Joy, Anyway
Facts: Trading the Earth for Stuff🌎➡️📦| Feelings: Joy, Anyway 😍🎺 | Action: Chill❄️
Welcome to We Can Fix It, where we tackle the climate crisis with facts, feelings, and action. Written by me, climate scientist Kim Nicholas.
Hi friends,
It’s been a minute! This fall has been jam-packed for me with back-to-back teaching (I still have to finish grading 19 papers aaaah!) and other work. In September, together with Project Drawdown, I launched the Super High-Impact Initiative for Fixing Tomorrow (the SHIFT guide to climate action). It’s been inspiring to see people making waves of climate action happen! Look for a guide to teaching SHIFT in 2026.
Then a few weeks ago, I joined the first meeting kicking off a three-year process helping lead the Second Global Assessment for Nature for the United Nations Biodiversity Panel, IPBES. I was nominated by the Swedish government to serve as one of 117 authors from over 60 countries. Our task is to synthesize knowledge to help countries meet the 2050 vision of living in harmony with nature (and meet international climate, biodiversity, and sustainability goals along the way). It was inspiring, overwhelming, and kept having “jump and the net will appear” vibes. Really grateful to be on this journey of “science and policy for people and nature”!
But first, let me tell you some very exciting news, read on!
Feelings: Joy, Anyway
The most unexpected delight of 2025 is that Simon joined Copenhagen’s funkiest brass band, the mighty Pølse Horns!! They play pop songs (think Billie Eilish, Eurythmics, Daft Punk) on a bunch of instruments you can probably name, and several you probably can’t, with such infectious energy and joy!
Simon’s new gig came to pass through a series of events involving the good fortune to grow up in a musical family and with a public school with a band, then not playing a brass instrument for 25 years; buying a euphonium (=tiny tuba) from an elderly man on the internet in a pandemic, for a custom-arranged inauguration song that never came to pass; the sad closure of our favorite brewery in Sweden, Brekkeriet, leading us to a chance encounter with the Pølse Horns at a beer festival; the universe sending a sign that it was time for Simon to audition for a band of mostly DTU students and graduates (we joke that he’s putting the “plus” in the description of the group as “mostly age 25-35+”); and his triumphant acceptance after audition!
The Pølse Horns, Nov ‘25. Look at that handsome euphonium player in green! 😍 Video by me
I’m so proud of Simon for jumping into something new with both feet, and it was such a joy to join his first gig last month. Imagine a crowd of people so moved by dancing and singing along to music they love that they think nothing of standing outdoors in dreary Scandi winter for an hour. It was a powerful reminder of how good it feels to move and make music together.
Things can be dark, and there is still room for pure joy. I hope you find some joy, or help create some, over the holidays.
P.S. Next time you’re in Copenhagen, be sure to catch the Pølse Horns live! Their next gig is January 23 at Drop Inn.
Facts: Trading the Earth for Stuff
People need nature for our survival, as well as meaning.
But currently, we are trading the Earth for stuff. 😢
This was a major conclusion of the first IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, which came out in 2019.
Only three of the 27 indicators across 18 categories of Nature’s contributions to people are improving over the last 50 years.
Basically, we are trading farmland for food, feed, and fuel for everything else: clean air and water, habitat for the 8 million+ species we share the planet with, climate, the learning, inspiration, and identity people derive from nature…. it’s pretty grim.
In 2028, when my colleagues and I release our update on this report, we’ll share some ideas about how we could do better!
Action: Chill
This month, your high-impact climate action is to… do less. We all need rest, and the end of the year is a good time to reflect and renew. A few ideas:
Maybe you can try to journal about the highs and lows of the last year? I have a tradition of writing down the main memories, activities, books, events of the past year over 2 pages in my journal. It’s really nice to reflect on!
Spend some time outside. Bad weather looks worse through a window. :)
Get good sleep! Thank you SO much to the readers who sent sleeping tips, especially this podcast really helped! I’m still working on the meditation— will report back.
Hope you all can be kind to yourself about all the good you gave to the world in 2025, and give yourself some grace to take a real break to go into 2026 with renewed energy. See you there!
P.S Check out my tips for Real Rest from December 2023!
Parting Tidbits
Upcoming talks, come see me here:
Join me, Claire Elise Thompson, and the lovely readers of Grist to chat about Under the Sky We Make in their online book club on January 14! Register here.
xo,
Kim
Hi Kim! I love the SHIFT guide and look forward to learning how to teach its use in 2026. We're setting a goal for becoming carbon neutral for our congregation of Daughters of Charity in the US and SHIFT is an excellent tool! Many blessings for the holidays and new year. Thanks for your wisdom and encouragement to rest and slow down! Love and prayers from Sr. Mary Jo Stein
Love seeing Simon’s new gig and how it came to pass. I played cornet for 3 years in middle school. Haven’t picked one up in 25 years. It takes a brave
soul to do that!