Zahra Biabani

Week after week, land was given back to indigenous communities.

And week after week, states were implementing renewable energy standards.

I never overlooked the scientific projections or data, but rather tuned into the hard-to-find good news stories and examples of successful on-the-ground work.

And in the process, I uncovered the framework that I had been yearning for, climate optimism.

Climate optimism is a framework based on the idea that despite the bleak projections and the high stakes, we can restore our planet back to health, and in doing so, protect all that inhabit it.

Climate optimism is what gives us hope when things feel hopeless, is what sustains us in our pursuit of sustainability, and is what fuels us in the uphill battle of transitioning away from fossil fuels.

It's also what gives us the energy to continue fighting for our successes.

virtually the zero-emissions energy source that nobody talks about.

So in this process, I realized also that climate optimism is not for everybody.

Climate optimism is not for politicians who have stalled on action or corporations who have incessantly pursued profits over people.

To them, my message is clear.

Listen to science and act now.

Stop failing the citizens and people that you have a duty to serve.

Rather, climate optimism is for those of us here today that have dedicated our lives to fighting the greatest battle of our time, but also to the part-time activists, those who do what they can when they can, and perhaps most significantly, to the marginalized communities and people in the global South who frankly don't have time to get stuck in the cycles of doom and gloom.

the need for climate optimism has never been more urgent.

If we limit our vision of the future to one filled with oil rigs, smokestacks, and suffering, we limit our capacity and shirk our duty to change the course of humanity for the better.

By looking for good and working towards the good, we empower ourselves to be agents of good in the fight for the future that we deserve.

The alternative, giving up hope,

only relinquishes power into the very entities that have gotten us into this mess.

Luckily, I'm not alone in championing this movement.