Finding your place in the climate movement

Finding your place in the movement to combat climate change, especially if your background is not one traditionally considered "useful" in the energy world. This post could be relatively brief, and broadly would focus on identifying one's greatest strengths and strongest skills, finding which industries or technologies inspire one the most, and then seeking opportunities in those places. The message could broadly apply to any other cause, but climate change is the one with which I am most familiar.All of us on the West Coast of the United States remember it. The week of September 7th, 2020. The day San Francisco became Mordor, the day the sky turned deep, ominous orange. Some of us are still in that moment.Climate change has been here for a while now. We are officially in a climate crisis. If that wasn’t clear, it is painfully clear now. A lot of us are wondering, even more than before, “Well, what can I do?” Today I won’t be telling you to buy an electric car or go vegan. Studies actually show that, when individuals are told which personal actions would seriously mitigate climate change, that actually discourages people from doing anything and could push them in the other direction. (https://journals.ametsoc.org/wcas/article/doi/10.1175/WCAS-D-19-0141.1/354718/Don-t-Tell-Me-What-to-Do-Resistance-to-Climate#.X2y58PzOcLI.twitter) The truth is, from the COVID-19 pandemic to the spotlight on police brutality in the US, this is a systems problem. 100 companies and organizations have caused 70% of greenhouse gas emissions. Let’s not get started on policy. ( https://www.peri.umass.edu/greenhouse-100-polluters-index-current )What’s a conscientious reader like you to do? For those of you in the United States, I will recite the now trite suggestion to vote -- and to help your community vote, especially if you are at risk of voter suppression. In the US, the single greatest way to prevent extreme federal environmental protection rollbacks is to have a Democratic president and abolish the filibuster. But that’s not the whole story. In 2020 we continue to see what a movement of people can do. How when we band together, the powers at be are forced to take notice of us. So, one of the best things you can do is to create and join a community with people who want to live a solarpunk (https://www.rewire.org/learn-solarpunk-movement/) future and not a cyberpunk one. Which community to create? Here’s where some self-reflection comes in. What fires you up? What are your strengths? If you are passionate about politics, dive into climate efforts happening in your town, county, or state, and organize an advocacy group. Local politics set LOTS of precedent for future climate efforts. Leah Stokes talks a lot about community advocacy; I imagine her book has lots of good case studies https://www.leahstokes.com/book. If you’re good at number-crunching and bookkeeping, learn more about utilities and how they set tariffs and source their power, and then educate your neighbors. If you love to draw lush landscapes, illustrate a metropolitan area full of electric trains, community gardens, and clean air, to help us picture how beautiful our future could be. If you love to geek out about technology, learn about all the new battery technology to make the electrical grid resilient in addition to renewable, and maybe even work on improving batteries! The list goes on. You don’t need to be an electrical engineer or a seasoned activist to foster a climate-focused community. We need everyone and all kinds of skills to keep Earth alive. We already have most of the technology we need to electrify everything, but it’s a matter of whose finger is on the light switch. There are a lot of fires right now, both literal and metaphorical. On a personal level, many of us are approaching burnout if not already there. In the book Burnout: The secret to unlocking the stress cycle by sisters Emily and Amelia Nagoski (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/592377/burnout-by-emily-nagoski-phd-and-amelia-nagoski-dma/9781984817068) , human connection is one of the key necessities we need to combat and prevent burnout. We’re seeing now more than ever the importance of human connection and community for the future of our world. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that building and strengthening communities is the secret to both individual and societal healing. So, what can you do about climate change? Find your strengths and your interests and figure out how to leverage them towards climate and energy topics. Collaborate and conspire with others on how they can use their strengths in their areas of interest, too. Then let it grow. For some further reading, I seriously recommend:-- Picking up All we can save (https://www.allwecansave.earth/ ): an anthology of essays, poetry, and illustrations by women in the climate movement. The tagline is, "Truth, courage, and solutions for the climate crisis." Lots of the thoughts I have written here are mere echoes said by various contributors to this anthology! -- For a quicker reference, this recent thread by Dr. Katharine Hayoe makes some great points about collective action, especially in the face of climate despair: https://twitter.com/KHayhoe/status/1309177329491546115

Finding your place in the climate movementFeatured

Finding your place in the climate movementFeatured