What is Hopecology?
The ongoing environmental catastrophe is increasingly leading to despair and a sense of nihilism. But hopelessness precludes the attitudes that can lead to meaningful action. Hopecology is a study in bringing us back to the middle: to look unflinchingly at the stark realities of the present, while also returning focus to the natural world that will literally save us, if we are to have any hope at all.
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Who is writing this?
I am Andrea Joy Adams, an ecologist studying what happens when different parts of the natural world—and what we do to it—bump up against each other, and what to do about it. I hold a PhD in Ecology. I write and publish research papers, essays, and sometimes poetry.
In 2017, I started a blog about being a human with ecological knowledge. I wrote a little about my research, which sometimes turned into love ballads about Yosemite. I returned from the desert bursting with motivation to tell readers about how I used nature to de-stress or how the military saves species. The post that still drives the most traffic to my site is about my post-doc “gap” year.
I’ve chased Spotted Owls through the Olympic Rainforest, tracked American Marten by snowmobile in the Boreal Forest, counted native plants with tweezers in the Sonoran Desert, studied carnivorous songbirds on a Pacific island, reintroduced frogs to alpine lakes via helicopter in California, and, most dangerously, stared down haughty bureaucrats. I even was one once.
I started Hopecology because as a conservation biologist for the past 20+ years, I have had to grapple with despair. Now that many others seem to be waking up to the severity of environmental crisis, I find myself offering comfort to those new to this way of seeing the world. How have I not given into permanent despair after all this time? I am not immune to the ebbs and flows of hopelessness; however, I continue to find a resilience in nature itself that I intend to unpack and share here.
How do I find out more?
This is a brief About page. To learn more about Hopecology, the motivation behind it, and what you can expect to find in future posts, be sure to read The Hopecology Explainer.
