Climate Connections: Our resolve at Climate Smart Missoula

Amy Cilimburg and Abby Huseth

We’re all processing what just happened on November 5. We at Climate Smart Missoula are grieving, worried, and confused. Like many of you, we are holding a lot, and it is hard – so we offer hugs, let the tears flow, and resolve to keep the essential work going.

We know that every tenth of a degree of warming matters, and we have no intention of sitting out for four years. With you, our community, we remain resolved to build and accelerate climate solutions for Missoula and beyond. That’s our mission. We know that clean energy is actually super popular and polluted air is not. And that air pollution and climate-fueled storms are not partisan. We also know that there’s so much we can do here, in the weeks and months ahead, if we join together.

So, as we mourn, we plan upcoming activities, be it showcasing how to Electrify your home, hosting a “how to prune a tree” event, helping you go solar, writing grants for “resiliency hubs” or a healthier urban forest, or scheming for ways to celebrate this beautiful place we are lucky to call home.

It is helpful that this climate emergency is not binary – it is not broken or fixed. We will fix what we can. We will continue the work. What’s clear now is that state and local jurisdictions will be, once again, the most promising places for climate action. We will make progress with you. For our children and all the critters and life support systems on this, our favorite planet.

And we are lucky enough to have good guidance from others who woke up to the same morning we did, from brilliant and never-giving-up leaders the world over. For today, as the sun shines bright, let’s go with this from our friend Bill McKibben:

And in that sunrise there is for me the hint of where that next huge realigning New Deal-sized thing will come from. The reshaping of our energy system—to cope with climate change, and to reflect the rock-solid fact that we live on an earth where the cheapest way to make power is to point a sheet of glass at the sun—may offer, if we are clever and good-hearted, a new basis on which to remake the world.

And from the ever-wise Rebecca Solnit:

They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving. You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is. The pain you feel is because of what you love.

Let us stay good-hearted, find our role, stay in community, keep embracing the beauty of our natural world and keep those fossil fuels in the ground. And let’s connect and build solidarity with others who are here in our community and may fear personally for their lives, their livelihoods, and the people they love.

Climate action includes climate justice, and we must stand together and protect those who face the greatest threats under the incoming administration. Cross-movement solidarity is needed, and the smart folks at Evergreen Action have ideas to get us started, including priorities for the next 90 days.

There’s more, of course. And it’s about trust. For our community, state, and country to thrive, we must trust ourselves, seek out others we trust, and find ways to shine a light on what we know is true. Belittling or ignoring scientists and their expertise or promoting disinformation is what authoritarians do. The risks of continued climate pollution are, universally, settled science. 

The IPCC has all 195 signatory countries in agreement that we are overheating our atmosphere and oceans, and carbon pollution is causing havoc. We can now attribute many current weather events to climate pollution. We will need to challenge lies to the contrary.

No, we don’t need to argue with every climate denier, but when our elected officials spew disinformation, we need to challenge them. Shining lights on the facts of our climate reality is essential and valuable. Just look at Washington state where residents overwhelmingly, from red and blue districts, voted to keep their 2021 Climate Commitment Act in place.

And we can’t forget another essential truth: we actually have most of the solutions we need to change the climate trajectory. We have to keep telling stories that illuminate these solutions and how they actually improve our lives. After all, solar is clean and cheap. An electrified, efficient home is more comfortable and healthier. Bikes are fun, and neighborhoods with plenty of trees are cooler and residents have better mental health.

Finally, this twice monthly column is titled “Climate Connections”, and it seems fitting today to say that what we most need today, in this climate of polarization, is strengthened connections, to our neighbors, our lands, our civic institutions, or even the flocks of chickadees and nuthatches connecting us to nature.

Seeking connection is a way of acting out of love, instead of fear. We are stronger connected together. We can’t predict the future, but whatever it holds, we know that acting out of love and drawing on our interconnectedness is the only way forward.

Amy Cilimburg is the Executive Director and Abby Huseth is the Deputy Director at Climate Smart Missoula. Climate Smart Missoula brings this Climate Connections column to you twice per month. Learn more about our work, support our efforts, and sign up for our e-newsletter at missoulaclimate.org.