Rising to the Challenge of the Sociopolitical-Environmental-Economic Polycrisis

Ed. note: A previous version of this post was published on Miriam’s blog, The Green Spotlight.

Ways to Forge a Path and Meet the Moment

“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.”
– Edward Everett Hale

“Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”
– The Talmud

More people are starting to see and understand the tangled ball of troubles and threats that are being aimed at many of us within the U.S, as well as many others across the world, and our shared air, water, lands, ecosystems, and climate. And as the awareness and the alarm grows, more people are trying to figure out what they can do to reduce some of the harms.

None of us gets to choose the era we live through or to control a whole lot about the world we live in. But we should strive to rise to the challenge of the situation we are confronted with, by doing what we can to make our communities, our country, and our world as livable (and worth living in) as we can. We can strive to be among the many flickering lights that will guide the way through the darkness.

I offer you my wishes of strength, courage, endurance, solace, serenity, and solidarity. And I humbly offer up some specific, practicable ways to cultivate those skills and conditions, presented below in the following sections:

• Self-Care
• Community Care
• City/County/State Actions
• Personal Actions

I have written this from the United States, with the United States in mind, but much of what I’ve included can be applied to other areas of the world or any community facing crises.

Self-Care

We can only help others well when we are feeling fairly strong and stable ourselves. So we need to take care of ourselves—our physical, mental, and emotional health and wellbeing—and recognize that there are times when we need a break from taking in more terrible news or taking care of others or trying to “fix” the world. Our brains and our hearts are not equipped to take in bad news from all over the country and around the world, all day every day. We cannot process all of that information, and we can’t expect ourselves to carry the weight of the world. We can take turns in our efforts; and we should accept and ask for help or support when we need it. We all have our own ways of coping, self-soothing, and caring for ourselves. But we should strive to make our healthier coping mechanisms into habits, so we don’t succumb to the unhealthy ones very often. Here are a few general tips and reminders:

1. Set aside periods of time (ideally at least one day a week, or a portion of every day) when you will not look at media, social media, or emails or expose yourself to the day’s horrors. Try to stay grounded in the Here and Now (the present) whenever you can, rather than letting yourself become overwhelmed by the There and Everywhere and Everyone and the Future, Forever. Build some time into each day when you and your brain can rest and recover.
2. Get enough sleep, every night that you can. We can’t function properly, think straight, or stay healthy without enough deep sleep.
3. Eat nutritious and nourishing foods that will give you energy and help keep your immune system strong.
4. Get some exercise almost every day, even if it’s just some stretching or a short walk around the block (or tending to a garden).
5. Stay connected with good friends. Regularly reach out and make time for friends and supportive family.
6. You could try deep/slow breathing exercises that are proven to help us relax (like cyclic sighing or “bee breath“ or humming or singing), meditation, or other relaxation or mindfulness techniques. Or listen to music or do something creative.
7. Try to get out into natural settings (e.g., parks, forests, waterbody areas, vista points) and spend time with animals. Both of those things can help you regain some perspective.
8. Make time for some humor and comedy, amidst tragedy.
9. Remind yourself to notice and seek out and appreciate beautiful things (large and small), funny things, good moments, good news, good people (helpers), glimmers of compassion or beauty or joy, to counter the ugliness. Share some of these good things with other people (through conversations, posts, photos).
10. If you regularly struggle with overwhelm or grief, despite your best efforts to practice healthy habits like those above, you might want to check out the Good Grief Network’s workshops and resources, or Pema Chodron’s books, or look for (or establish) a Support Group, or find a good therapist. (If the climate crisis is one of the primary drivers of your grief, you might be interested in checking out the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America’s Climate-Aware Therapists Directory.)

We may not be able to stop most or even many of the awful things that are happening or that will happen (and there’s only so much we can do all by ourselves, as individuals). But we can focus on harm reduction strategies, and we can find ways of building our power by working together. While we can try to influence (or delay) what happens at the federal level, for the time being—in the United States, in particular—more victories and successes will probably be achieved at the local/community/city/county and state levels (and we can also press for positive policies at the international level, and in other countries), so focus most of your energy on those efforts. Even if we cannot make the world or our immediate future good, we can do our best to make it less bad, and limit unnecessary suffering as much as possible. Small steps and successes are important and should be celebrated. Even if each of us can only help a few beings and make their lives easier—or save even one being (or wild place)—those efforts will be worthwhile.

Working with other people is rarely easy, but it’s necessary and can be rewarding and effective. We’ll have to summon up as much patience and kindness as we can, and resist falling into permanent despair or fatalism—or the urge to shut down, become cold and unfeeling, or to isolate ourselves from others—as those may feel like the easier paths. We’ll never agree with or relate to everyone else or their tactics or their way of dealing with things. But we have to continuously try to accept our forgivable differences, to not let our egos or pride get in the way of our efforts, and to not turn on (or away from) each other.

