Becoming an eco-citizen
Becoming and Eco-Citizen is a collaborative adventure, for ordinary people, in service of the world we live in. We use four key principles to help get our heads around climate change and make a more active contribution to the future of our planet:
Accepting
the inevitability of climate change so we can adapt and work with it.
Activating
the small changes each of us can make, that together can make a big difference.
Supporting
big changes in society and understanding how we can influence these as citizens.
Imagining
a different, more ecologically sustainable system for our global society.
I’ve been grappling for a long time with how to be and act in relation to the climate changes we are starting to see, and so I thought I’d bring my grapple here. I hope that by ‘going public’ I will cause a breakthrough in my own contribution and also inspire others to action. I’m also hoping that by sharing tools, ideas, advice and stories we can cause a bigger change.
Accept change is coming
The first job of work is to get our minds into a helpful place. Working through our denial, anger, guilt, sadness, apathy and into a place of acceptance will not only ease our suffering but will make it more likely we can make a positive contribution. I was inspired by the work of the Deep Adaptation movement.
Having done some work on my own mindset, and using my professional skills I feel able to offer some sort of help to others so please contact me if you are interested in that.
Activate small changes in your life
There is a lot of public awareness about small contributions we can all make to improving the situation. Many of us have already made changes to our lives to be more environmentally friendly. We should celebrate all this and do more. So my plan is to share ideas, stories of change, struggles – anything really to help make it easier for people to do just a little bit more. And to do it wholeheartedly and optimistically, and not out of despair or guilt.
Support large changes in the world
I am shamelessly using project Drawdown as my framework for this big changes we need to make as a society. They present a practical, hopeful set of solutions that could significantly change future climate scenarios. And so I want to explore how to more actively support these. It’s great as a first step to understand the solutions, but how can we contribute by supporting to them? I’m thinking about publicising, advocating, lobbying, investing, adopting and who knows what else.
Imagine a better way
I also want to make time to dream big. To imagine some different ways in which the world could evolve. My inspiration for this has been Charles Eisenstein, and particularly his book The More Beautiful World our Hearts know is Possible. So I want to create a space to share dreams and ideas for a more sustainable planet. “Distinction alone has the power of transformation” – by which I’m saying that the simple act of talking about these things increases the possibility that they may happen.
Resources
