The Conspirituality Report

Daniel Sherrell’s Warmth

Shunning nihilism and Twitter, a millennial activist pulls climate literature back from the brink

Photo: Giovanna Schluter Nunes

Note: My interview with Daniel Sherrell is up now at Conspirituality Podcast.

For me, reading Daniel Sherrell’s Warmth: Coming of Age at the End of Our World was like getting caught in a summer downpour. Within a few pages I gave up on keeping dry, and checking my phone. I knew it would be over at some point, and it would be too soon. The rhythm — and, well, the warmth— allowed some kind of surrender. It let time stand still, and gave me the sense of being cleansed.

“Downpour”comes to mind because the book is beaded and episodic, recording Sherrell’s hours and days as a young climate activist coming to grips with all the feelings. But the drops cohere in sheets with clear contours. I’ll paraphrase some:

Climate reality is ungraspable. Of course we distract ourselves. But we really shouldn’t.

There are global terrors and local mysteries, and we have to attend to both.

We have to organize, but not numb ourselves with management.

We have to mourn, but not become paralyzed.