When it comes to climate change, most of us have finally worked our way through the five stages of grief.
Some lunkheads are still stuck on denial but the onslaught of global weather disasters such as Hurricane Helene means the bulk of humanity has zipped through anger, bargaining and depression and is starting to deal with acceptance.
I don’t mean acceptance as in “give up, there’s nothing we can do” but acceptance as in “it’s here and growing so we need to figure out how to cope.”
“It has gone from being a thing that was discussed in an academic, future-oriented way – people talking about what would happen, could happen – to something that is very much affecting people’s lives in the here and now, and not just in far-flung places,” said Emmett FitzGerald.
FitzGerald knows whereof he speaks. He grew up in Montpelier, Vermont’s lovely capital that was touted as one of the places that would avoid climate disaster until apocalyptic flooding swept through Vermont and northern New Hampshire not once or twice but three times – so far.
FitzGerald made that disaster the starting point of an excellent six-part series called “Not Built for This” in the long-running podcast “99 Percent Invisible,” where he is a staff reporter. You should definitely give it a listen because it’s a great example of where we need to be in our climate discussion.
There’s little need, I think, for more reports about how climate will kill the ski industry and allow nasty ticks to move north. We’ve accepted that. Our focus should shift to the changes we need to make in the way we live, including what we build or don’t build and where we do it, if we want to exist in this fast-changing environment.
“Not Built for This” does that. It examines physical changes such as those being made in Phoenix, Arizona, where temperatures are so hot so often that they’re killing the saguro cactus, the symbol of life in the desert. It looks at financial changes, such as the way climate disasters are knee-capping the insurance industry (something I’ve written about as well). And it looks at how climate change is changing the calculus of deciding where we want to live.
All these stories, FitzGerald says, surprised him in one way.
“I had spent so much time thinking about it on its own,” said FitzGerald, who at age 36 has seen climate change be a story his entire career. “Climate change has been made a single issue, but it’s really a layer that’s super-charging all these other issues. … That was the real shift that happened for me. I had spent so much time thinking about it on its own, but it’s not an isolated issue – it’s affecting everything.
“We can’t think of climate change as a problem to be solved separate from all the other problems that we’re facing.”
What this means for you and me is that we need to remember that past isn’t prologue when making all kinds of decisions, not just weather-related ones.
The fact that the French drain I installed 15 years ago has kept my basement dry doesn’t mean it will work if we start getting a month’s rain in a day, so I’ll raise the water heater off the floor.
The fact that big wildfires haven’t hit my town doesn’t mean we shouldn’t prepare for when they do, supporting expenditures on fire equipment and training, and re-examining such things as where to put outdoor propane tanks.
The fact that it’s been more than a decade since I’ve lost power for any length of time didn’t keep me from getting a connection for a generator installed when I put up solar panels. (Batteries instead of a generator would be even better. Some day.)
The fact that 36-inch culverts have always worked fine under local roads doesn’t mean I should vote against money to install bigger ones or small bridges when that comes up at town meeting.
And so on, including big questions like how to change zoning so people don’t build houses in places where they’re increasingly likely to be damaged, and what research is needed to figure out where those dangerous places are.
FitzGerald says more people are realizing that we need to face these tough questions, despite denial from the lunkheads.
“I think we’re in a moment where the hypothetical is becoming real, and a lot of those investments that we need to be making, the need for them is becoming more and more obvious,” said FitzGerald. “If your town is close to a river but hasn’t had a storm yet to cause a serious flood, it is now easier for people to imagine that happening … because they’ve seen it (nearby).”
And despite the background of death and destruction, he says his reporting left room for optimism.
“I’m struck by the resilience of individual people and the collective response after disasters. That is always inspiring,” he said. “If we can find ways to channel that into more long-term change … there’s hope.”
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