E106 Claire O'Rourke - Together we can... building solidarity in Climate grief

When was your moment of realisation that life, including our own, is finite & that the climate will impact our way of life.  How are you processing this? Claire asks, ‘how are you using your skills, networks & privilege to add your weight to the climate movement & shares the value of processing our individual climate grief & collective efforts. 

• Processing climate grief
•  Catalysing change within your own community
• You can’t work on any part of nature without understanding and working on climate
• Cognitive dissonance of our every day existence
• Becoming clear & present in the reality of what life will be for her later years & her children lives
• Climate grief results in exhaustion, sadness, overwhelm, 
• Its ok to feel frustrated, distressed, anxious - things are NOT normal, we are collectively experiencing trauma 
• There are rising levels of pre traumatic distress due to the climate realities
• It’s emcombant on me as a person in a position of privilege to share my skills and knowledge with those who have less agency
• Coming to terms with the fact that life is finite
• Stepping outside the western paradigm of endless productivity
• Learning from first nations people 
• Using acceptance and commitment therapy as a way to move forward
• Minimising ebbs and flows of grief with the agency that comes from action
• Shunning a Pollyanna view of the world - there’s no hero coming to save us. We all have a role to contribute to our collective efforts and leverage existing relationships
• We can all make a choice about fighting or flighting - being consructuve or active or distructive and dismissive is our choice alone
• Acceptance of the inevitability that fossil fuels are on the way out
• We are in the middle of an epidemic of loneliness - especially 19-25 years olds, this can spiral our community connection and collective
• The value of participating without having to be the expert
• Creating ancestral totems
• Building gratitude practice into your every day via living creatures that connect us all to our ancestors
• The way behaviour change flows through networks via those on the edge of multiple networks - this is often ‘everyday’ folks
• Climate deniers are a very small percentage of Australians
• Reframing success to celebrate the spirit of co-operation
• Showing politicians that we want to be connected and interrelated will be transformational for politicians to see
• Taking kids on this journey
• Go where your interest is strongest and the need is greatest
• We have to enjoy the world we are in otherwise whats the point in fighting for it
• Imperfection is the beauty of human nature and imperfect is most liely to be the journey we go on as we decarbonise
• Action on climete means more of the things we love (like the sun comig up) but less of the things we actually cant maintain (consumables)

References

• Together we can - Claire O'Rourke
• Carol Sandford
• Climateactionstartshere.com
• Australianparentsforclimateaction

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