The last chapter of Saving Ourselves presents three recommendations for how we should focus our collective efforts to get us to the other side of the climate crisis most effectively (check it the book if you’re interested in learning more). The last recommendation is to cultivate resilience:
“Because mitigation efforts have so far failed to stop the climate
crisis, we must all be prepared for what is coming.53 Saving ourselves
requires that we adapt socially and environmentally to a
world of more frequent and more severe climate shocks. Everyone,
not just activists, should be prepared for what is coming so we can create resilience in our communities and in the environments
around them.” (pp 129-130).
For the past few years, I have been studying the ways that federally coordinated service corps programs have been expanding their work to focus specifically on climate change. Many of these programs have now been invited to join the Biden Administration’s American Climate Corps, which is swearing in its first 9,000 members this summer.
We just released our first CECE whitepaper, which presents a framework for understanding how climate corps are actually doing climate work. Here is the diagram from the paper, which presents the 4Rs of Climate Work: Reduction, Resilience, Response, and Recovery.
In the coming year, we will be piloting a curriculum about the 4Rs with service corps members across the US, as well as evaluating the effects of the curriculum, along with and the experience on the individuals participating, the communities in which their serving, and the environmental outcomes of the work. Check out the paper for more details!
Dana R Fisher 