Hope in something: An earthly tragedy in five acts

This chapter explores the generative potential of the unexpected and the experimental in bringing about transformational change. By reflecting on works of art, personal experiences and scientific literature on climate action and adaptation, Castán Broto brings to the fore the tensions between hope and the compulsion to act, between sense of responsibility and paralysis in the Anthropocene, between disruption and innovation. The demands for rapid changes at scale, while justified in their urgency, risk to lead to dilemmas concerning energy transitions and the issue of who will have to pay for such disruptions. Therefore, an alternative form of reading the crises should move away from a paranoid one toward building a reparative ethos. Castán Broto concludes by proposing reparative climate action.