For people craving clarity about how to make the world a better place.

Hi there! As I launch this new endeavor I’ve named Clarity in Catastrophe, I want to first share a bit about who I am and why I’m here.

Who am I? What’s my story?

I’m a mid-twenties midwesterner living in San Francisco. I moved to this idyllic city a little more than two years ago as a fresh college graduate. I came from Boston University with a B.A. in Sociology and a minor in Environmental Analysis & Policy. I recently completed the climate fellowship I moved for, which was focused on regional climate planning in the Bay Area, or Ramaytush-Ohlone land. Prior to school in Boston on Pawtucket land, I spent a year and a half studying photography at art school on Peoria land, or Chicago. That’s where my art path went on hiatus and my passion for addressing the climate crisis first sprouted.

While in Boston, I made a dramatic shift from art to academics and forged a path towards environmental policy and law. Now after an illuminating and fruitful two years in that world, my compass has redirected me again and I’m hungry to reawaken my creative side. While pursuing a career in art, I leaned fully into my right brain – creativity and imagination. While pursuing environmental policy and law, I embraced my left brain – logic, analysis, abstract thinking. My goal now is to merge my two brains – embrace both my analytical, research-oriented impulses, and my creative, artistic strengths, all at once.

What is Clarity in Catastrophe?

This blog (and its corresponding newsletter on Substack) is an experiment in discovering my voice while I talk about the things that matter most to me.

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson (marine biologist, policy expert, and leader in the climate communications world) details a beautifully simple roadmap for anyone to find their role in the climate movement, which she coined the Climate Venn Diagram:

Through a lot of self-reflection, today I conclude that my best-fit lane in the climate movement, and what I’m choosing to pursue wholeheartedly, is climate communications. As an avid podcast listener and reader of articles, books, and newsletters, I’m endlessly curious and fascinated by the task of successfully communicating breakthrough-evoking information in ways that lure people in, provide value, and most importantly, keep people locked in and engaged with the most consequential topics of our time.

I started this endeavor because I feel called to write. But for what purpose?

I chose the name “Clarity in Catastrophe” because that’s exactly the purpose I want my writing to serve. This name captures both how I perceive the state of our modern world (teeming with catastrophes), and the mental state I’m desperately craving to more effectively engage in that kind of world (clarity).

I want to wrestle with what it means to find clarity amidst catastrophe in today’s world, and invite you on that journey with me.

Mission

We live in the Information Age and in an era defined by the overwhelm of a rapidly changing world that is facing multiple intersecting and simultaneous catastrophes.

The mission of Clarity in Catastrophe is to grapple with the multiple catastrophes of our time with thoughtfulness and intention – through a mix of narrative, research, illustration, and art. Each post is a deep dive into a topic that I find crucial to wrap my head and heart around, breaking down the basics and exploring the nuances. The goal is for myself and my readers to leave with more clarity and empowerment to engage with these existential issues in informed, actionable, and meaningful ways.

What should you expect?

Frequency

Expect a brand new post here, or in your inbox every other Thursday at 10am PT if you’re subscribed to my Substack.

Topics

Since my professional focus has been squarely on the climate crisis for the past five years, climate will occupy a heavy proportion of my posts. However, it’s not all I’m going to explore, for three reasons. One, it’s not the only topic I’m interested in. I see the climate crisis as the defining, urgent, urgent crisis of our time. However, I’ve found that even if they know this intellectually, most people around me don’t actively feel that way as they go about their daily lives – including myself, admittedly. I consider myself a highly climate-privileged individual (my daily life isn’t yet consistently interrupted by the perils of climate change), and as such, I find myself spending a lot of time thinking about other crises and important societal topics of our time. I want to talk about the whole spectrum of things that capture my existential dread, attention and interest, in today’s world. I believe that acknowledging this uncomfortable truth by meeting people where their focus already is, is one of the better ways to bring people into conversations that are a bit more difficult to hold attention on. Second, there’s a whole lot of burnout in the climate field. It’s an extremely heavy topic and at some point, whether your job is related to climate or not, we all become weighed down or numbed by the scale and pace of the crisis. A bit of topical variety in this newsletter will help me avoid burnout from thinking about climate 24/7, and it also allows for fresh perspectives to emerge.

The third reason for my broader focus is that almost all of today’s societal issues intersect with climate in some way. To name a few: violence, poverty, displacement, homelessness, racism, mental health and loneliness, authoritarianism, pandemics. These problems may seem unique, but they are intimately intertwined with and share the same root causes (extractive capitalism and greed…) as the climate crisis. And so I’m excited to explore the connections between seemingly unrelated topics and challenge the silos that often separate them.

When choosing topics to explore each week, I plan to:

• Be responsive to society’s pulse – find and explore the questions we’re silently asking ourselves based on what’s going on in the world at the moment.
• Pick topics and angles I myself would be compelled to read.
• Explore societal trends and topics that I find important, which to me means: somehow key to living a more aligned life and ushering in a better world.

Approach

I aim to develop a writing style that emphasizes personal narrative and vulnerability supported by thorough research, weaving together my own day-to-day lens with external data. I’ll do my best to marry research with storytelling.

Art

Original art will be sprinkled in to complement my writing. This will likely be an assortment of graphic illustrations, collages, photography, and maybe some drawings and paintings…I’m experimenting while I hone and redefine my artistic style after a long hiatus from art!

What do I want to do here?

1. Clarify my thoughts on important societal issues. So I can figure out where I stand and how I want to take action – driven by a desire to be a better informed (better – not more) and active citizen of the world.
2. Make engaging with difficult topics bearable. Find ways to communicate about difficult topics in a way that’s engaging, interesting, and hopeful (as opposed to the majority of the mainstream media ecosystem which covers difficult topics in ways that are overwhelming, unproductively negative, and boring/scientific/inaccessible to most people).

Rather than seeking to be informed for the sake of being informed, my hope is to investigate topics with the intention of learning to live a more aligned life and clarify the pathways toward a better world.

3. Express myself creatively. I want to find and hone my artistic style and learn how to merge my academic and creative interests into one, more effective, voice.

How can you support me?

Please engage with my content by commenting your thoughts! As a new writer figuring this out as I go, I’m always looking for helpful feedback. The topics I’m tackling are rich and nuanced, and I aim to spark meaningful conversation so if you have something to add, please comment and share your thoughts!

Most importantly, subscribe to my Substack! If you can afford it, a paid subscription would mean the world to me and go a long way in supporting this independent, mission-driven work. A free subscription will still get you a new post in your inbox every other Thursday.

Spread the word widely. Share this blog / newsletter with anyone you think might like it.