It’s so good to welcome Spring – the cheery daffodils, blossom starting to emerge, feeling the warmth of the sun on our faces again.
Welcome to our newsletter, where we summarise news from the first quarter of 2022.
It’s been a busy time for us – as our work building local community resilience grows.
The most recent IPCC report landed late February, and you can find a summary of key points in this newsletter.
And of course, we have all been reminded of our vulnerability seeing the sad and devastating war in the Ukraine.
HEART has hosted several important and fascinating interviews with thought leaders in the field of Climate Adaptation and Resilience. If you missed these live, you can watch the recordings on our YouTube channel.
We also report on the initiative by Climate Emergency UK of scoring Councils on their actions. Check out how well your local Council is doing on both mitigation and adaptation actions.
Finally, we share news about some of our exciting upcoming events – you are warmly welcome to join us for any and all of these!
Latest IPCC Report
The IPCC’s latest report on climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability was published in February 2022
Here are some useful resources:
Five things you should know about the latest IPCC report
Global Center on Adaptation, March 2022
- Climate change is not a future threat, it is happening now. We must act and adapt
- For climate change, the impacts are not borne equally. Africa is especially vulnerable
- We know what we need to do but we aren’t doing it yet – financing for climate adaptation is insufficient
- The smart money is in adaptation. Investing in adaptation is good for our health, the planet and the economy
- Time is running out. To achieve climate resilience, we must work together across societies and between countries
An excellent 15-minute summary from “Just Have a Think”
… and a couple more useful links:
Climate Adaptation and Developing Resilience Discussed in Latest IPCC AR6
Questions to ask yourself about your Climate Adaptation Plans
An excellent 15-minute summary from “Just Have a Think”
HEART’s Recent Events and Conversations
Find these on our YouTube channel.
Michael Dowd 11 February 2022
Michael is a bestselling naturalist eco-theologian, TEDx speaker, and pro-future advocate. His work has been featured in The New York Times, LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsweek, Discover, and on TV throughout the U.S. and Canada. His message centres on accountability to the future and how to stay sane, sober, and inspired to engage in local “Love-in-Action” in the midst of challenging and chaotic times of biospheric and civilizational collapse. His website is www.post-doom.com where you can find more than 75 conversations with thought-leaders sharing their personal journeys and especially the gifts they have found on the other side of the postdoom doorway.
John Doyle 16 February 2022
A charming, funny and very smart Irishman, John Doyle works at the European Commission in Brussels. The conversation encompasses his views about the likelihood of Near-Term Human Extinction, and how to live well now in the awareness of coming collapse.
Franny Armstrong 6 March 2022
Franny Armstrong is the creator of Spanner Films, and a life-long environmentalist and change-maker. She has created many award-winning films and documentaries including The World’s End COP26, The Age of Stupid, Rivercide, McLibel, Pie Net Zero and many others. We explore the importance of getting physically active, what inspires and nourishes Franny, and some of her upcoming projects.
Shaun Chamberlin 11 March 2022
“Unashamedly positive about what kind of a world humanity could create, while unashamedly realistic about how far we are from creating it today.” Now more than ever we need visionaries like Dark Optimism’s Shaun Chamberlin. Author and activist, Shaun is a leading light in the Transition Network and was one of the first Extinction Rebellion arrestees. Watch our enlightening conversation with him, exploring collapse, economics, energy and ecological issues as well as #livingwellnow.
Council League Tables
Climate Emergency UK assessed Council Action Plans according to 28 questions across nine sections, based on an expert-approved checklist. Each council was marked against these criteria and given a right to reply before the scores underwent a final audit. This work was completed between June and December 2021.
Check out how well your local Council is doing here:
Once you’ve seen how your Council compares, perhaps get in touch with them to push for more urgent action?
More Action on Adaptation
What should Councils be doing now? How can we create more resilient communities now across Hertfordshire?
Look out for future events hosted by HEART Community Group to address these issues – combining the recent IPCC report, Council League Tables, and drawing on our report to Hertfordshire Councils.
Upcoming Events
You can find out more about all these events by visiting our website.
Book your FREE places on Evenbrite. Click on the links below, and do share with anyone you know who may benefit from them.
Emotional Resilience Workshops
In person, St Albans.
Saturday 26th March and/or Saturday 30th April. 10.30 am – 1.30 pm
RECONNECT Call
For anyone who has participated in our Introduction session. Zoom call.
Saturday 2 April
Your Emotional Journey through Doom and Beyond!
Introduction to HEART, Adaptation and Local Community Resilience
Zoom webinar.
Tuesday 12 April 7pm – 9pm
A Conversation with Ruth Allen
Zoom conversation.
Climate Emergency Centres #Adapting for an Uncertain Future
Wednesday 13 April 11 am – 12 noon
The Edge Retreat
In person, Hunton Park
1 or 2 free places still remaining
5 – 8 May
A Conversation with Phoebe Tickell
Zoom conversation.
Scientist and Social Entrepreneur. #Adapting for an Uncertain Future
Thursday 12 May 11 am – 12 noon
Rupert Read Event
Save the date!
We’re excited to announce that HEART Community Group will be hosting a public, live event on Saturday 25 June in or around St Albans.
Professor Rupert Read will be the keynote speaker, and there will also be opportunities to network, build relationships and have your say about your priorities in terms of Local Community Resilience and Adaptation.
More details coming soon!
Final Reflections
We end this quarterly newsletter with some reflections from Rupert Read and a couple of short (5 – 7 minutes) clips from our recent conversation with Shaun Chamberlin.
Renewables – Part of the solution, but they won’t save us (7 minutes)
The Story of your Life that you’re proud to tell (5 minutes)
The inconvenient Truth about telling the truth about Climate Breakdown
Rupert Read, Feb 2022
Here are some excerpts:
The inconvenient truth about telling the truth about climate breakdown – ABC Religion & Ethics
“But the greatest obstacle to the truth about climate breakdown being fully told and heard is not denial — it is the fear on the part of many activists that, if we were to tell the whole truth, we lose our audience.
That fear is understandable, but erroneous. In fact, I would argue it is the opposite.
The more we tell the whole truth, the more it will be heard, and the more people will build the psychological resilience needed to handle it; the more we face the climate-reality, the more action there will be, and the less bad the planet will get.
It is at that stage that we will finally enter a virtuous circle of truthfulness and effective action, rather than the current vicious circle in which we are trapped — a circle of insufficient action and lingering self-censorship, of soft-denial, of everyone tip-toeing around and away from the unvarnished truth.
Together, our great power rests not in manipulating others to keep the show of “activism-as-usual” on the road, to keep one’s NGO or movement afloat with a production-line of new recruits. Our great power rests, rather, in telling the uncomfortable truth that we have, all of us, failed — yes, including XR and Greta. XR’s magnificent success in 2019 in changing the conversation around climate has not resulted in its demands being met, and there is no chance now of those demands being met by 2025.
The longer we shy away from facing up to our failure, the more shattering the blow will be when it comes. It is only by facing this shared crisis together that we have any chance of rising to meet the great test of our time.
Telling the truth — and allowing oneself to hear it — can take real courage. Truth-telling is often inconvenient for speaker, hearers, all. But it is too late now to do anything less.
Let’s relinquish half-truths. Let’s have faith in each other — faith that, when we hear the whole truth, authentically spoken, from more and more sectors of society, then at last deeds will start to follow.”
We send love and gratitude to you all for being a part of this journey! Thank you for everything you do!
Kim, Chantal and Kate
