The Current

'Like watching a train wreck': Blogger quits writing about climate change

Neven Curlin is taking a break from his Arctic sea ice blog. Even though he's amassed a sizeable following, he says it's too depressing to keep writing about how things keep getting worse. He's burnt out.
'It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion,' says blogger Neven Curlin who has stopped writing about climate change because he says it's too depressing. (Francois Lenoir/Reuters)

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When Neven Curlin began his Arctic Sea Ice blog in 2010, it was a labour of love. Though he isn't a scientist, as an environmentalist he had a natural interest in the state of Arctic sea ice and how it was being affected by global warming.

Describing the train wreck all the time is not very productive.- Neven Curlin

But now six years later, after amassing a sizeable following while blogging about sea ice melt multiple times a week, Curlin says he has to take a step back from his blog because of "Arctic burnout." 

"It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion," Curlin tells The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti.

"And just describing the train wreck all the time is not very productive. So I just need some time to step away." 

As his blog has been growing, Curlin has also been building an ecologically-friendly home with his wife in Fürstenfeld, Austria.

Between that and his work as a freelance translator, Curlin says he doesn't have the time anymore to focus on his blog. But he's also been finding it too depressing to keep writing about bad news day after day.

Sea ice melting in the Arctic "is going really, really fast," he says.

"It's going much faster than what mainstream science anticipated ... and it just keeps going." 

Listen to the full conversation near the top of this post.

This segment was produced by The Current's Julian Uzielli.