: The Climate Crisis Is a Call to Action. These 5 Steps Helped Me Figure Out How to Be of Use #WorldNEWS At the age of 16, perched on a ridge in western North Carolina, I scrawled these words into a

The Climate Crisis Is a Call to Action. These 5 Steps Helped Me Figure Out How to Be of Use #WorldNEWS
At the age of 16, perched on a ridge in western North Carolina, I scrawled these words into a handbound journal: Want to help the world. Be connected with the Earth. Change the way I live. My mother has always called the Appalachians “wise old mountains,” not as tall or dramatic as their younger brethren out west but sage and powerful. In the presence of these remnants of geologic uplift, now carved up by cold water and swathed with moss, one feels called to deeper truths. I recall a steadiness of hand as I recorded my clarity and commitment in that moment. It has stayed with me for longer than two decades, but like many moments of inward truth telling, it prompted more searching than it supplied answers. But, what can I do? How, where, and with whom?
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Anyone who spends their days working to address the climate crisis, as I do, hears this question again and again: What can I do? On the one hand, the question brings me joy: so many people want to help, to be part of fixing the mess we’re in. On the other hand, I find myself feeling twitchy. That’s because I hear in the question a craving for simple answers to an enormously complex challenge—but even more so because I feel responsible for providing a good answer. Science tells us that wholesale transformation of society is urgent. I want all minds, hearts, and hands to be able to make their best contributions, and I understand the agony that not knowing how can brew.
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There is no simple formula, no fact sheet or checklist, for figuring out our roles in the vital work to forge a just, livable future. But I have found a series of reflections can help us arrive at some clarity and uncover ways to be of use. Rather than stipulating actions that are one-and-done or one-size-fits-all, I’ve found that these five steps are a way to hold the question and work our way into answers.
Feel Your Feelings
There’s no getting around it: the climate crisis brings with it big feelings. If we’re awake to what’s unfolding on this planet, we experience some cocktail of compassion, grief, anger, anxiety, and even depression. Entwined as we are with Earth’s living systems, this makes sense. At the same time, the movements, true leadership, and solutions rising may kindle hope, courage, yearning, zeal. I find that ferocious love—some blend of tenderness and fire—is often the throughline. What emotions does the climate crisis stir up in you? What do you feel is at stake? Why do you feel drawn to be part of Earth’s healing? Journal about it.