Coordinators & Community

Community Highlights

Jasmine McBride, She/Her

Community Highlight

Introduction 

I was very intentional about the community I sought to interview for this project. The  reason the Community Coordinator position was created was to reach populations that were historically underrepresented in the creation and implementation of climate change policies, and so I made sure that the people I talked to reflected this goal. As a woman of color who grew up in a low-socioeconomic household, I made sure to focus on interviewing similar populations who I know do not get a chance to have their voices and opinions heard to help shape the policies that affect them. My community interviews mainly took place during the Sunrise Project’s Community meals where I was able to talk to members of the community who were housing vulnerable, lower-socioeconomic, people of color, older adults, teens, and parents. In my personal life, I interviewed an older woman of color who was raised by her grandmother and a  young indigenous woman who came and spoke to me twice because she had so much to share  and expressed that no one had ever cared enough to seriously listen to the concerns around the  issues of climate change with the young native population in Lawrence. 

The common themes in the climate stories I engaged in revolved around the concerns  people had about their physical and mental health, the gentrification of Downtown Lawrence, the lack of things to do in Lawrence during the summer and winter seasons, and the fear of the unknown (for current and future generations). 

Physical and Mental Health 

Every person I talked to made at least one comment about how the extreme heat in the  summer and the extreme cold during the winter affected their physical health and mental  wellbeing. Storytellers shared memories of how they used to be able to do more outdoor  activities all year long in Kansas, and now things have become unbearable, and their physical  health does not enable them to be able to be outdoors as much as they used to. Parents shared stories about their children’s asthma getting worse over this past year because of the intense summer heat and one young woman shared with me how, during this past summer, she would see people walking to the Lawrence Pantry on extremely hot days pass out in front of her house.  These experiences were traumatic for both her family and the people suffering from heat exhaustion.  

One powerful story shared regarding how the heat affected their physical and mental health was from a young teen who worked at a local small business over the summer. She loved her job and was dedicated to the mission of the small business, but the company did not have that much money, and as a result could not fix their AC unit. For an entire week, when the heat got too extreme, every employee was throwing up and realized that they were suffering from heat exhaustion. The solution the business chose to solve this issue was sending everyone home until the temperature cooled, because they still did not have the money to fix their AC.  

Gentrification 

Storytellers upset about the gentrification going on in Lawrence all expressed the same  complaints about how making Lawrence less urban and rural has made it unlivable during the  heat and cold. During the summer there is not enough shade or places to sit because the city is  getting rid of trees, and during the winter resources to maintain roads and keep people warm are not distributed equally. One family shared a story about how they made the decision to move out  of Lawrence to Baldwin because they enjoy being outside and missed having an abundance of  trees in their neighborhood to provide shade during the summer.  

The Indigenous woman, who shared multiple stories with me, brought to my attention  how the Haskell Wetlands have been slowly deteriorating, and the animals who inhabited the  Wetlands have been suffering due to the noise pollution from the new developments being built  in West Lawrence. She expressed how even though her community has been trying to talk to the city about this issue–about how the new construction is separating the Baker Wetlands from the Haskell wetlands, causing further harm–she feels like their concerns are unheard and there is no accountability.  

Things To Do 

The parents, young teens, and people who moved to Lawrence from out-of-state all expressed that they wished Lawrence had things to do during the winter and summer seasons. Parents of young children wished that Lawrence had splash parks–like you find in cities on the East Coast–during the summer that they could take their children to so that they could cool off. Parents of teens, and teenagers themselves, wished that during the winter Lawrence offered winter activities like a portable ice-skating rink. People highlighted that in other places around the country where they moved from, that also had extremely hot summers and colder winters, there would be activities provided by the city for them to do, which improved their quality of  life.  

Fear of the Unknown 

The overwhelming anxiety being felt by the storytellers I talked to all revolved around the unknown immediate and long-term effects of climate change. People criticized the City of  Lawrence for the lack of preparedness and planning during the winter, highlighting that the snap freeze last winter which showed them how unprepared the city was at keeping them safe. Grandparents talked to me about the fears they have of the city not acting fast enough to do enough change so that their grandchildren would be able to live a healthy adult life. An older woman of color highlighted that whenever she is moving to a new apartment in Lawrence, she makes sure she is never living on the second floor because the fear of flooding is greater than the toll walking upstairs does on her body and is doubtful that the city would do anything to help mitigate her concerns.  

