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Climate disasters started early in 2020鈥攁nd kept on coming.

The catastrophic  in early 2020 were a holdover from 2019, but they were soon followed by , a , and then more flooding, this time  and wide swaths of .

Next came the record-breaking fires in the , South America鈥檚 ,   and , followed by a historic , including two apocalyptic hurricanes in .

With terrible symmetry, 2020 ended with .

A popular refrain on social media notes that while 2020 was among the hottest on record and one of the worst years for climate disasters, it is also likely to be among the coolest and calmest for years to come. During a speech at Columbia University in December, U.N. Secretary General Ant贸nio Guterres put it bluntly: 鈥�.鈥�

But now is .

Hope Is Found in Uncertainty

All this bad climate news has the potential to generate climate despair, numbing those watching the next tragedy unfold.

Climate despair is a growing phenomena, noted in the聽聽and in academic research in聽, , , and . Psychologists even coined the term 鈥溾�� to denote distress caused by environmental damage and loss. Climate despair is feeling with certainty that 鈥渨e鈥檙e screwed,鈥� that the worst impacts of climate change are inevitable and can no longer be stopped.

Despair feels reasonable given what we鈥檙e learning about climate change and seeing in the news. But it is a temptation that should be resisted.

Rebecca Solnit argues that 鈥攖hat the future is not set. Even given torrents of bad news, there are a number of reasons for hope. And 2020 could indeed be the turning point.

It has to be.

Science, Politics, and Hope

To be clear, climate despair does not square with current scientific understandings. We are in trouble, not screwed.

Actions taken now and in the next decade, individually and collectively, . The news on climate impacts and climate science may feel like a march of doom, but climate scientists argue that it鈥檚  and there is uncertainty in the  we have guaranteed ourselves. We have not reached the .

In some ways, climate despair is the , dulling the sense of urgency and blunting the momentum for action. The discourse when paralysis is what we can least afford. The discourse of despair strengthens the grip of the status quo and can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So hope is good science, and that鈥檚 good for politics. Opportunities to expand the space of uncertainty at the root of hope are right in front of us. While the climate impacts have been terrible in 2020, there has never been as much momentum for political action on climate change as there is now:

鈥� The first truly global social movement dedicated to climate action and climate justice has gained in size and strength, beginning with Greta Thunberg鈥檚  and spreading to the  in the U.S. and  around the world.

鈥� , which are rapidly . According to  by political scientists Jeff Colgan, Jessica Green, and Thomas Hale, this shifting financial ground promises to upend the politics of climate change in important ways, as vested interests lose political power.

鈥� The initial pandemic response demonstrated how societies and economies can  in response to an emergency. The longer-term plans for post-pandemic recovery provide an enormous window of opportunity to 鈥�,鈥� although this idea does not have .

鈥� The Paris Agreement survived the withdrawal of the U.S., which is poised to . Momentum around the agreement was clear at the Climate Ambition Summit where .

鈥� The ranks of countries that have made , and a  suggests that the cumulative effect of countries鈥� recent pledges (if fully achieved) could keep warming to 2.1 C by 2100, putting a key Paris Agreement goal within reach.

These trends don鈥檛 guarantee that we have turned the political corner. The forces arrayed against the kind of changes we need are vast and powerful. It will take an enormous amount of energy, resources, and action for these promising trends to fulfill their potential and turn the tide of climate change.

But they can . They can create space for . They can enhance the uncertainty that keeps despair at bay. They provide hope.

Reject Despair

This motivating hope, or what political scientist Thomas Homer-Dixon calls , is not just scientifically valid and politically astute, it is the only viable moral choice.

The iron law of climate change is that those least responsible for causing the problem face the worst consequences. The opposite is true as well鈥攖hose most responsible for causing climate change tend to be the safest from it. According to Oxfam, the richest 1% of the population globally 鈥�.鈥�

Too many people and communities do not have the luxury of saying 鈥渋sn鈥檛 that a shame, too bad we can鈥檛 do anything鈥� about climate change. They aren鈥檛 safe, and it鈥檚 not their fault.

Rejecting despair, embracing the uncertainty of hope, is the least that individuals, communities, and societies that are relatively safe from climate change owe vulnerable communities.

With 2020 left behind, there is hope in facing the climate crisis, for movement toward a just transition to an . Seeing that hope fulfilled in 2021 and beyond means summoning , , and sometimes even , fiercely clinging to and expanding the uncertainty of the future.

Most importantly, 2021 needs to be the year known for acting, individually and collectively, with the urgency and scale the climate crisis demands.

This story originally appeared in  and is republished here with permission.