Climate Grief

Wynn Alan Bruce Took His Life to Wake Us Up

Friday, April 22 marked Earth Day. Tragically, Wynn Alan Bruce chose Earth Day to light himself on fire on the steps of the Supreme Court. His act came as the court prepares to rule on one of the most consequential cases for the climate crisis and clean air in decades, a legal battle over the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to issue regulations under the landmark 1970 Clean Air Act. Republican state attorneys general and coal companies are attempting to strip the agency of its authority to regulate planet-warming gas emissions from power plants through court ruling, putting such authority in Congress’s hands. West Virginia’s Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, leads a nineteen state coalition in West Virginia v. EPA, that represents two coal companies as well: The North American Coal Corporation and Westmoreland Mining Holdings, LLC.

Mr. Bruce’s act was not one of suicide. He was an environmentalist deeply shaken by concern for the rapidly diminishing habitability of our planet. It was the act of a man willing to take his own life to shake people awake in an attempt to save others. I don’t want him to be forgotten. Just 50 years old and a practicing Buddhist, Mr. Bruce was calling attention to the fact we are extinguishing life on this planet at a devastating, accelerating rate and with it, in the process of extinguishing ourselves.

Am I moved by his act? Yes. Do I approve of his act? No. Besides the loss of a gentle soul and the sadness those who loved him have to carry, I would have preferred Mr. Bruce stayed to fight for his beliefs. We need more people like him.

Finding details of Mr. Bruce’s life left me with more questions than answers. Apparently, he grew up in Minnesota and was a varsity cross country runner. In the late 1980s, he moved to Florida where he attended Hernando High School and was a member of the science club. He graduated in 1989, with the intention of serving in the Air Force, but was badly injured in a car accident, driven by a friend. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and damage to a leg which affected him the rest of his life, although don’t feel I have a clear picture of how that injury changed him. In 2000, he moved to Boulder, Colorado and became interested in photography.

Although unable to drive because of his injuries, Mr. Bruce, got around on bicycles and founded a portrait photography studio, Bright and True Photos, in 2008. He took sensitive portraits, many in black and white and illustrated his close feelings for nature in his landscape photography. According to friends, Mr. Bruce also had difficulty focusing and organizing. Perhaps this was a result of his brain injury, I don’t know. It is clear, however, that Buddhism, meditation and the natural world were where he felt peace. He lived alone with his cat in a town home, through an affordable housing program.

Dr. Kritee Kanko, a climate scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund and Zen Buddhist priest, was a friend of Mr. Bruce. She tweeted, “This guy was my friend. He meditated with our sangha. This act is not suicide. This is a deeply fearless act of compassion to bring attention to climate crisis. We are piecing together info, but he had been planning it for at least one year. I am so moved.”

Dr. Kanko also made it clear she didn’t want to see anyone to follow Mr. Bruce’s path.

On April 20, Mr. Bruce asked his next-door neighbor of 20 years, Chris King to drive him to a bus station 30 miles away, so that he could travel to Denver. He told Mr. King he was going to, “Meet with my meditation group.” Mr. King said, “I dropped him at the bus station and he had a backpack.”

“A couple of days later, the cat was still in the window, and he wasn’t around,” said Mr. King. “And then, I found out.”

Mr. Bruce’s travel from Denver to Washington is not currently clear.

After being airlifted to a hospital, Mr. Bruce died. According to a witness, a photographer present at the scene, Bruce sat upright and did not scream or cry out while burning for about 60 seconds, after which police extinguished him with water scooped from a fountain in the plaza, using traffic cones. Only after the fire was out did he audibly express pain. Mr. Bruce was airlifted to a hospital where he later died.

Three weeks before his protest, Mr. Bruce overtly warned of his act, updating an October 30, 2020 post on his Facebook page with a fire emoji and the date 4/22/2022. Buried in his timeline, the original link was to an eight week course, Climate Change: The Science and Global Impact.

According to his father, Douglas Bruce, "concern about the environment and climate issues" was "really heartfelt and central" to Wynn's identity; it had been a lifelong commitment that began with childhood trips to a family cabin at Lake Superior.

Psychology experts recognize the role climate plays in mental health. A 2017 report from the American Psychological Association found “the psychological responses to climate change, such as conflict avoidance, fatalism, fear, helplessness, and resignation are growing.”

The phenomenon was also explained in an NBC News report in 2018:

The increasing visibility of climate change, combined with bleak scientific reports and rising carbon dioxide emissions, is taking a toll on mental health, especially among young people, who are increasingly losing hope for their future. Experts call it “climate grief,” depression, anxiety and mourning over climate change.

This is a real and growing phenomena. Many young people are choosing not to have children because they believe the future is bleak. Our mental health is in jeopardy, I feel it myself, and the physical well-being of millions has already been undermined by record breaking wild fires, killer heat waves, massive flooding and more frequent and stronger tornadoes and hurricanes. Yet those who prize profit over human life continue to pretend how we live is sustainable. In my opinion, the media is vastly underreporting the most important story of our time. Maybe our last story.

The migration disaster at our southern border, which is such a popular political football, is a direct result of global warming. Those in South American countries who live simple agricultural lives can no longer grow food because of climate change. They have no choice but to flee. This is a direct result of the economic model of the United States and all those who have emulated our economy. We have a special responsibility to the victims.

Yet we have a “Supreme Court” that is entertaining arguments to place emission standards in the hands of Congress, our “leaders” who are bought and sold by the industries that are bringing the planet to its knees.

There are those who think none of this is a coincidence. There are those who think there is a drive to a one world government. There are those who think this ecological nightmare furthers that goal. If societies collapse and tens of millions die, it creates a perfect environment for absolute dictatorship and slavery. I do not know if these rumors are true. I do know however, that human history is a repetition of the powerful trying for absolute subjugation and blood being shed by those trying to escape the oppression.

If these are the kinds of thoughts Mr. Bruce was having, it’s little wonder he was willing to take his own life. Let’s honor him by going after Joe Manchin, whose wealth has been made by the coal industry and Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who apparently is an industry puppet as well. It’s nothing more pressing than life on earth. Honor Mr. Bruce with ten minutes of your time.

Senator Joe Manchin can be contacted here:

https://www.manchin.senate.gov/contact-joe/

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey can be reached here:

https://www.contactmypolitician.com/inbox/start-conversation?polid=39280%7C0&uiid=na

Thank you.