One woman of color shared how everyday she is nervous leaving the house and making  sure her school-aged children are properly dressed because of how drastic the weather changes  each day. She moved to Lawrence from St. Louis and was upset that Lawrence did not have their  own local news station or radar that she could get daily weather updates from so she could make sure her children with asthma did not end the day wheezing and having difficulty breathing because the temperature from the morning was drastically different from the temperature in the late afternoon.  

Conclusion 

None of the subjects I highlighted were shared with me in a vacuum. Many of the themes  shared overlapped, but the most central theme to every story was the fear of the unknown. While  climate change is causing unprecedented weather-related events, Douglas County community members felt as if the county itself was also one of the main causes of their unknowing regarding  the climate. Reflecting on the conclusion of my role as a Community Coordinator, I feel like the Climate Action Plan project came at the opportune time to start the process of updating policy to mediating the community’s anxieties around climate change.  

Moving forward I think one of the biggest challenges the Douglas County Climate Action  Planning team has is doing justice to the population they sought input from. One of the challenges addressed during our Community Coordinator training was how to not treat the underrepresented individuals we were collecting stories from. We had to be intentional so that storytellers felt like their story was being genuinely heard and not like they were being used. A lot of the people who shared their story were vulnerable and trusted me, and I would like to see that taken seriously by Douglas County decision makers in both the policies they write, the grants they approve, and the way they communicate with their constituents even after this project has concluded.

Billie David, She/Her

Community Highlight

On December 15, 2021, my phone sounded a severe weather alert, and when I turned on my radio to get the latest weather information, I was treated to the surreal experience of hearing, “It’s such lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you” while I listened to find out whether there were any tornadoes in the area. The unusual December weather patterns that triggered flooding in California, record snowfall in Colorado, and hurricane-force winds across the Kansas plains should lay to rest any thoughts of postponing action to deter and mitigate the effects of climate change. It is already here.

I have had the privilege of participating in the Climate Action Plan project in the capacity of a Community Coordinator to gather input from Lawrence citizens concerning their thoughts and ideas on how best to address climate change. As a senior citizen myself, I was especially interested in collecting the thoughts of older Douglas County residents, who have been studying climate change and ways to address and mitigate its effects for decades. Working on this project, I have had the honor of meeting, interviewing, and collaborating with some amazing people, and this has reinforced in me the belief that Douglas County and the City of Lawrence can be proud of their reputation as forward-thinking leaders who meet challenges head-on. That’s what makes me feel so honored to be a part of this community.

I would have liked to have gathered more information on the ways USD 497 is teaching our children about climate change, because so many of the people I talked with said that educating them about how to deal with climate change is essential, but a lack of time and opportunity prevented me from doing much in this area. I have compiled, as a summary, a list of suggestions and recommendations that were recurring themes, including the impact that climate change is having on individuals and the community, ways to combat climate change, and specific things that citizens and the city and county can do to address this.

Impact of Climate Change on Local Citizens

• Concern for friends and relatives living elsewhere (fires, floods, hurricanes, etc.)
• Economic concerns (expenses such as utility bills, health bills, etc.)
• Fewer opportunities to exercise outdoors due to heat, chiggers, tick-borne diseases, heat stroke, lung problems and allergies

Negative Emotional Reactions

• Grief at losing thousands of animal species
• Apathy from trying to address climate change for years without seeing progress
• Stress at contemplating what impact this will have on the younger generations
• Depression because, with COVID, it is harder to get out and do something

Optimism because:

•  We were able to overcome the human-induced droughts and dust storms of the 1930s
•  We have some time to address and mitigate the effects of climate change
• Clean energy is gaining momentum
• Companies are investing more in clean energy
• The younger generation will support climate change mitigation
• Colleges and universities are divesting from fossil fuel interests
• We don’t have the option of giving up 

