Endless hurricanes, wildfires, and flooding; astronomically high prices and low wages; biodiversity collapse – is this the future you expect for your kids in 30 years? For many of us concerned about climate change and social inequality, it seems like the future is going to be pretty grim. Some people are even going so far to think we’re going to be living in something out of a dystopia SF novel (if we’re not already).
But while being prepared for a legit natural or human-caused disaster is a good thing, hunkering down in despair isn’t. Honestly, our children deserve for us to at least try to turn this ship in the right direction. No one wants to tell their kids, “We didn’t bother trying because what was the point?”
After all, people and whole cultures have survived apocalypses before. What else could you call millions of people kidnapped and then being enslaved for generations? Or having nine-tenths of your people die from disease before the government gave away your land and violently forced you to move elsewhere? Or having people from your religion targeted for genocide multiple times?
And yet at least some people survived. They went on. They resisted. We can hear their stories and use them not to have rose-colored glasses but motivation to act in response to the vast challenges that await us. We can find ways to build a future that’s better for everyone.
Fortunately, the skills that can help us if things go really pear-shaped are also the skills that can help turn the ship. By connecting us to nature and each other, they’re the skills that we can use to both make our own lives better and improve the world as a whole. Most of these draw on what I learned as a member of a Transition Towns group about a decade ago, which had the dubious honor of being labeled “the happiest group of doomers you’ll meet.” While the movement as a whole has some serious issues – at the time, a complete lack of consideration of social justice issues, much less intersectionality – it was really smart in its approach in finding activities that both reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and prepare our communities to be more resilient. Importantly, most of these are things you can do with your kids!
Collaborating in local work and decision-making
The biggest skill that we can cultivate is building our social capital and working together with the people around us. Strengthening relationships and collaborating with our friends, neighbors, and community is essential for our well-being and the well-being of everyone around us. This can take so many forms! Volunteering at your community center, school or library; attending PTA meetings; providing input on city policy on clean energy or affordable housing; working with members of your church; and on and on. Advocate not just for your own needs, but the needs of your community as a whole. For example, right now I’m on a committee to choose new playground equipment for the park across the street from our house. It doesn’t really seem related to environmental sustainability. But I’ve met the members of my neighborhood’s civic association through it, who I can work with on projects in the future. Our cities, towns, and counties are often where we can make the biggest difference in sustainability – embrace the opportunity. Older kids can participate in these meetings and may be enthused if they know they’re affecting real change in their community.
Using public spaces and resources
Cultivating and supporting collective resources is one important way to build community resilience. (This is something I love about the post-apocalyptic world in the audio game Zombies Run – it’s very focused on cooperation and community.) One of the best ways we can show support is to use these resources! Politicians often point to lack of use as a reason to defund libraries, community centers, and parks. So whether it’s being a member of your town pool, visiting a county nature center, getting books from the library, or joining the community center, you’re minimizing the stuff you’re buying, undercutting corporations, and strengthening your community so it can better deal with future problems.
Buying less stuff
Whether to lower our personal negative impact on the Earth and other people or because stuff will become increasingly unavailable (see supply chain issues during COVID), we need to buy less stuff, especially non-essential stuff. First, we can learn to appreciate and use the things we already have, especially clothes and toys. If something is broken, try to fix or mend it if possible. Teach your kids simple sewing skills, like mending a ripped seam. When you need something, think about if you really need it or you just want it to fulfill an emotional need. If you do need it, try to find it secondhand. For clothes, check out ThredUP or your local secondhand store. For other items, look on Facebook Marketplace, Freecycle, or your local Buy Nothing Group. If you’re getting rid of something, try to find a specific local person to take it through one of these groups instead of throwing it out or bringing it to Salvation Army or Goodwill (who throws out or dumps many clothes in other countries, flooding them with our crap).
Connecting with nature around you
One of the most powerful things we can do for own happiness is appreciating “joy snacks” – little moments throughout the day that bring us joy. Often, these can come from appreciating the nature around us. Even if you live in a city, you can appreciate the patterns of bark of street trees and the changing clouds in the sky. Going on a walk with small children is a terrific way to find these. Little kids can get super jazzed about dandelions growing out of cracks in the sidewalk. Appreciating the nature around us grounds us in a sense of place, connecting us to it and making us want to take care of it more. In addition, finding these everyday small joys will become particularly important in situations where travel becomes more expensive or life is just more stressful in general.
Walking and biking places
When you walk and bike places, you get outside, are more likely to interact with your neighbors, and don’t need to rely on fossil fuels to get around. Walking and biking places allows kids to be independent and get places before they can drive. If gas gets really expensive, walkable and bikable communities are going to be the best prepared. Local bike co-ops further add to the community aspect of biking. These are community groups where you can bring your bike and people will help teach you how to maintain and fix it.
Growing food together
Supporting local farmers and growing some of your own food can reduce a little of our dependence from corporations and build more of those community connections. Kids often love gardening and are more likely to eat produce if it’s from the garden. You can join a community garden, support a school garden, or donate some of the produce from your home garden to a local food bank. I find that sourcing some of my food locally also protects us a little from price jumps. By pre-ordering eggs from our community supported agriculture farm last year, we didn’t need to worry about the jump in egg prices later on.
Supporting local renewable energy
The most reliable form of energy for most people will be solar panels with a battery wall for energy storage. Those can keep your house going off of the grid for a long time even if power is off (very helpful in a natural disaster, like a big ice storm). But if you can’t afford that, supporting locally produced renewable energy is pretty great. Getting solar panels on your roof, supporting your city or county installing solar on its buildings, buying from regional wind farms, or participating in a community solar co-op are all ways to wean your community off of coal and natural gas while making it more resilient in the long run.
Resigning ourselves to the worst case scenario is just pretty awful. Who really wants that? In contrast, envisioning and find ways to make a better future together can be pretty darn inspiring.