I gave into despair once, it didn't work. It didn't change the world, it just made those around me confused and sad. Many ask me how I can continue to work on the overpopulation issue and not succumb to despair while surrounded by statistics of such overwhelming misery? I have been writing a book on this issue for four years and speaking on it for many more. I read stacks of books and articles about our billions and how we are sucking the life giving resources out of the planet while polluting it on the side.
The answer is that people in despair are not able to be articulate and be a voice for a planet under seige. I think it is very gratifying to be one of a handful of folks trying to point out where our efforts should be focused, on reducing US.. It is easier to work on a difficult issue than it is to fool oneself that any 'downstream' act will matter in the long run.
Better to figure out WHY the babies are being thrown in the river than to keep pulling them out expecting that to be the ultimate solution. It does break my heart to see so many wildlife species hurting because of our numbers and our habits of using their habitats as our toilets. But a broken heart is not a position of strength or effectiveness and while we may never win, giving up is a loser's game.
Despair indicates the one despairing has lost perspective and their sense of humor - individually anything that only lasts for 80~100 years can't be that important; cosmically, the life span of a species is a triviality... but I would like to hang around for a few million years to see how it all comes out.
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