Evidence of Climate Change

• Extremes of temperatures
• Strange weather events
• Drought
• Deluges
• Stronger, slower-moving hurricanes
• The growing season is already two weeks earlier in the spring and two weeks later in the fall

Collaboration

• Get more people concerned and involved
• Bring in more young people
• Connect people with nature
• Get churches involved
• Communicate openly with the public
• Don’t get stuck on arguing finer points
• Get people with differing views to come together and find solutions
• Change individuals’ way of thinking and doing
• Change our idea of lawn esthetics
• Use sustainable, native plants and pollinator flowers and have less lawn to mow
• Reduce overconsumption
• Increase respect for natural resources
• Examine what we buy for our homes, what we drive, and other economic choices
• Be motivated and organize to motivate others
• Learn to live with less, scale back, bite the bullet
• Conserve energy by using less of it
• Invest in companies that don’t use fossil fuels
• Reduce radical individualism and encourage community
• Rethink what real progress is
• Walk, cycle, ride the bus
• Eat locally grown foods

Educate young people

• Build solar plants and involve high school students
• Work nature preservation into all areas of curriculum, including science, art, math, and technology
• Get kids outside and teach them about nature
• Teach children about plants and how climate change impacts plants, animals, and seasons
• Encourage environmental clubs
• Teach students about solar energy in class
• Provide hands-on experience in shop classes

Food and Agricultural Practices

• Eat locally
• Don’t waste energy trying to support non-native plants
• Create natural habitat buffers instead of cement liners for creeks
• Get rid of invasive species, including honeysuckle
• Focus on land and regional food hubs and eliminate current food distribution practices that rely heavily on fossil fuels
• Plant gardens
• Protect native habitat, prairies, and forests
• Restore green spaces, connect them together, and provide buffers for them
• Change the way we grow commodity foods, the way we use pesticides, herbicides and practices that threaten pollinators
• Restore prairies, with eye on how plants are migrating north following climate patterns
• Encourage the use of native plants
• Plant native grasses and butterfly gardens, and reduce mowing
• Create food hubs made up of local and regional networks
• Practice regenerative agriculture that improves soil, which absorbs CO2, and encourages healthy plant growth that further reduces CO2
• Add green corridors with native plants
• Use chemicals as a last resort

Social Justice

• Provide acceptable housing/shelters for the homeless
• Ensure that all homes have storm shelters
• Provide the means for low-income people to insulate their homes
• Help low-income people with higher utility bills
• Put local people to work weatherizing houses
• Take a closer look at how fossil fuel emissions are located closer to low-income communities and legislate change
• Deal with standing water and the insects it produces

Reducing CO2 Emissions

• Encourage multi-modal transportation, including more mass transit, cycling, and walking
• Include more bus stops and shelters
• Make bike lanes safer
• Increase the use of solar farms and wind farms without disturbing existing green spaces
• Promote bus ridership
• Use electric busses, preferably solar based
• Increase storage capacity of batteries
• Transition away from fossil fuels and increase roof-top solar energy

City/State Planning and Codes

• Eliminate use of plastic bags
• Encourage houses with windows on the south side and thicker walls to insulate
• Encourage people to plant food in their yards and do away with conventional lawns and chemicals
• Make it legal to collect rainwater
• Encourage infill and eliminate sprawl
• Ensure 2040 Comprehensive Plan keeps climate change at top of list of considerations
• Create better building codes and energy-efficient homes
• Use grants to encourage people to be innovative for the benefit of the community
• Plan houses in a way that makes it easy to shut off unused living spaces without breaking water pipes
• Make it easier to have co-op housing, or more than three unrelated people living in one house
• Encourage smaller houses
• Enforce better control of auto emissions
• Don’t build in floodplains
• Consider no-growth policies
• Create water plans to save aquifer, rivers, and lakes
• Use forward thinking to reduce traffic
• Provide for grocery store to serve Downtown, East and Northeast Lawrence
• Create neighborhoods where people can walk to do shopping
• Scatter smaller markets across town instead of big box stores
• Instead of thinking Big is Beautiful, change mindset to Small is Beautiful: smaller homes, less suburban sprawl