We should strive to be of service, and to give what we can. I try to regularly remind myself of this statement by Robin Wall Kimmerer (from her book, Braiding Sweetgrass): “Wealth among traditional people is measured by having enough to give away.” In addition to monetary and material wealth, we should also consider our levels of energy, hope, strength, and resilience as other types of wealth that we should strive to have enough of that we can offer them—”give them away”—to others.

There are many ways—big and small—to make a tangible difference. If you’re looking for suggestions, I offer these:

Community Care

1. Get to know your neighbors, and check in on them or offer to help out if they need anything (especially any neighbors who are disabled, elderly, alone, or vulnerable). Consider inviting a few neighbors over to your house for a gathering. Also periodically reach out to friends, and find out how they’re doing and what they might need.
2. Find and support local groups that help the most vulnerable (e.g., immigrants/refugees, unhoused people, the disabled or elderly, low-income or unemployed people, abused or neglected or foster children, domestic violence survivors, trans and gay people, prisoners and detainees, people with severe mental illness, and animals). For example, you could support local shelters, housing groups, food banks/pantries, and Community Action Agencies. Also search for (or consider starting) a local Mutual Aid group or Rapid Response Network or CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) group. Choose at least one local group to get involved with, through volunteering or donations. (Or choose different groups to support each month or year.)
3. Support (and use) your library, as well as local arts organizations or venues, and community gardens.
4. Patronize/support small, local businesses, worker-owned businesses/cooperatives (coops), local farms/farmers and farmer’s markets.
5. Volunteer at or support the local, state, and national parks in your region.
6. Find (or start) a local climate action group, even if it’s just with a few friends, neighbors, or co-workers.
7. Donate needed/requested items to a local group for the unhoused or the poor. Items that are often needed include clothing (e.g., coats, underwear, warm socks, gloves, hats, scarves, rain/snow pants, other layers, shoes/boots); tents, sleeping bags, blankets, tarps, roller bags, and hygiene items. You could also give money, food, or other items directly to unhoused people.
8. Put some food items in a Little Free Library box (if there’s room). Or build a Free Food Pantry box in your front yard, or suggest that local churches or grocery stores do this.
9. Propose that your political party’s local office (or a specific candidate’s campaign office) be used regularly as a space for local community organizing and mutual aid initiatives that help meet people’s needs (e.g., food donations and distribution, housing assistance, etc.).

City/County/State Actions

1. Tell your state representatives to pass stronger affordable housing regulations, and tell your city and/or county leaders (mayor, city council, county commissioners, officials, developers, and land owners) to build more affordable housing for low-income people, as well as tiny home communities or apartments and/or RV parking areas (with support services) for unhoused people, and more shelters (that are also set up to accept people who have pets).
2. Tell your city, county, and state officials that you do not support the mass deportation or detention of immigrants (particularly those who have no record of violent crime), and you want them to protect and support immigrants in your community in any ways that they can.
3. Support groups that focus on state and local races/elections. There are important state and local elections (including “special elections” to fill vacant seats) every year. State Supreme Court/judicial races, as well as State Attorney General, Secretary of State, and local school board races are especially important, but they are often neglected by funders and voters.
4. Tell your state representatives and Governor to immediately develop and pass Healthcare for All/Universal Healthcare legislation for your state (so far, Oregon’s Healthcare for All plan is the furthest along in the process), and to develop state-based programs that could help shore up residents’ Medicaid and Social Security (retirement and disability) benefits if federal benefits are cut back. Also demand that they pass anti-poverty laws and initiatives, including a much higher minimum wage (a Living Wage), paid sick days, and paid medical/parental/caregiver leave requirements for everyone employed in your state.
5. Tell your state and local representatives to bolster and fund state and local disaster response and relief initiatives, to make up for the shortfall of support from the federal government.
6. Tell your state representatives to protect and conserve your state-owned public lands, and not to allow them to be used/exploited or leased for resource extraction and private profit (logging, mining, grazing, or development). Tell them to designate more land and river/waterbody areas for wilderness/wildlife conservation and state parks.
7. Tell your state representatives to pass legislation that will protect doctors, midwives, nurses, patients, and anyone who assists people who are seeking reproductive health care, miscarriage care, or contraception (including emergency contraception) from federal or out-of-state prosecution. Life-saving medical interventions for pregnant women must always be protected and allowed and never delayed by legal or governmental obstacles.
8. Ask your city, county, or state leaders and policymakers to start a Universal Basic Income (UBI) program. These programs have proven very successful.

