In my last post I explained that I’ve started a journey of ‘Living Hopefully’ that’s intended to enable me to ‘do my bit’ to help Planet Earth to heal, and to support the processes of change that our societies must undertake if we are to live well within the limits of the planet’s capacity to carry all life. So, let’s get started!…
About this blog.
This is a practical blog. It’s about the ‘how to’ of working to achieve the best available climate outcomes that are within the immediate grasp of ordinary citizens in developed countries. Everything we already do has a better or worse way of getting done. This blog points you towards the ‘better ways’ – both in the individual actions you take each day and in the collective actions you may choose to take if and when your circumstances allow. The ‘better’ it aims for is always the same: the best interest of our planet and all future generations of life on earth.
Alongside the ‘how to’, it also addresses the ‘why to’ question. ‘Why should I take climate action now?’ And ‘What difference can my actions make anyway?’ I approach the ‘why’ questions on the basis of my own personal experience. I realise these are frightening times for many people and I have felt that fear deeply myself. It is a rational and necessary fear. As I said in the last post: ‘Never before has any generation had to cope with global heating, biodiversity loss and accelerating threats to the fundamentals of life like our water, our soils and the quality of our air.’ It would be unusual for someone to examine the nature and scale of these threats to our life support systems and not to feel frightened by the risks they present.
When I first looked deeply into what climate change is likely to mean for all of us I was very frightened by it. It took a while to develop a useful response that helped me manage my own anxieties in relation to the future we face. This blog shares that response in the hope that others may find it helpful in managing their own responses to these threats.
The blog encourages climate action because I have found that action helps. It has helped me to confront and subdue the ‘overwhelm’ that always threatens. It helps in two ways. First, it does in fact contribute to solving the real-life problems we face. For example, if my action is to turn my thermostats down by 5 degrees and wear a thicker jumper in winter, then I do in fact make a smaller demand on our energy resources. My reduced demand does in fact mean that the system I’m connected to will burn fossil fuels at a slower rate. That does in fact reduce our carbon emissions by a tiny bit.
Tiny it may be, but the realisation that my little actions do have an effect- even on a problem as big as global heating- helps me in another way too. The second way it helps is- it makes me feel better!
Feeling better by doing.
I believe that ‘feeling better’ in times of uncertainty is a valid and necessary objective in itself and it’s certainly one that this blog will address. In this sense the blog is part diary and part reflection on changes I’ve been practising for a while. In one way my changes made me feel just a tiny bit better: I do realise that my actions, by themselves, can only have minuscule effects. But in another way they made me feel a whole lot better. Realising that even the smallest changes ‘count towards the outcome’ was a crucial understanding for me to reach. It meant I stopped looking at the climate crisis as an unstoppable doom approaching me, my family, my community, and the natural world that I love. I was able to look at it as a ‘job of work’ that ‘just’ needs to get done. A huge job of work, I grant you. But still, a ‘job’ – and jobs can be tackled.
Recovering that sense of agency in the face of climate threats was helpful to me and I hope it will be helpful to everyone struggling with overwhelm. It is empowering to remember that there are always ways to minimise damage through our everyday actions. This is so whether we act as individuals or via some collective identity like a company or a community. Recognizing the power of our actions makes those actions important: it’s worth putting thought, time and determination into them- however big or small they may be. We can take these actions directly, under our own steam, without permission from anyone else. We can tackle the threats alone, or with others, or both. No one can stop any citizen from doing everything in their power to address the biggest threat of our times.
If my experience is typical, just taking the pro-planet actions available to you each day will help you feel stronger in the face of threat. I found that ‘doing what I can do’ created a shield, and a weapon, against overwhelm.
It’s important to maintain personal vigilance about the ‘shield’ this approach offers. For me, living this approach began with small changes that are easy for anyone to adopt. The next article will describe some of those changes and the results they delivered and invite you to join me in taking little steps like these. I believe that these small contributions will be important in achieving the best available future for us all. The more people contribute their efforts, the more important the collective contribution will become.