Jenna Bellemere, She/Her

Community Highlight

One of the most persistent issues plaguing climate policy in the United States has been its seeming inability to adapt to local and community needs. Throughout the Climate Action Plan project, I spoke to a wide range of community members at KU and in Douglas County writ large. In particular, I spoke to several attendees at the Sunrise Movement community meals hosted near downtown Lawrence. My time in the community revealed two related key themes: firstly, any climate adaptation strategies adopted by the CAP must put community-building and community education at the forefront, with a special focus on bridging “mainstream” climate science with indigenous voices and knowledge. Secondly, the strength of that community spirit, and the input of the community, must be prioritized over other competing interests when developing adaptation strategies.

Some of my most interesting interviews were with people who denied or were skeptical about climate change. These people were often extremely educated and critical about issues outside of climate change: one was a PhD student studying physics at KU. His and others’ ignorance on climate issues is striking but not unexpected; one interviewee said that he felt “overwhelmed” by the conflicting information surrounding climate change, and “didn’t know who to believe.” His confusion reflects a broader issue with climate science: no matter how conclusive the scientific consensus on climate change is, the sheer amount of propaganda polluting the discourse can make it hard for even extremely educated people to sort through it all. The key to fighting back against this misinformation is strong community bonds. People are more likely to believe their friends and neighbors than scientists they have never met, which means the key to fighting climate skepticism is to build strong communities around the issue of climate.

In the same vein, I also spoke to an expert on indigenous and sustainability issues, who asked to remain anonymous. The expert emphasized the importance of community in adapting to climate change. They argued that climate change is analogous to a disaster scenario, and that the most effective disaster responses always center community decision-making and autonomy. This source emphasized the importance of informal meetings where community members can interact, build friendships, and eat together. These meetings absolutely must be accessible to low-income people and people with disabilities. This means offering transportation to people without access to it, and holding meetings at times when people are not working. They stressed that this community-building is especially important as a way to include indigenous voices in conversations about climate change, and bridge whiteness-centering climate science with traditional indigenous knowledge. White climate researchers often exclude indigenous voices from discussions of climate change, an injustice that is particularly galling given the fact that these discussions invariably take place on land that was once owned by those same people’s ancestors. Indigenous philosophy must be an integral part of the climate movement, and policymakers and communities must educate themselves about traditional indigenous philosophy regarding land and the environment.

An example of the importance of indigenous philosophy to the climate movement (insofar as the two can even be separated at all) is the carefully defined relationship between humans and nature present in many indigenous American cultures. The expert argued that, while climate policy often positions the environment as a resource to be exploited, any successful climate strategy must prioritize nature as a partner in the same complicated system to which humans also belong. By following indigenous leadership and viewing nature as a “friend or relative,” they argued, climate policy can avoid the dangerous extractive tendencies that have caused climate change.

The second important theme, which follows from the first, is that the community’s needs are as diverse and varied as the community itself, and adaptation strategies must take into account that diversity. Climate change has put massive financial strain on many community members: Ali Presnell, a financial empowerment specialist at a local charity, said that many of her clients struggle with paying power bills caused by extreme high and low temperatures. Another woman I interviewed talked about extreme weather caused by climate change exacerbating injuries she sustained decades ago in a car accident: “When it’s going to rain, my knees hurt. When it’s going to snow, my ribs hurt,” she said.

Climate change affects the community in myriad ways that are not immediately obvious. Any adaptation plan must take into account and be flexible so that it can help all members of the community, not only those with the most common or easily apparent problems. One example of a less obvious adaptation strategy that must be included in the climate action plan is protection for the Wakarusa wetlands. The wetlands are one of the most important ecosystems in Douglas county, but continued development near the South Lawrence Trafficway has dealt them significant damage. Failure to protect the wetlands will exacerbate other climate issues: as extreme weather events increase due to climate change, the wetlands offer an important place for that extra water to go instead of causing flooding. With the continued expansion of the South Lawrence Trafficway, and more construction in the area, the wetlands continue to shrink. The CAP is incomplete without protections for the Wakarusa wetlands. The anonymous expert I spoke to argued that a climate plan that doesn’t include adaptation strategies amounts to “little more than theatre.”

