We hope you enjoy this interview-style post!
Notes from the Inflection Point explores ways to process and express climate-related emotions like love and fear together. With a voice dedicated to seeing things afresh, again, and with agency, we offer readers reflections most Thursdays.
Behind “Notes From the Inflection Point”
Lou: Well, we first met at this writing workshop that combined mindfulness and writing. We were in the same breakout group like 20 times and then we decided to just continue the practice among ourselves after the workshop.
Logan: So after that ended, Lou, another friend of ours, and I started meeting to do mindful writing exercises. I think we all define “mindful writing” slightly differently, but in practice it looked like meditating, writing, and then sharing aloud.
Something that was always and consistently clear was Lou’s ability to write atmospheric, environmental, beautiful prose. I was like, oh my gosh, this is just amazing.
Lou: Wow, thank you. Yeah, it was such a special practice. I loved hearing how everyone responded to the same prompts so differently and so creatively.
Logan: So this Substack started in January. I live in Los Angeles and was running away from ember storms. I asked Lou, “What do you think about…like…the world?”
Lou: Yes. I remember it very clearly because I live in Seattle and I was walking home from somewhere, I don't remember. And it was nighttime. And I was on the phone. I was looking up at the stars and I was like, the LA fires seem absolutely terrifying and devastating. And people in Seattle are talking about them, but not in the same way as if it were a crisis.
Logan: It was so strange because there were wildfires burning down parts of Los Angeles and there were people just going to work and not talking about it. Deadlines were still happening. And it’s like, “is there ever going to be a time where it's okay to actually pause and check in with the reality of this planet?”
Lou: If it's not in your own backyard are you really talking about it? People usually just avoid the subject. And, ignoring the problem does not usually help anything.
A lot of times it just leads to, at least for me, a deep feeling of isolation like, “Am I the only one feeling sad or upset this is happening?”
So when Logan came up with the idea of, “Hey, maybe we should write about this,” I was like, “That makes so much sense. That's the piece that's missing.”
Complementary Perspectives on Climate
Logan: What is your understanding of the climate right now?
Lou: I mean, things are pretty bad. No use sugarcoating it. We're not in a place where it's very easy to pull back. Things are pretty far gone with carbon emissions, of course.
But then, you know, what does that cause? Increased mean global temperature. The effects of that are things like the LA fires and like flooding in places where there's not usually flooding. And extreme heat and extreme cold. Weather events that we're not used to seeing.
And probably just about everybody on Earth has either experienced or knows about someone who experienced an event like that.
There are all these things we can do; there's the policy side of it. And sometimes that side feels more hopeful than other times.
But in my experience as a researcher studying microplastics, I was really challenged by the fact that no matter how much we learn about microplastics, they're still in the ocean. They're not coming out.
So… knowing that, what do you do? Your options are to bury your head in the sand because it's really devastating and stressful. Or you can confront it, go through a grieving process, and then think about, all right, how do we adapt? What do we do now?
That’s where I'm at: I'm constantly grieving the way things are changing. Every year, we're losing a little more. And so…how do we adapt individually and how do we build communities to adapt?
Logan: My academic background is performance studies. We are sometimes called an “anti-discipline” or “post-discipline,” because we are really looking at experience and ephemerality. I'm constantly thinking of experiential interfacing. How is climate change influencing our shared experience of life?
Notes From the Inflection Point Pillars
Logan: Our goals are to provide a space to reflect, offer insights or tips on how we or others are adapting, and then to see routes of action that would be personally impactful and then have a broader impact. For example, a few posts ago, Lou encouraged folks to reach out to EarthJustice.
Lou: Where you can contact your reps about not cutting funding to all the federal research agencies.
Logan: What does adaptation look like for you right now?
Lou: A lot of it is building communities where I live. Because if I follow the trajectory down the worst case scenario path…we end up in a world like Parable of the Sower, that's what we have: the people that we live with and can depend on.
So that's kind of an extreme scenario but also, right now, the present, building community enables me to work through the grief and still build to resist. You?
Logan: I’m having a lot of awkward conversations. [Laugh] It's rare for this to come up, for people to engage with these topics in conversation. So it’s multiply layered: how do you even engage? Like, you're going to dinner, and it's like, hey, did you see there's another glacier that broke off?
Lou: It's not very good small talk.
Logan: So I wanted to make the reality that we’re currently living in less…taboo. I think this is another reason I advocate for narrative and mindful play. To try to make these conversations less weird and more brave. Because when would be a “good time”?
Other Writers
Logan: Who are some of your favorite climate writers?
Lou: Honestly, I contend that Octavia Butler is a climate writer, but I'm not sure if that's what people usually mean.
Logan: I accept that.
Lou: I also appreciate the work of Naomi Klein, who writes a lot about the policy side of things.
Right now I’m reading Let This Radicalize You. I am only partway through, but it's really good. It's by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba. It's about organizing in general, not just climate organizing but, organizing is… That's what you need.
Logan: One of my favorite writers on this is
. She writes about climate and mental health and raising kids. I recommend her writing to everybody but especially friends with kids.Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass is a classic. I also really respect
’s work. He has a Substack and he talks about policy, action, and reality.is a meteorologist who writes science-y things in a very accessible, compassionate way that doesn’t hide what’s happening. Her Substack is called “What’s Up with the Weather.” It’s really good for understanding interconnected systems and weather patterns.
How about you? Do you have any action items or resources to share with us? Adaptation measures you’re taking? Other folks you’re reading?
Bio
Lou Baker (they/she) is a scientist and organizer. They hold a PhD in Aerospace Engineering and studied how wind and water currents carry microplastics in different environments. They now organize workers in higher education.
Logan Juliano, PhD (they/them) is a queer, transracial adoptee, and everyperson at Light Hive, a newsletter that explores the intersections of Buddhist frameworks with identity, play, and the polycrisis. They hold a PhD in Performance Studies.