Breaking Down Reality-- Without Breaking Down Completely

Let’s break it down our eco-reality and get real for a second. There’s a conversation we, as a collective, are not having on a regular basis.

What is your ten year plan for living on this planet and how will you navigate the climate crisis?

Now, I get that this community here on #Steemit actually DOES have this conversation, so I may be preaching to the choir a tad bit. In fact, it gives me hope that communities like @ecotrain @naturalmedicine and @homesteaderscoop have robust, active communities on Discord and are publishing amazing work here on @Steemit. Truly, it energizes me and gives me hope!

But let’s look outside of our internal conversations within the community and step out into the wild west of the blissfully unaware peeps.

I am always somewhat floored and totally dismayed (though honestly not surprised) at people’s reactions when I gently bring up the reality that our lives will be drastically different in a decade. Not from a “we’re ten years older and we’re slowing down/growing up” perspective. But in the context of “our world is rapidly changing and in ten years our basic civilized infrastructure will probably not be able to sustain us”.

Eventually, mother nature reclaims all the things. Even historic adobe homes in rural desert towns. but act now and you can call this home!

People have a multitude of reactions, most of which are emotional, depressing or bewildered. I try to not dwell on it and I usually simply drop this topic amid conversations about changing jobs or moving. The topic gently slides into conversations where people are looking at major life decisions or trying to find more meaning in their days. I interject this topic because people should really be placing this in their decision-making process and also enjoying their moments of a “functioning-ish” ecosystem now, while we can. I'm kind of a jerk that way.

I don’t get emotional— it’s not an emotional thing if you’ve been paying attention. It’s simply science and fact. Those facts allow us to remove the fear and act. Each one of must start taking action each day.

We can either prepare and adjust or simply keep ignoring and deflecting. The choices are clear. And I get it, there’s a part of me that gets pissed off that people aren’t paying attention to the world around them. Then, I get emotional. But I always step back and try to be compassionate about the whole thing too.

I don’t blame some of my friends for not knowing or acknowledging what’s to come. It’s not their fault life is so fucking challenging in 2019. They’re simply going to work, raising their kids and trying to figure out how to cover the bills and still be relatively happy. Then I drop the whole “but have you zoomed out 10 years and stared down the barrel of the climate crisis yet” narrative on them and the meltdown happens.

How can we, as people who are preparing— mentally and physically— for a changing world, help our fellow humans begin to understand what is coming? I know there’s the whole “survival of the fittest” mentality, but I don’t think this topic is so black and white.

And the humanitarian in me wants to help people prepare for what’s coming. If we’re unable to have the difficult conversations about the climate crisis and what that means for our individual lifestyles and the survival of our families and communities— how are we going to make the drastic changes necessary to help mitigate the impacts of this disaster of our own making?

And that’s by design. The corporations and power players who benefit the most from killing the planet want our politicians and our communities to be paralyzed by partisanship so regulations are not created, enforced or are removed. I get that. Maybe the battle is to simply empower people to have the conversation about what’s to come without emotion or fear.

Maybe that’s simply all we can do. Begin to have the conversation more often, in a compassionate way, that empowers people to pay attention and protect themselves.

How do you approach this topic with the "less aware" in your community, family, friends, etc? Or do you? Do you find it easier to simply lead by example and let people approach you for advice when they're ready? Or do you feel an urgent call to gently (or maybe not so gently) provoke the conversation with those around you?