Ultimately, any climate action plan must reflect the diversity of the community it serves. The CAP should take into account the multivariate ways that climate change affects the community; it can accomplish this by fostering more intra-community discussions and relationship-building. The CAP should also especially focus on equity and inclusion of disadvantaged voices, including indigenous ones, in the conversation.

Kelly Chellberg, She/Her

Community Highlight

I found myself in a situation over the summer of 2021. I had recently changed careers due to the pandemic. As a previous family advocate, I missed the connection with people. I was searching for a part-time job when I found the listing for a Community Coordinator with Sunrise Project and the Climate Action Plan. I knew that climate change was happening, and I too, like so many others, was more focused on the current fire in front of me. As I learned more about the project and climate impacts and listened to stories from residents during my outreach at the Ballard Center and Just Food, I heard clear themes.

Home- and food-vulnerable families were the general demographics for my main focus to include in the project. The common themes from 35 stories collected were extreme weather, increased allergies, and education on solar power. Almost everyone is experiencing increased costs for allergy and asthma medication, higher utility bills, and increased food costs. 

One of the most impactful stories that I heard was from a gentleman who moved to Lawrence a few years ago. Prior to moving to Lawrence, he resided in New Mexico. He told me a story of good times he had with a good career, solar power on his home, and the savings he experienced from decreased energy costs. He told me that he holds this story near and dear to his heart. He described a loss of employment, a need to sell his home, and new buyers with a requirement to remove his solar power. Unfortunately, he lost all of his savings removing all of the equipment, breaking leases, and cancelling agreements. He lost so much money that he is now currently home vulnerable and displaced in Lawrence. 

An increase in extreme weather, and the severity of storms was one of the most common themes. Residents spoke about the rain and flooding in and around town. Some families experienced transportation issues during the extreme highs and lows. And sadly, one family lost their family vehicle due to a wreck in a severe and sudden storm. People, including children, can feel the energy of intense storms–there is a correlation between mental health and extreme weather, especially when families are displaced. 

Another common theme was increased allergies, asthma, and medication costs. I heard stories of increased medication costs, longer and more severe allergies, and allergies not occurring around the same times as they used to. Families need easier access to cheaper, non-addictive allergy medication, better air filters, and asthma inhalers. 

Climate change impacts everyone. Although some families had not noticed any changes at all, perhaps simply starting the conversation might assist in them thinking about climate change the next time it is 72 degrees in December 2021 in Lawrence, Kansas. Residents noticed changes in crops and bird migrations. Residents are also worried about family members along the coasts. In the coming years, there will be a rapidly increasing number of families who are displaced by wildfires, droughts, and floods.

Residents are concerned, and so am I. If there is no beginning, then where would you start? Where do I start?

Mad Marshall, They/He

Community Highlight

As a Community Coordinator for the Climate Action Plan project, I sought to form meaningful connections with folks in the Lawrence-Douglas County community so as to help to record and share their experiences regarding our current climatological moment. As a queer, trans barista, my community hub/demographic was a bit more varied, as along with connecting with other queer people, I have had the opportunity to form connections and recurring relationships with a lot of folks with very different interests and lived experiences; I talked with mushroom foraging enthusiasts, stay at home moms, mail delivery people, indigenous environmentalists, queer motorcyclists, and more. All that to say, from behind an espresso machine I’ve been able to find a way to share warm drinks and meaningful words with lots of folks and delve deeper into folks’ recurring emotions, needs, etc. with regard to climate change. In leading these dialogues and interviews, I found that after forming an initial connection, scheduling a later time to further chat with someone, often with the company of another individual that person is close to, led to the most enlightening and electric of conversations. Along with verbal conversations, I also introduced the opportunity to create collaborative visual representations of the feelings and thoughts folks were experiencing as they reflected on their own emotions and thoughts with regard to climate change. This was something that small group interview settings tended to be more comfortable or open to, and I think it was a very valuable method of expressing the more vulnerable aspects of climate stories in a way that feels more constructive and creative as opposed to overwhelming for everyone involved. 

