Happy Summer Solstice – Today June 21st! Summer has begun and here in Vermont, I can finally take off my long underwear .
The spring weather here has been unusually cool and wet, enough to be giving the farmers a very hard time. What does an earth holiday and weather have to do with professional supervision? Everything.
The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) panel warns that the world might be on a path toward catastrophic climate change if greenhouse gas emissions aren’t cut dramatically by 2030.
It says the world needs to decrease emissions by 45 percent by 2030, or else the atmosphere could hit 1.5 degrees of warming by then. That is eleven years from now. Catastrophe. Tomorrow.
If you believe that this is possible, then what responsibility do we have to our clients to work with them on their response to climate change? Everyone of us can make a difference with what happens – in what we think, do, and in supporting others. I am committed to climate change being a topic that is always on the table. I ask my supervisees: how is it affecting your business/practice; what do you believe will happen and how are you personally planning for the future; and how can you support your clients in answering these same questions?
On any discussion of climate change, first is to work with the emotions that arise when we really look at what is happening to our world.
Are you able to lead your clients through their fear, disbelief, anger to come to some place of balance? Can you find the excitement for all the possible good changes that can come from the shaking up of the world as we know it? Can you support your clients in doing this for their family? Can you do this for yourself? What tools do you already have and what tools do you need ?
It is really hard to wrap your mind around this possible future and then begin to plan. I see a lot of discussion for policy makers about what we can do, but not a lot for the individual. Have you done any research which has given you an understanding as to the specific effects of economic and climate dislocation on your life and your geographic community? How soon do you think you will be majorly affected and in what ways? Why?
Resilience and community are two concepts that usually come to the forefront of any discussion on any catastrophe.
What elements need to be considered in your plan for resiliency: food, water, housing, family, work, savings, neighbors, spirituality, migration…what else? What is your community doing/planning? Are you building in the physical and emotional time to make a plan or are your waiting until you get to it? Chris Martenson has done some good work on dealing with an economic collapse with his Crash Course (https://www.peakprosperity.com/crashcourse/). Who do you find helpful in thinking about planning your future within this context? Let me know.
Today as the sun begins to head south again, I am asking lots of questions: where we need to begin, both for ourselves and our clients? More to come next month.