New Year, New Climate Resolutions

Posted on February 3, 2021 by Mass Audubon
Photo © Andrew Weber

2020 was a tough year. It would be easy to simply bury our heads in the sand and ignore the climate crisis, but nature needs us now more than ever before. And what’s more, we need nature too.

As 2021 begins, we can all make some resolutions that will help us feel better while also helping the world we all share. Consider resolving to contend with the anxiety that comes with our global climate crisis.

Serious concern about climate change has been called “climate grief,” defined as a psychological response to loss caused by the environmental destruction of climate change. And we all have plenty of it. We see, often daily, how climate change is playing out in extreme weather events, coastal flooding, and impacts on the health and safety of our communities.

It turns out that taking actions to learn about and help address climate change is not just good for the planet, but also for our mental health.  According to therapists, climate grief can be addressed by:

  • Staying informed
  • Connecting with others who are also concerned
  • Maintaining our relationship with nature
  • And engaging with meaningful climate solutions in ways that are relevant and applicable to us.

For this new year, you can make several resolutions to help the planet, that, in turn, will help you deal with any climate grief you face.

Be informed.

Read more information from reliable and trustworthy sources about local and national climate actions, regulations, incentive programs, and solutions. Digest and reflect on essays and articles from environmental organizations and advocacy groups.

Share and engage with others.

Initiate conversations with neighbors, extended family, and people in your community, about local and global climate threats and solutions. Attend library programs, climate cafés, and public information meetings held by local, state and federal elected officials. Participating in talks, meetings, and conversations will help you feel part of a collective of concerned, committed individuals who are learning together, sharing, and engaging in solutions. Being part of a solutions-oriented climate community can keep you feeling supported and energized when you need it most.

Connect to nature for health and motivation.  

Get outdoors and experience nature in your neighborhood or visit nearby trails every week. These daily connections with local nature will help you stay physically and emotionally healthy, connecting you to the Earth, which needs your help.

Act on climate.

Acting on the climate crisis helps address climate grief. This year, commit to climate action above and beyond what you already do. Start with individual solutions, like increasing how many plant-based meals you eat, and grow to community solutions, like participating in community composting programs or using your voice to support critical climate legislation. Actively engage with more local land protection and clean energy efforts by donating or volunteering. Use your power as a consumer, a voter, and community member, to push for local and global climate solutions.

We all have the power to make a difference, at or near home, in our collective climate fight. With the hope and promise of a new year in front of us, we can address our climate grief by seeking ways to act on the climate crisis. It’s one of the healthiest resolutions we can make.

– Lucy Gertz, Adult Programs Education Manager

My past is my prologue

Posted on January 27, 2021 by Rishya N.

The first time I saw myself as a scientist was at a very young age, inspired by scouting. My two favorite merit badges were Nature and Environmental Science – but earning them took effort and time. I had to pick three different environments and observe patterns in them.

I vividly remember taking my bike out every day to our local salt marsh, each time with a growing curiosity. What would I hear? What new discovery would I make? Scouting taught me that if I take the time to look in nature, I will certainly discover something new.

Tom Eid, Climate Champion.

My childhood experiences come full circle.

While my scouting days are over, the lessons I’ve learned still ring true today: that as a community, we must look to the patterns in nature to understand what is happening to it.

Right now, that means grasping how nature is changing in order to adapt to our changing climate.

I’m Tom Eid and I’m a Climate Champion.

I act on climate by helping increase our collective, scientific understanding of how nature fares in the face of rising seas, warming temperatures, and shifting seasons through community science.

Community science is public participation in scientific research and decision making. It has provided me opportunities to collaborate with experts and help protect the environment. It is science by people to benefit nature.

What I did as a scout was science. The activities I completed were part of the practice of phenological monitoring: the observation of long-term patterns in wildlife behavior to understand nature and its adaptation to environmental threats. Many years later, I still use phenological monitoring to better comprehend how wildlife behavior is affected by the threat of climate change.

A return to the salt marsh

From July through September 2020, I worked with Mass Audubon on its Coastal Salt Marsh Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment project.

There was a beautiful nostalgia in the field at Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary that reminded me of my time scouting. What struck me is that the smell of a salt marsh is the same – no matter where you go or how many years have passed. There’ll always the gentle bending and bowing of salt marsh grasses as the wind blows through. The feeling of the soft, cushion-like peat underneath me. The calls of birds whistling through the air matched with the slight touch of sea salt in the marsh breeze.

While my monitoring as a scout merited me with a badge, these assessments gave me a pathway for climate action. I helped observe nature’s cues, noting shifts in things like where certain marsh plants grow, to inform adaptation strategies that preserve and enhance this critical habitat for people and wildlife. 

The scientist in you

Climate change is our reality: it affects us here and now. We are all responsible for making a difference.

What can you do to act on climate change to ensure a sustainable future for the world around us? Get outside and into nature! Community science can be that opportunity to engage, here’s how to start:

  1. Pursue your passion. What do you love about the environment?
  2. Leverage your skills: What do you bring to the table? How can you engage and educate others about new scientific findings?
  3. Embrace your sector: What type of work do you want to do? Visit Mass Audubon’s website for some ideas.

Together, lets commit to protecting nature. Let’s learn from nature’s patterns and cues, teach each other, and enable current and future generations to act on climate through science.

– Tom Eid, Mass Audubon Community Science Volunteer