Alleviating the Crises of Our Times through Local Living
View from my front window in San Francisco @10:52 AM on September 9, 2020
This past Wednesday, it felt apocalyptic when the circadian rhythm across the San Francisco Bay Area came to a halt. We’ve experienced a record number of consecutive Spare the Air Days due to poor air quality from smoke-filled skies. On Wednesday, the smoke was so pervasive and high in the atmosphere (from record-breaking fires up and down the West Coast) that when it combined with fog, an orange glow spread across the sky and most daylight was blocked. No one can remember such a non-day at our latitude where one night led to the next.
2020 has been a very long and trying year. The start of this year, before the pandemic struck, seems like a distant memory. Getting through each day is an accomplishment. The devastating fires and hazardous air has been the latest chapter for those of us in California and the West.
The Crises We Face
New crises and chronic ones have risen to the surface throughout this year. The pandemic continues to grow, take nearly 1,000 lives every day in our country and have a devastating impact on the economy and education. The climate crisis is bearing down on us with increasingly severe fires and hurricanes causing great destruction. Inequality is more extreme than just about any point in our nation’s history. Systemic racism, experienced by people of color in our country their whole lives, has finally caught our nation’s attention as we mourn the disproportionate loss of Black, Indigenous and POC lives to the coronavirus, pollution, police brutality and other inequities. It’s hard to not feel defeated, overwhelmed and beset by despair.
The Solutions We Need
It’s, however, never been clearer that action is needed and possible on all these fronts. People are mobilizing for change. We have a critical election in November that will set the course for whether and how we deal with these crises. We need leadership to take on these challenges. All of us need to be part of the solution too. Treating crises separately or keeping them in categories (social, environmental, public health, etc.) will also never get us to the deeper solutions we need.
Underlying our crises is our growing disconnectedness with nature, community and each other. Whether climate, biodiversity loss, inequality, systemic racism, pandemics or other crises, probing into them reveals how disconnectedness has led to their rise. We can address this root cause and be a part of the solution by living locally and strengthening connections to nature, our local communities and each other in our daily lives. In doing so, we build stronger communities, reduce our environmental impact and mitigate the crises of our time while building resilience to get through what remains of them. Living locally also provides the means to elevate our personal well-being, needed more now than ever, adding happiness, meaning and hope to our lives.
Our cities and communities must be designed so that we can have our needs met locally and this requires local government, urban planners, developers and others to advance these conditions, what I refer to as Connected to Place Cities and Communities.
Writing and Speaking Update
I continue work on my book, tentatively titled Living Connected to Place: Living with Happiness, Meaning and Hope in the Climate Era. It’s a long process! I’m grateful to Jess Beebe of Waxwing Book Studio for her support and editing through this endeavor.
I’ll be sharing ideas from the book and related research in a presentation (via Zoom of course), Living Locally: How Strengthening Connections to Place Is Better for You, Your Community and the Planet, on Wednesday, September 16th from 7 to 8 p.m The event, hosted and sponsored by the Citizens Environmental Council, is open to the public and free. You do need to pre-register in advance if you are interested in virtually attending.
Consulting Update
I’ve had the pleasure of working with Slide Ranch over a series of virtual strategic planning sessions this past summer. The plan is nearing completion in time for their 50th Anniversary Celebration later this Fall. Yes, strategic planning can be done virtually!
I’m pleased to re-engage with the Center for Ecoliteracy, working with Youth Outside and Anthony Khalil, to provide trainings on equity and racial justice and support for integrating these critical elements into organizational strategy.
Other News
The California Environmental Literacy Initiative is launching an exciting and timely free, five-part webinar series for educators to “showcase effective strategies for supporting environmental literacy, both during the pandemic crisis and beyond.”
The UN Women USA - SF Bay Area Chapter is recruiting for volunteer positions
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Matt
Articles on Medium by Matt Biggar, Ph.D.