By Sarah Sloat, Inverse, July 21, 2019
Michele Koppes, Ph.D., is a geographer and associate professor at the University of British Columbia, where she’s spent the last 20 years watching massive glaciers melt away as a result of the climate crisis. She, like many people who follow the news about global warming and its effects, is aware of climate change anxiety, the overwhelming feeling of hopelessness about the fate of our planet.
Koppes’ work at the intersection of climate science, glaciology, geomorphology, human adaptation, and resilience involves examining how landscapes are reflecting the changes we’re seeing in ice and its ability to store fresh water on the land. The changes can be “disheartening,” she tells Inverse, but she doesn’t believe that feeling anxious about climate change is the only direction that people have to go in.
Here, she shares how she feels about melting glaciers, coping with climate change anxiety, and the importance of small climate change interventions amid systemic changes.
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