicated. Facing the avalanche risk primarily with hope, courage and optimism is not a good strategy in the long term. However, not going outside because of fear is not a viable alternative either.

When skiing, we need a bit of both, but first and foremost we need as much information and understanding of the process as possible so that both optimism and fear can be as realistic as possible. Talking things up is dangerous. Talking things down to the point where you don't do anything anymore means giving up powder skiing (or climate protection, to keep the analogy going).

LH
LH

Luckily, you don't always have to choose one extreme and we are (usually) able to hold two thoughts in our heads at the same time. You can try to base your own purchasing decisions on environmental criteria, knowing that nothing will change unless a systemic change is also brought about by politics. When I read PowderGuide test reports (or write them myself) about ski underwear that uses some natural fiber to wick away sweat in a particularly climate-friendly way, I have to smile and think to myself: "Sex Sells has become Sustainable Sells." You can make fun of it (as you can of a sustainability column on a winter sports website), but at the same time you can acknowledge that the collective consciousness has changed towards "the environment and climate are important and worth protecting", partly because more and more people are talking about it in their respective fields of interest (skiing, underwear, etc.).

You can look back at 2020 in a somewhat pathetic New Year mood and then look ahead to corona, the climate and the state of the world in general in 2021, 22, 23,... and have a little justified fear, but also a little justified hope. You can be afraid of avalanches and still not panic, but look for solutions rationally and carefully.

Maybe that's enough of a resolution for the new year: to come to terms with the contrasts.

LH
LH

This article has been automatically translated by DeepL with subsequent editing. If you notice any spelling or grammatical errors or if the translation has lost its meaning, please write an e-mail to the editors.

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