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01/06/2023 Witnessing climate change in our own lives

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Climate conversations 01 06 2023Download

Notes from our conversation

Have you seen signs of climate change happening in your own life?

Changes to the weather

  • Heatwaves
  • Mersey flooding + Salford
  • Burn damage to “Butterfly” bush
  • Monsoon type rain
  • Local weather has changed
    • more heavy weather
    • heavy rain

Changes to the seasons

  • Dry springs (the season, not the water)
  • Stream at bottom of mum’s house drying up more
  • (Hardly any) no snowy days/less frosts. Sick of weather forecasters/normal people saying “Oh great, it’s going to be warm”
  • Cool, wet summers. 2019, 2020, 2021. Gulf Stream shifting???
  • The seasons have changed. Plants are all over the place- I mean blossoming again in autumn, not dropping leaves.
  • Feb 2020 – uncanny warmth/early birdsong/buds. Unnatural.

Changes in plants and animals

  • The dead clematis in the back alley. Probably not because of climate change but the dead branches look so sad.
  • Starlings. There are not as many around as I remember when I was younger.
  • Fewer squashed bugs on car window
  • Insect declining
  • Parakeets. There are more around than ever. A sign that the warmer winters aren’t killing them off.
  • Not everyone sees climate change through a connection to nature.

Social and cultural changes

  • Popping up in conversations more. That is, climate change
  • Food availability. There has been shortages of fruit and veg. in the U.K. supermarkets

Extreme weather events and disasters

  • Seeing “natural” disasters in the U.K. on the news – annual now.
  • Smell of wild fire on Saddleworth Moor. 2018. Could be smelt in Manchester
  • Food shortages – not important in context, but new.

Awareness of changes in other parts of the world

  • Mostly not obvious locally. Most of the changes due to climate chaos are seen in other parts of the world
  • Article in “The Guardian” about encouraging parents to learn from hotter countries about how to make sure your child gets outside as the years get hotter. The casual way this is now accepted in the press.
  • Reports from friends abroad. A friend is Greece is saying the weather is unseasonably cold and wet. In fact the weather is better here in the U.K.
  • 40 °C heat!

Emotional engagement with the climate crisis

One of the three dimensions of coping wiht the climate crisis is emotional engagement. This means giving yourself a little time to stop, and allow yourself to feel what you feel. We took a little time to do this as a group. We took turns to share a story of being aware of the climate crisis and how that made us feel. The rest of listened without interrupting or responding so that we all got the chance to speak and be listened to.

The process of eco-anxiety and ecological grief by Dr Panu Pihkala

We took a look at the diagram by Dr Panu Pihkala that hows the genral process of eco-anxiety and ecological grief. It shows the different phases that people generally experience. The centre phase is that of coping and changing in response to the climate crisis. There are three main areas which we need to engage with to cope succesfully. These are ecological action, emotional angagement and distancing. There are overlaps and fuzzy boundaries betwen these categories. For example engaging in action will probably evoke some emotions. We use this diagram as a kind of map. It helps make the whole complicated, difficult situation of living in the climate crisis feel a little easier to handle.

You can read more about the diagram and how we use it in the group on our Resources page, and in this post 06/04/2023 How to picture the process of coping and changing in response to the climate crisis

References

Lorig, Kate. Self-Management of Long-Term Health Conditions: A Handbook for People with Chronic Disease. Third edition. Boulder, Colorado: Bull Publishing Company, 2014. Borrow from Manchester Libraries

Pihkala, Panu. “The Process of Eco-Anxiety and Ecological Grief: A Narrative Review and a New Proposal.” Sustainability 14, no. 24 (January 2022): 16628. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142416628.

Side by Side Research Consortium. “Developing Peer Support in the Community: A Toolkit.” Mind, 2017. https://www.mind.org.uk/media-a/4834/peer-support-toolkit-final.pdf.

Wray, Britt. “How to Take Breaks from the Climate Crisis without Living in Denial.” Substack newsletter. Gen Dread (blog), January 25, 2023. https://gendread.substack.com/p/how-to-take-breaks-from-the-climate.

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