But prospective ‘Hopeful Voyagers’ should be aware- there will come a point where the choices that present themselves may feel more challenging. Will I fly to Spain for some sunshine when the Covid restrictions allow it? Or will I holiday at home because flying isn’t good for the planet? Do I buy a new outfit from an online fast-fashion retailer? Or do I buy ‘new to me’ from a local charity shop because that’s better for the planet? These are the types of questions every Hopeful Voyager has to decide for themselves. So you should be aware – this journey goes inwards and well as outwards, and Hopeful Voyagers should expect to hit personally challenging choices sooner or later. This blog will not press any one choice over another: it recognises that the amount of action any person can take is constrained by their circumstances and their preferences- and that fact never changes.
What the blog will do is give examples, inspirations and ‘food for thought’, so that each Voyager has material they can use to draw out their own creative solutions to the challenges they encounter. And when the choice is made, we will count it and showcase it for others to follow- if you choose to share it.
The actions you take in your everyday life are already affecting the pace of global heating: this blog just invites you to choose better actions.
Adopting the ‘Hopeful’ approach won’t make the threats we face disappear, but it can motivate us to become engaged in the struggle against these threats. This is the struggle we’re all engulfed by now- whether we want to be or not.
A global effort to stop hurting the planet and to give the future a chance is already underway. Each one of us must choose whether to lend a hand- or not.
Who is this blog for?
This blog is for those who do want to lend their hand.
A new baby, Ty, came into our family recently- the first newcomer in 30 years. Since he was born I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what actions ‘ordinary people like me’ can take to make a difference to the quality of the future that will be available to him. By ‘ordinary people’ I mean people who don’t have exceptional access to the levers of political or economic power: people who aren’t in government and who aren’t so wealthy or so well-connected that they have the ear of government. We are people from all walks of life: no one is excluded: everyone’s invited. The fact that you’re on this planet means you’re invited- like it or not! Anyone, everyone, can be an agent for change.
This blog is for people who want change. It’s for people who recognise the threat global heating presents but don’t feel equipped to do anything about it. What I realised is that we’re all ‘equipped’. We all have influence and we all already use it every day- for better or for worse. This blog is a small prompt to use your influence consciously and deliberately to achieve the better outcomes this planet needs.
What to expect from the blog.
The blog will deliver about two articles per month all about the ‘how’ of achieving better outcomes for the planet. In it I will share some of the individual actions I have taken over the past 18 months and those I plan to take in the future. I hope that sharing these examples may offer other people a practical place to start their own journeys of change in circumstances where, as I know, it can feel hard to make any start at all. It will offer a chance for everyone to have their efforts recognised and counted- a place where you can record what you are doing and we will count it. That way everyone can see how much a community of changemakers can achieve.
Sometimes it will also share inspirations that I have found helpful along the way; books or poems or images that I’ve enjoyed. There is one of these attached as a postscript to this article.
Finally, it will offer alternative approaches to some of the collective problems we all face in our communities. Under the heading ‘Why don’t we…?’ it will offer a solution-seeking approach to some of the issues I see unfolding around me on the island of Ireland. I put these ideas out into the public domain so that others can add to, develop or adopt them, and in the hope that perhaps a new approach could evolve and be tested out within a community facing a challenge.
Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them”. I hope that by offering alternative thinking and creating a platform where others can do the same, new approaches may emerge that can help to keep our precious planet safe.
So this blog is an invitation to everyone to join with me in Living Hopefully through challenging times. I hope you find something to inspire you here, and I look forward to your company on this adventure!
Viv,
© livinghopefully.org
Postscript:
Here’s a short reflection that someone wrote on a wall near me. It doesn’t seem to have a title but I call it ‘The Power of One’. Some on the internet say it was written by Edward Everett Hale, others say it’s by Helen Keller: I don’t know who’s right. For me it came from the person who put it on a wall in county Down!
So ‘thank you’ to all the ‘writers’ – including the graffiti artist who wrote it on the wall. And here it is for you.
‘The Power of One’.
“ I am only one, but still I am one.
I cannot do everything, but still I can do something:
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do something that I can do.”
Accreditations
Main image – alberto casetta unsplash
Flower Image – Katherine McCormack
