Comic: How I emerge from climate despair - Los Angeles Times

Climate & Environment

Comic: Emerging from environmental dissociation

By Kaylynn Kim

Sept. 11, 2024 3 AM PT

I sink into myself, exhausted.

It is hard to care about anything when you believe it is all for nothing.

When I think about new humans in my life, I can't help but think about our inevitable obliteration.

I've selfishly floated into the lukewarm pit of despair before they even had a chance. Then I think to myself:

Have you ever smelled jasmine blooming on a warm summer night?

Have you you listened to the crickets chirping and felt the air come alive?

Have you ever watched the sun set so beautifully it breaks your heart?

What a wonderful, tragically bittersweet world we live in.

I need to hold it in my hands for just a bit longer. I need to show them.

It is important to care.

It is important...

It is important.

Kaylynn Kim is an illustrator and writer born and raised in the San Fernando Valley. Her work is rooted in emotional introspection gravitating toward matters of the heart. She lives in Pasadena.

More to Read

Climate & Environment

More From the Los Angeles Times