Building Community Wellness and Resilience for the Climate Crisis
Tuesday, September 13, 2022 | Virtual | 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET
Few people grasp this yet, but humanity is in the midst of a civilization-altering event. Accelerating global temperatures are producing cascading disruptions to the ecological, economic, and social systems people rely on for basic needs, mixed with more frequent, extreme, and prolonged disasters. Society is unprepared for the suffering speeding our way. If we remain so, the result will be individual, community, and societal traumas far beyond anything modern society has ever experienced. The traumas will threaten everyone’s mental and physical health, safety, and security. They will also make it even more difficult to reduce the climate crisis to manageable levels.
Systemic thinking and holistic approaches are needed to address the scale and scope of the traumas racing our way. This involves a public health approach to enhancing and sustaining mental health and psychosocial wellbeing.
Accordingly, wide and diverse coalitions of local residents, groups, and organizations must come together in communities to plan, implement, and continually improve culturally accountable strategies that help all adults and youth enhance their capacity for mental wellness and resilience during persistent adversities. Actions to slash local greenhouse gas emissions, regenerate ecological systems, and adapt to climate impacts should be integrated into the community initiatives.
If whole-community initiatives are launched throughout industrial nations, the indomitable human capacity for mental wellness and resilience can be activated, the climate crisis can, over time, be reduced to manageable levels, and people will regain healthy hope for the future.
The Sept. 13 webinar will describe the urgent need to use a public health approach in communities to build population-level mental wellness and resilience for the climate crisis, as well as the goals and methods of the ITRC Community of Practice.