Feelings that emerged in almost, if not every, interview conducted was one of fear, anxiety, and overwhelm regarding climate change. The topic tended to be met with a reaction of feeling overshadowed by the seemingly unfathomable largeness of the scale and impact of climate change and this was very often paired with a fear or anxiety about not knowing enough about what is happening, why it is happening, and how to go about existing in such a precarious state. For instance, in reference to thinking about how intense thinking about climate change can be, one long-time Lawrence resident said, 

“It feels like doom, and when you think about all of the media and it just kind of continues to push this idea that this is the end of the world, there’s all of these fires happening, good luck. But they don’t really tell you like why did this happen, why are we at this point, how can we change moving forward? They just kind of give you the worst of the information so you as a consumer sit there, and you’re like well what am I supposed to do? So instead you just end up dreading, and being scared, and not wanting to have those conversations because you don’t want to hear that, ‘oh it’s getting worse’ or whatever.”

This feeling was reiterated countless times in my conversations. How we got to this feeling was more varied; for instance, many of the parents I talked to expressed this fear and overwhelm as a result of realizing the future impact this would have on their children and the world they will inherit. For many other folks, it was the realization of a physical discomfort, ailment, illness, etc. being made more prominent because of more drastic weather changes that started the spiral to fear and anxiety. In most every case, some aspect of who they are (whether that be a core identity or the hobby they are passionate about) has been directly impacted by climate change and incited some level of anxiety or fear surrounding our current climate emergency. Those who exist at the intersections of more marginalizations tended to be more hyper-aware/anxious about climate change and, likewise, more activated about action regarding climate change. These feelings of anxiety and fear were also almost always paired with at least an initial feeling of hopelessness or defeat. A recent KU grad and trans woman author in Lawrence, on this subject, noted that, 

“To be honest I also sometimes feel kind of hopeless about our prospects of redirecting the path we seem to be on and trying to create a better future, although I try to not get overwhelmed by that feeling. I just think about how society needs to be radically overhauled and how much resistance there is to that from governments, corporations, etc.–like not to go on a tangent but the whole pandemic has been a pretty glaring example of how people in power respond to crises by just protecting their self interests… and that just makes me think about how the climate crisis will just cause more and more natural disasters and other emergencies, and how marginalized people will suffer the most.”  

Indeed, most folks tended to start off talking about feeling stuck, unsure of what to do, and overwhelmed by the wave of grief that often accompanies facing a future that looks so different from what folks imagined or expected for themselves and those they care about. One single father of three said,  

“I don’t know if I can really boil it down to some words. It’s, it’s..but..it’s — I think it’s essentially just a feeling of that. There’s so many prophecies that are coming true. And it’s like, the perfect, you know, disappointment, sorrow. Like and it’s strange because it’s like we’re there. We haven’t, you know, it’s like we haven’t yet lost the butterfly, the butterflies are still here, but it’s like, you can see things like that on the horizon. I feel like my personal process the past, you know, 2 or 3 years, I kind of disconnected since I kind of came to this point where I was like, really looking at the numbers and seeing, ‘okay what needs to happen’ and then I kind of had this intuition or moment of clarity where I was like ‘oh, it’s not going to happen. we’re not going to hit all these things [e.g.emissions goals].’ I was looking at the models and they have to keep adjusting them. Because then I was like, ‘okay, this is happening.’ yeah, and then I think that kind of the past few years, I’ve just sort of been like, walking around with that, like, and what does it mean to be a human knowing that, like, I’m in the age of the end of our history?”

Despite this feeling of hopelessness, which seems to have in some capacity arisen from the sort of isolation our current socio-political moment has constructed, most everyone I spoke with was excited by and interested in:

1) better, more hands-on education about the ‘how, why, and now what?’ of climate change for children and adults alike,

2) more holistically-accessible and environmentally-aware indoor and outdoor community hubs and infrastructures, and

3) deeper, more meaningful community connection and support networks. 

