Climate change is going to affect life on earth in ways we can’t even begin to understand yet, but the first impact is the one we’re seeing: extreme weather events. Hurricane Sandy last year, Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda this year, the ice storm that just hit the east coast of the US, famine in Somalia – that’s what climate change looks like. Colder, hotter, wetter, drier, at unpredictable times and place we don’t expect. A series of disasters, predictably unpredictable.
And it means we, in the wealthy world, are going to have to choose.
We can batten down our own personal hatches and ignore everyone else. If the world is less secure and the weather is terrifying, perhaps we need to save every penny for our own personal disaster response. Maybe we need to have, hold, and hoard just to protect ourselves. Maybe our governments will have to hoard too – climate change hits economies hard, and foreign aid budgets are often victims.
Over time, if we do that, the poor countries being hit hardest by climate change will get poorer and poorer. People are brave and they’re resilient, and they can rebuild even without help – but how many times? We end up with an international system in which wealthy countries manage to maintain status quo and poor countries slide backwards in fits and starts.
Or we can choose generosity. We can give more than we did before. We can keep sharing our resources and help everyone maintain status quo. We can support resilience, and provide the helping hand that people need when their home has been washed away. We can give as individuals and as governments to prepare for and ameliorate the impacts of climate disasters.
Normally I’d segue here into a discussion of interconnection. Helping poor countries does, in fact, help everyone, and no rich country can isolate itself from the pain of others. Not to mention that surviving and slowing climate change is going to require government-level commitments, not just individual giving.
I’m American, though, so it’s Thanksgiving for me. I’m going to take another direction. I’m going to talk about gratitude.
Individual giving is important to climate change resilience – government approaches alone can’t do it. I am a middle class professional in a two-income family. I am profoundly blessed. I have the resources to give to others without putting myself at risk. I am thankful for this. I am thankful that I am rich enough to be able to help others in a meaningful way – I am thankful for every charitable donation I’m able to give.
Every time I support typhoon relief, or flood response, or earthquake rebuilding, I am investing in the world my children have to inhabit. And I am thankful I can do my part. Climate change is an ugly picture, but we decide how ugly. I am grateful I have the resources to help.