Personal Actions

1. Try to set aside more savings for your retirement and emergency/medical expenses, as ACA health insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, and possibly even Social Security benefits could be cut back by the new regime (to pay for their massive tax cuts for the wealthy).
2. If you know someone who has student loans they are struggling to pay down or pay off and you are financially comfortable, you could offer to help them with their payments. Or you could send money to debt relief groups such as the Debt Collective, Undue Medical Debt, and Dollar For.
3. If you have a bank account with one of the large, national banks, one of the best things you can do is to move your money to a local credit union (or a green bank, or a customer-recommended community bank that doesn’t gouge its own members). And if you have any stock-based investment accounts (401Ks, mutual funds, etc.), make sure they aren’t funding evil companies and switch them to socially/environmentally responsible investment accounts.
4. To stop feeding the beast, opt out of buying things from (i.e., giving your money to) predatory, greedy, exploitative corporations (e.g., Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot, Uline, and most other large, multinational companies) whenever possible. Instead, try to support small, local businesses, and B Corps-certified or benefit corporations or worker-owned businesses/coops that are socially and environmentally responsible and good to their employees.
5. Start growing some of your own food (using “cold frames” can help you extend your growing season), and if you grow more than your family can eat, share the bounty. Also buy food from local (preferably organic) farm stands, farmer’s markets, and CSA (community supported agriculture) programs.
6. Support and help fund community solar projects, and tell your state and local representatives and your utilities to build more solar/wind projects and renewable microgrids with battery storage for energy security. If your utility offers a renewable energy program, sign up for it.
7. Subscribe to and share information from media outlets that consistently produce solid, independent, fact-based journalism. (For a list of some media outlets I’d currently recommend, click here.)
8. In addition to local and state and national groups, identify at least one international organization (or an organization based in another country) to donate to. (To see lists of some non-profit organizations, by topic, click here.) Also consider doing more direct giving to people in need, in person or through sites like GiveDirectly, Kiva, and GoFundMe. And consider supporting a disaster relief organization, such as Direct Relief, CORE, Global Giving, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, your regional Red Cross, Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, Team Rubicon, IFAW, or The Climate Mobilization.
9. If you are financially secure, consider using some of your money to donate to Land Trusts (local/regional or international) or re-wilding organizations, or purchase a forest or wildland property (or other undeveloped, non-urban land parcel)—to protect it from development, logging, mining, industrial/Big Ag, or other destructive uses; or purchase disturbed land to remediate it and either re-wild it or create affordable housing on it; or purchase industrial farmland and convert it to organic farming. You can work with a regional Land Trust or conservation group to make sure the land will be permanently protected beyond your lifetime.
10. If you don’t want to have kids, or you don’t want to have more kids, you (if you’re a woman) could get a tubal ligation (or men can get a vasectomy, which is reversible)—or a birth control implant or IUD (which work for many years)—so you won’t be at risk of getting pregnant or at risk of dying due to life-threatening pregnancy complications or a partial miscarriage that might not receive prompt or proper medical treatment. You could also donate to clinics that provide vasectomies and tubal ligation and contraceptives, so they can provide these services to people who cannot afford them. And you could buy contraception (e.g., the over-the-counter O-pill, condoms, or packages of emergency contraception) for anyone who might need them now or in the future. Some states have signaled that they are likely to try to curtail or ban contraception.
11. Implement online/digital privacy and security recommendations, including these and others published by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) or by WIRED. Use the Signal app for private/secure texting (and you can set your messages to disappear after a specified amount of time). Also check out services (e.g. DeleteMe) that get data broker websites to remove your personal information that they’ve posted online, and consider getting identity theft insurance and other security/privacy protections from a service such as Aura. It’s a pain to try to stay on top of online security protocols, but there are so many scammers and hackers out there (as well as surveillance), and our federal government is destroying its consumer protection and cybersecurity apparatus (e.g. the CFPB and CISA), so we’re largely on our own in trying to protect ourselves from spying, scams, fraud, and hacks.

Feel free to add your own suggestions of specific and effective ways that we can face the challenges of our time, reduce harms, and help turn things around.

Other Relevant Posts:

• The Ways Forward: Rising to the Challenge of Our Political Climate
• On Current, Converging Crises
• Organizations for Human Rights, Peace, and Nonviolence
• Climate Actions for All of Us
• Extreme Greed and Wealth Disparity
• Economic Crisis Response and Relief
• Women’s Organizations and Resources
• Excerpts of Wisdom, from Solnit’s Hope in the Dark
• Great Quotations on Action, Social Change, Integrity
• Books and Films