As the smoke from the fires decimating the entire west coast of the US is stinging my eyes, I am reflecting on 2020. We have learned, at the very least, that we are highly adaptable.
Snow and flooding to start the year? We’ve seen that before, and we can overcome. A global pandemic unfolding, and we need to stay home? Out come the pots and pans, first for cooking more homemade meals, then for banging in appreciation of frontline workers. A global anti-racism movement, after the senseless killing of George Floyd? We’re putting on our masks and standing together, because Black Lives Matter. Easing back into our busy lives, while trying to keep ourselves and others safe from a virus that shows no sign of abating? Hand sanitizer and masks on hand, we socially distance our way through our days, resisting the impulse to shake hands or hug the people we are so happy to see again.
Adaptability is one of our greatest strengths. It is remarkable that we can seemingly continuously reframe our lives to match the circumstance around us.
And at the same time, our adaptability can stop us from acting to prevent the kind of circumstances we’re seeing in this year – a year that is unlike any other.
For decades, climate scientists have presented data and the modeling, urging decision-makers to take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But we have not heeded their warnings, and emissions have steadily climbed, and in the western US today, half a million people are evacuated from their homes and firefighters have to contend with fire tornados, while temperature records break over and over again. How many tipping points have we passed while governments have chosen to prop up the fossil fuel industry with subsidies and tax cuts? Epidemiologists and scientist have also sounded alarms about zoonotic diseases for decades.
COVID-19, SARS, H1NI, Ebola, HIV, and the Spanish Flu are all diseases that originated in animals and transferred to humans – and we don’t want to have to adapt to the next one. We want to prevent it by changing how we interact with the animal world, including recognizing that the industrial model of raising and slaughtering animals for meat contributes to the rise of viruses and bacteria that we may be reckoning with in the next pandemic.
And in our communities, we have to lean in to connection. It’s not enough for us to not be racist – we have to work to be anti-racist. Difference and diversity do not diminish us – they
strengthen us. We’re going to need each other more and more in the years ahead, and if we build the strong social connections in our neighbourhoods and communities today, we will be better prepared for the challenges that we will face in the months and years to come. Lean into empathy, compassion, curiosity, and kindness – these are the essentials for a resiliency.
We have adapted to our altered world, but we can also choose to reshape our future world so that it will be more predictable and more stable than this year has been. Let’s start where we live and each of us make the choice to create an even more deeply connected community.