One of the things I’ve been learning at our weekly Active Hope Climate Squad gatherings is that the overwhelm of facing climate change (or any massive system-level overhaul that is urgently required and seems fundamentally impossible to pull off) is crippling if you imagine you’re on your own and that you are the only one who cares.

All us humans have different coping mechanisms when it comes to hard stuff – denial is a common one. A friend recently shared “Terror Management Theory”, which is the idea that people manage terrible things, like death or climate change, through denial, distraction, or rationalization, or distal defenses. (Sounds like Christmas dinner in my childhood home.) Because extinction is kind of big to think about before breakfast. And there isn’t usually an ideal time of time to squeeze that in.

What has been beautiful and resourcing and energizing about our Climate Squad is the feeling you get when you realize you’re not the only one who cares and it’s not on you to do anyything but your own small part. Part of the Spiral of the Work that reconnects is to realize, none of us can do it all, so what more beautiful question to ask than, “What is mine to do?”

Friday’s facilitated conversation at the Library is a chance to wriggle out of our burrows and come into community and realize, hey, there are actually more of us than we realize, and if we can build guilds, share energy, and think like systems, something miraculous can emerge.

In this community conversation, attendees will learn more about how to act on climate change as an individual and in their community. So much of the conversation around climate change is negative, but in this conversation, we want to focus on the positives – what is and what can be done. We will be discussing a range of actions from reducing individual consumption to supporting public policy that protects the environment. 

Since this is a conversation, attendees are encouraged to share what climate actions they may take in their own life. 

Register at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/climate-action-a-facilitated-conversation-registration-336867749507