(Patriot.Buzz) – In a baffling technique providing zero educational value, a professor at the University of Colorado tackles her worries about the environment in a unique way: by dressing up and performing as a butterfly.
Besides being a theater professor Beth Osnes also decided to teach about the environment after feeling a growing sense of doom about the world’s ecological future while she was prepping for her Creative Climate Communication class.
Osnes shared with Colorado Public Radio (CPR) that she “started to get that terrible ooze feeling, that comes in like a sickness that you get from despair.” She added, “Just the knowledge of what’s happening to our planet, it feels almost disabling.”
According to CPR the feeling of being overwhelmed and powerless in the face of environmental issues is known as “climate anxiety,” which is gaining recognition for allegedly showcasing the distress that environmental crises cause.
In order to express her feelings Osnes performs what she called the “Butterfly Affect Experience” in an attempt to create a world that is “equitable, sustainable, and conducive to thriving life and ecosystems.”
Osnes also created a “climate musical” for young performers to combine the arts with environmental education. She is also behind an empowerment group for young women and non-binary individuals.
In turn, Young America’s Foundation criticized her approach saying:
“Climate anxiety has been peddled by the Left for decades. Unfortunately, many young people are being misguided by their teachers and professors into believing that the world is going to end, and the only way to stop it from doing so is to fall in line with the Left’s climate agenda.”
Adding another layer of complexity to the issue by mixing environmental issues with race, Sarah Ray from California State Polytechnic University Humboldt raised a question about the demographics of those most vocal about their climate fears. She suggested that the fact that white voices are a majority in the climate discourse showcases a deeper problem of racial anxiety and white fragility.
