I don't think enough people understand that it's not just roads, bridges, housing, and water systems that aren't designed to current climate conditions - it's mental health systems, insurance systems, emergency response systems, agricultural systems, medical education systems,
Funders seem (mostly, there are always exceptions & these folks are dear to me & in service of an emerging better world) to want to fund "winners," invincible heroes ushering in a shiny new world in an exhausting but somehow upbeat rush.
Anyway today I'm the only one on our a team having a "normal" day. My colleagues, spread across the southeastern US are dealing with power outages, internet outages, debris, a chemical fire, flooding impacting them, loved ones, and their communities.
We climate workers are people too. Soft and vulnerable as anyone else. Hearts breaking. Filled with worry. Or putting down our laptops to deliver supplies or shelter others.
It so clear now: our interventions need to be climate proofed if we are to be useful. Our work needs to be designed for the very destabilization it is trying to prevent the worsening off. And taking care of the world has to mean taking care of each other too.
I can tell you that trying to do so, to figure out what "climate proofed climate work" is makes you look odd. Downright weird. And it seems to makes the fundraising part exponentially harder.
When you stop doing that which everyone (mostly) is doing but which you think can't continue under the coming destabilization you step out of a lot of opportunities
When you instead put your energy into infrastructure you think could be sustained through destabilization - newsletters, pdfs that could be used even w/o power very simple tools, an actual three dimensional artifact, a book of al things - some opportunities close down.
When you design tools that you think have the best chance of helping people who are more in more in crisis, in confusion, who you can't fly to or who don't have much money or time, or who have to start and stop their work, your tools look less shiny and more simple.
That idea didn't land well. (Understatement alert!) This is an example of a place (there are many others) where I feel constantly trapped between saying what I'm really thinking and planning and saying what feels fundable.
When I launched Multisolving Institute I always made a point to tell funders that we were deliberately choosing timelines for our goals that would require less than a constant full on sprint to accomplish.
I anticipated our team (all teams) would be increasingly impacted by climate destabilization and we (everyone) would need to build in more slack to be able to cope.
What changes when you see the call to fit into the requirements of the living Earth as an opportunity for growth in wisdom and wellbeing, instead of a sacrifice? When you see how limits promote some kinds of growth?
Love maple syrup, homegrown food & multi-generational living? How about snow-shoveling, meetings, and pretty constant practice at listening, self-reflection & the art of compromise? There's an apartment for sale in my VT co-housing community. More info: https://www.cobbhill.org/houses
Calling for a ceasefire while supplying arms. Naming climate goals while extracting oil. Declaring war on cancer while allowing novel chemicals & plastics in food, water and air. Spending billions on vaccine against a global infectious disease but not sharing it.
It's 2035. You just walked out your door into a world that got through the shocks of 2024 -26 more connected, a little ecologically healthier, with civil and human rights strengthened & with commitment to actually being a just & ecological society. What's the 1st thing you see?
In moments of uncertainty I like to think about "good bets" -- choices and actions that seem most likely to be helpful no matter what comes next. Here are a few on my mind. What would you add?