Across the board folks talked about wishing there were more opportunities for real-life and hands-on education surrounding climate change and alternate ways of living, specifically emphasizing that there not be cost or other access barriers that make these resources feel exclusive in any way. Likewise, parents and nonparents alike spoke of wanting a similar educational revamp in the K-12 system regarding climate, environment, land rights, and the history of how we got to this current moment. Parents talked about this in regard to current children and the sorts of real-life learning they wanted to see: one mother of two said,

“I would love, love, love, love to plant a flower garden and an herb garden. I also love to cook a lot with [my eldest daughter]. And also herbs are expensive. I’m like, ‘Oh, if I just had some cilantro, or oh, I just had some dill.’ I would love to do that. And teach that to them. I remember my mom and dad were good parents, but they were just like, not very present. But my grandmother would teach me everything. Like she would just teach me how to do things and like, sit down with me, and show me and I want to pass that on to my children because like, I saw the way something is reproduced. It’s like if you actually teach them and do it with them. So I would love to learn how to plant an herb garden and upkeep it and then teach them to do it because then it’s something we can do together.”  

Others reflected back on their own educational experiences and the sorts of information they did and didn’t learn and/or retain, along with the sorts of important re-education that is necessary for everyone. For instance, one recent Haskell graduate and environmental scholar here in Lawrence said: 

“I think that as a indigenous person, myself – I come from the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma. I belong to the Tusekia Harjo band and Hvlpvtvlke or alligator clan. So as we walk together on this Turtle Island, we all play a part and we all have a job to do. I totally believe that everyone has a purpose. And it’s not to destroy our home or mother. So I think that all things are connected, I think when colonization and assimilation came into a role for indigenous community we didn’t really get the choice to us as individuals or people. So that really hinders our specific ways of life, and how we can actually incorporate ourselves into our environment. So I think that the challenging part of this is that a lot of our life ways have been stripped. …. And I think that ties into how we incorporate our environment. So I think what I’m really trying to say is that this place, this Turtle Island, this Mother Earth, this home is incorporated with all living things, and all those pieces have spirit, all those things have life and deserve to be recognized for who they are, and their role in this world. So when we are diminishing those or silencing those voices, that really doesn’t help anyone out in the end. I think being mindful of where you are, I think plays a really tremendous role in implementing change or action. Knowing your place and a sense of place, I mean, look at here in Kansas…if you were to go up to somebody and say, ‘hey who’s federally recognized within Kansas, or the tribes that live here now,’ you know, half those people probably wouldn’t even know, right? Probably way more than half. And I think, knowing who lies here, and who walked this space, and this land before is very important in enabling change, and positive action. So I think that’s the first point, having the respect to know what your surroundings are. And being mindful of those people that were and are here.” 

In all there is a case to be made for the development of educational resources and opportunities that uplift the indigenous people who live here, as well as redistributing wealth and land back to indigenous communities for the betterment of the relationship to the land. Likewise, education on the native ecology of our location and how to exist, grow, and develop new modes of being with our environment instead of acting upon it. In line with this, folks also expressed interest in an increased investment in spaces that foster this sort of ‘play, learn, experience’ mode of learning about and addressing larger climate change impacts. Folks talked about ensuring spaces were free, accessible, and comfortable even in more strenuous weather situations (e.g. shade, cooling, water for extreme heat), interactive pollinator and native flora gardens, community gardens, and other modes of growing and community development. This leans into the final theme that came up in many of the conversations I had about climate change – a need for deeper community and support structures for all aspects of people’s wellbeing with specific care to the new sorts of experiences of this precarious climate moment. Folks feel isolated, hopeless, and fearful because they aren’t given the time or space to invest in community connection, care and relation. Developing support groups (with access to financial resources as well) to deal with climate grief, to support physical and emotional needs, as well as educate on climate change, etc. seem to be an impactful part of an approach to facing and working in accordance with the stressors being put on the world at large (especially those most marginalized folks) as a result of climate change as it continues to emerge and progress.