Can awe and the awful provide a forward edge for the climate crisis? A discussion of Sperry’s “Getting beyond ourselves: The transformative potential of awe”

Abstract

ABSTRACT Through personal reflections and current cultural references to climate-related issues, the author questions whether awe, in conjunction with the awful aspects of climate change, can provide a forward edge to the climate crisis. In acknowledging the tension between creation and destruction - life and death – the author speaks to a kind of quickening which can serve as a signal for impending change and transformation that need not only be apocalyptic.