Following traumatic events in my life, I’ve sought therapy. I needed to find my inner voice, my true north. What I appreciated most about these sessions was the therapist’s restraint in telling me outright how to fix my situation. Instead, she guided me toward discovery of answers buried inside me the entire time. I couldn’t dig up those truths alone because they hid beneath layers of history, pain avoidance, and the distracting minutiae of daily life.

Oprah says when things go wrong, the universe whispers to us. If we don’t pay attention, it speaks louder and louder. We’re all hearing the volume turn up on the climate change issue. The earth is suffering the effect of trauma. When humans mistreat the environment, consequences of climate change fall squarely on other humans. We’ll find answers to heal what we’ve broken. Have faith.

In the documentary Kiss the Ground, scientists explain that the solution to climate change rests under our feet. Nature, as therapist, has guided them to the answer buried inside layers of soil. For centuries, people have tilled the soil and, more recently, tried to improve crop yields by increasing herbicide and pesticide usage. This has resulted in the elimination of microbes that, when in abundance, not only increase soil fertility—but also draw huge volumes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. When farms abandon tillage and chemical usage, microbe populations are restored thereby increasing crop yields and eliminating the need for harmful chemicals. If enough farmers shift to their practises to emulate nature’s way, flourishing microbes will draw down enough carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to reduce the greenhouse affect and stop climate change.

This represents a shift in thinking, the discomfort of change. Many of us are learning a new and necessary vocabulary—intersectional environmentalism, environmental justice, systematic oppression, agents for change. In the past, nature’s warnings went unheeded. But if change happens now, we can begin healing the earth and take care of all humans equally. That’s good therapy.

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Sacrifice, betrayal, family secrets! A widower and young mother struggle to overcome their tragic pasts in a dying mill town. The Last Hoffman explores environmental issues, mental health & social isolation.