Climate grief hits home
A chat with Emily Cumming at Conservation Corps Newfoundland and Labrador
The climate crisis is here, and so is climate grief. While it’s important to acknowledge the severity of the crisis and allow yourself to grieve, it’s also important to remember that actions matter. Hope and inspiration abound.
People like Emily Cumming, conservation manager at Conservation Corps Newfoundland and Labrador, are doing impactful work to grow grassroots movements in various communities across the province and lead the way toward a more sustainable future.
I caught up with Cumming to discuss the climate crisis, climate grief, and what she’s doing about it.
Q: How do you define climate grief?
A: The definition of climate grief is individual at various community levels. While climate change is impacting and will impact all of us, it doesn’t impact us uniformly, so our emotional response is similarly unique to our circumstances, outlook and demography.
For example, there are geographical influences on how we are experiencing climate change.
The province’s Indigenous communities in Northern Labrador are experiencing the most dramatic real-time changes, such as loss of sea ice and permafrost, increased air and water temperatures and the interconnected knock-on effects to traditional practices on the land, whereas so many of our coastal communities throughout the province are contending with the likelihood of increased frequency and severity of storms, sea level rise and associated impacts to coastal infrastructure and ways of life.
Similarly, there is an intergenerational component. A senior who has lived in the same community for their entire life has likely witnessed a dramatic change to the familiar landscapes and rhythmic shift of seasons in their lifetime, whereas younger generations in that same community are growing up with an increased awareness of the fragility of our natural and human systems and looking towards a future that is environmentally, socially and economically uncertain.
In both examples, there is a whole spectrum of emotions that fall somewhere between the sense of bereavement that comes with the tangible loss of what was and the sense of injustice and anxiety that comes with an uncertain, intangible future, a preemptive grief for what could have been.
Q: How do you feel when you think about climate change?
A: As a part of our work as an organization, we think about climate change every day and talk about it with people of all ages with widely varying degrees of familiarity with the technical and social considerations of climate change.
Over the years working in this field, I have learned that my personal emotional response to this global crisis is cyclical, for better and for worse.
On any given day of the week, I cycle through a sort of numb, detached paralysis at the thought of what could happen, and frustration with current systems that bolster inequality and injustice and stifle the sincere effort of so many people who are trying to help one another.
But in between those more pessimistic or nihilistic days, I also experience a profound sense of purpose and connectedness with the people in my community. Every day I am fortunate to meet and work with so many people who have a deep love for nature and for the people of our province.
These people have faced hard times and accomplished hard things before. They know how to effect change and do so with compassion and a deep sense of humour.
I think the net outcome of this cyclical emotional process is a sort of informed optimism. An essential part of work in the environmental field, and as a part of our ongoing collective efforts towards Truth and Reconciliation, is to listen to the wisdom of Indigenous leaders in this province, whose peoples have lovingly stewarded the land for millennia and who have contended with repeated cycles of what we now call ecological grief spanning centuries.
In listening and learning, I was introduced to the Mi’kmaq concept of Two-eyed Seeing.
While I should be neither the first nor the last word on this concept, it has truly helped me frame my thoughts on our collective emotional response to rapid social and ecological change. In “seeing with both eyes,” I can observe the extent to which our current systems are failing us, while simultaneously perceiving all the good we do for one another.
Q: What are some major challenges we face due to climate change?
A: Given Newfoundland and Labrador’s unique geography, demography and economy, some of the major impacts we face are the loss of sea ice and permafrost, sea level rise, increased frequency and severity of storms, coastal erosion, changing species dynamics and the resulting social health impacts. In particular, food, housing and energy insecurity.
The prevailing challenge associated with these impacts is the interconnectedness of our human and natural systems. A change in one ecosystem or sector ripples outward in all directions. Again, employing Two-eyed Seeing, this interconnectedness is both the challenge and the solution. Just as climate impacts have spiralling and unforeseen outcomes, so do our efforts to support one another, to pay attention to those that need the most support and to enhance community resilience.
Q: What is Conservation Corps Newfoundland and Labrador doing to tackle climate change?
A: Conservation Corps Newfoundland and Labrador (CCNL) is a provincial, charitable organization dedicated to providing meaningful employment and training opportunities for youth, offering dynamic climate education to audiences of all ages and working alongside communities to contribute to environmental and cultural sustainability.
Across Newfoundland and Labrador, we work with local partners to invest in projects that support sustainable development, sound conservation initiatives and climate resilience.
Since 1992, CCNL has employed and offered training to more than 3,200 extraordinary youth, supported nearly 700 projects and partnered with countless community groups and other stakeholders.
In 2002, CCNL created the Climate Change Education Centre, offering a suite of training and climate action resources as people of all ages learn about and integrate climate mitigation and adaptation into their daily lives.
Our education team reaches more than 15,000 people each year and has the privilege of engaging in meaningful dialogue with youth, educators, community leaders and people from all walks of life, all of whom help CCNL to better understand the needs and priorities of those who call this place home.
Each year, CCNL has the privilege of developing, implementing, and evaluating conservation projects designed to support resilient communities and improve the ecological well-being of Newfoundland and Labrador.
In recent years, these projects have included themes such as watershed conservation, municipal climate vulnerability assessments, well and drinking water research, water conservation and much more.