Alex Honnold is optimistic about our collective future (and he has his reasons)

Through my climbing, spending so much time outdoors, and generally traveling the world, I’ve seen so much physical environmental change with my own eyes. I’ve been to Patagonia a few seasons in a row, and I’ve seen those glaciers retreat each year. And in Europe, glaciers that used to come all the way down to a town now stop halfway up the mountain.

So it might be surprising for me to admit that as far as the future is concerned, I think it’s looking pretty rosy for humans in general. Rates of violence are generally going down, poverty is going down—the human experience is generally getting safer, more comfortable and easier.

I know this optimism might sound misplaced, but would you rather live now or in the 1940s? Now or in the 1920s? The 1800s? 1600s? By almost every measure, life is better and safer and more comfortable now, for more people globally, than it ever has been.

The issue is that all this progress is happening at the expense of our environment. That’s what we need to fix right now. We need to address that balance.

I think the good news, and maybe one that gets drowned out by the doom and gloom, is that there’s so much upside to getting a handle on environmental issues. I mean, who wouldn’t want cleaner air? Who doesn’t want more trees? Who doesn’t want everything to be generally nicer and healthier in pretty much every way? There’s this tremendous upside that doesn’t get talked about enough.

Part of my optimism stems from the fact that when it comes to environmentalism and climate solutions, there are so many simple, easy fixes that we just haven’t implemented yet. Things like getting people to shift away from natural gas heating and just install heat pumps. Things like insulating attics (and better insulating our houses more generally). Or when you think of all the solar we could install on all the unused space we have in the US—whether that’s on top of big stores or in parking lots. The potential is massive.

These things vary in cost and complexity. But they’re all things we could do tomorrow if we wanted to. Roof space is already dead to the environment—so why wouldn’t we be using it to produce energy? It’s just such an obvious place to start. And this is where policy comes into play. If we’re able to reshape the choices that are available to people, they’ll make better choices. Got a roof? Put solar on it—and here’s a subsidy to help.

“You don’t need to head into the wilds of Alaska or some untouched wilderness to fall in love with nature. Nature is everywhere. It’s the flowers on your lawn, and the birds in the city trees. You don’t need to be some hard-core hiker or kayaker or adventurer to appreciate that. You can find that beauty in whatever way makes the most sense for you, wherever and whenever it may be.”

- Alex Honnold

Of course, I have my worries. The thought of tipping points and cascading climate impacts is pretty sobering. Right now, we’re still playing offense: Human life is still getting better in almost all areas. But you can see a version of the future, maybe not too far off, where the environment gets so degraded that we have to start playing defense in terms of material wellbeing.

I can’t say that I was drawn to starting the Honnold Foundation because of all the time I’ve spent outdoors, but I do think that having powerful personal experiences in nature will make you more likely to protect it. I think the real value of outdoor experiences is that they push people out of their comfort zone, and into making decisions. So there’s this personal empowerment side to it, where you feel more self-actualized and capable in your own life. And I think those experiences can help you break the social inertia and do your own thing.

But it’s also worth mentioning that you don’t need to head into the wilds of Alaska or some untouched wilderness to fall in love with nature. Nature is everywhere. It’s the flowers on your lawn, and the birds in the city trees. You don’t need to be some hard-core hiker or kayaker or adventurer to appreciate that. You can find that beauty in whatever way makes the most sense for you, wherever and whenever it may be. We don’t need to think of ‘nature’ as this separate wild space. This is nature.

And if you want to protect it, just start something. I started the Honnold Foundation as a way to give away some of my money, and it’s now been 10 years of supporting all these communities around the world to transition to solar. But environmental action doesn’t have to be this huge personal sacrifice—you can just start with the things that are relatively easy for you to do. Start with what comes naturally and build from there. If big family barbecues are a huge part of your life, then maybe you don’t start with going plant-based. Maybe you just rein it in a little bit, and eat less meat. Or maybe you have an impact in a completely different area, like in your social circles or through your workplace.

It’s true that a lot of things about our current lifestyles need to change to be more environmentally friendly, but you may as well start with the things that don’t feel like a terrible sacrifice to you. And that’s OK—there is no singular way to do this. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

So yeah, I’m optimistic. I’m optimistic because we have the opportunity to do this better. It’s not like we don’t know how to fix things; we have so many levers to pull all around us. The solutions are there. We just need to do it. We just need to make that choice.

As told to Oliver Pelling

The theme for Earth Day 2023 is ‘Invest in Our planet’. Find out more about how you can take action for Earth on the official Earth Day website.