No one wants it to be true.
The failures of our leaders have left each of us responsible for finding our own way through climate chaos and discontinuity.
Reminder: This year's last Crash Course in Personal Ruggedization begins this week!
Dates: Thursdays, October 17, 24, 31; Nov 7, 14 and 21
Time: 11:00am - 1:00pm Pacific Standard Time (PST)
Registration closes at midnight Pacific, this Tuesday, the 15th of October.
At some point, all these alarms should’ve woken us.
When the alarms first went off, in the 1970s and 80s, we should have thrown ourselves into building a world that could thrive within planetary limits — slashing pollution and preserving healthy ecosystems — thus heading off the planetary crisis while it was still possible to do so.
Failing that, we should’ve accelerated climate action and sustainability at breakneck speeds, disrupting polluting industries and wasteful lifestyles, but limiting the crisis enough that — with serious climate adaptation and design innovation — we could have preserved a fundamental level of stability amidst massive changes.
Having let the opportunity for an orderly transition pass us by, we should, right now, be spinning up enormous mobilizations to prepare people around the world for fast-worsening chaos. We should be cutting emissions as fast as possible, sure, but also helping tens of millions of people with supported relocation, building millions of homes in safer places, ruggedizing communities, and hardening critical infrastructure.
Climate response should now be the central organizing principle of our society.
Is that what you see happening around you? Me either.
None of us wants to admit it, but these failures mean that each of us now has the responsibility of finding our own paths through a vast crisis. Because we failed to come together as a society and face these realities together, we’re now all forced to face them alone.
There was a time when it was comfortable to believe that this crisis was something that would happen to future generations, in other places, and somebody else would come up with some plan to deal with it. That time of cozy procrastination is done. Climate chaos is here and worsening fast. It’s hitting everywhere. Our leaders have proven utter failures.
No one is coming to make this all work out for us. We know this because if there were going to be the kind societal mobilization we need, it would already be happening. Climate response would be the focus of multiple agencies, be funded with tens of trillions of dollars, bring people together and use the full power of government to reform markets and educate the public about risks and options. Now time is running out, and all the realistic solutions left to us will leave a whole lot of people behind. As climate adaptation expert Jesse Keenan says, “You’re on your own.”
None of us wants to admit it, because none of us wants it to be true.
Being true, this situation changes us, whether we like it or not.
If nothing else, being forced to come up with our own plans to survive climate chaos, secure our futures and care for our loved ones drops a ton of worry on our shoulders. We find ourselves, at a minimum, charged with planning with a seriousness most of us are not comfortable with.
It’s always easier to hope for a reprieve from reality than wrestle it head on. Denial is made easier, now, by those all who actually benefit from our refusal to acknowledge reality. All around we hear that climate change is a hoax, or caused by top-secret weather manipulation machines. That the dangers are overblown, and rapid change would be too costly — or, conversely, that the crisis is so extreme that nowhere is safe, complete societal collapse is just a matter of time and we’re all doomed. That either all hope is lost, or our only hope resides in apocalyptic prepping, doomsday beliefs, or revolutionary violence. Or perhaps space mirrors, or Mars colonies.
Each of these notions is easier for many people to accept than the truth: Our futures are our responsibility now, and building a good future is going to be extremely challenging in the next decades. Few of us know how to do it. Millions of people who can’t do it will suffer unjust tragedy and ruin. We must act, it will be hard, and the stakes are high.
Over the last five years I’ve [[talked]] with hundreds of people about their plans for this scary, chaotic future we’re tumbling into. Almost all of them have told me that seeing this combination of necessity and unreadiness has been life-changing. Once you see it, it’s hard to see anything else the same way ever again.
It’s just as vital to see that there are better futures to be built.
We can ground ourselves in the reality that while we face a massive discontinuity with life as we knew it before, life will go on. Many places face destruction and economic down-spirals, but not all. Many places face tough-but-workable futures. Some will even thrive. We can take steps (individually and collectively) to improve our outcomes. There are relatively safe places to find, personal climate strategies to employ, allies to connect with, local systems we can work to improve.
Strategies and solutions exist, but each of us — with our family and friends — are the only ones who can ruggedize our lives.
Are you ready for that?
You can be.
When we snap forward into acceptance of when we are, we gain an enormous power: the power to learn with a fresh mind.
It’s no wonder that we don’t really know how to be in a world where all previous expertise, education and experience has been outdated or undermined by the speed of change. Even those of us who do this for a living still have a lot to learn.
It’s absolutely normal not to know everything we should to succeed. The heart of the problem is simply learning how to think for the world we have now. You need the basic context tools and insights to make fast, good decisions in new situations. You can learn that.
I can help you.
Climate foresight is what I do.
I’ve spent my entire adult life working at the forefront of the planetary crisis. That means I’ve spent my life learning, and having to relearn, what this new era of climate upheaval is, and what it means for our lives. I am an expert at working the basic problem we all face now.
This work finally led me to see how many people need help not just with the big-picture thinking needed by leaders and decision-makers, but with the real-world challenges of life in a planetary crisis. I still write, speak and advise about planetary thinking and climate foresight, but my mission now is getting as many people truly ready for what’s happening now as I possibly can.
That’s why I designed my A Crash Course in Personal Ruggedization.
Personal ruggedization is making smart decisions about where we choose to live, the systems we embed ourselves in, and the ways we work with others to improve our odds of a good future. It is intelligent, purpose-driven engagement with deep uncertainties, making ourselves at home on a planet none of us have ever seen before.
Personal ruggedization is not bugging out or bunkering down. Instead, it focuses on serving what matters most to us, using reality-based strategies. It’s about raising our children, making a home, doing work we value and being a useful member of society. It offers a platform for building the kind of lives we want, despite escalating dangers.
The six-week Crash Course delivers a set of comprehensive classes, includes readings and discussion sessions, and aims to give participants a strong foundation for making smart choices in discontinuous times. It offers a lot of value, and is priced accordingly.
You can read more about the Crash Course here, or — if you’re ready to act now — you can sign up directly.
Registration closes at midnight Pacific, this Tuesday, the 15th of October.
A Crash Course in Personal Ruggedization
Dates: Thursdays, October 17, 24, 31; Nov 7, 14 and 21
Time: 11:00am - 1:00pm Pacific Standard Time (PST)
Where: Zoom
Each two-hour session includes a deep-dive on that week’s topics, with time for discussion. A bonus follow-up 90 minute group call with me is also included (date TBD), as well as a discount on a personal consultation.
Classes are recorded for those who cannot attend live, and recordings are sent out to participants on the Monday following each class.
No short course of this caliber exists anywhere else. It’s been very well-received.
Scores of participants have told me that the Crash Course has made a powerful difference in their lives. Families have moved away from danger, and started new lives in new communities. People have changed careers, made new investments, improved their retirement plans, returned to civic engagement with renewed spirit.
Above all, people tell me they feel more at home in the world as it now is, more centered, more confident in their ability to find answers and make changes. Action towards ruggedization, I find, is the most powerful antidote to climate despair (and the science backs this up).
(Last-minute questions about joining us? Please feel free to email alison@alexsteffen.com)
Whether this specific class is right for you, at this moment, or not, my advice to you would be the same:
Don’t wait. Act. Start to inform yourself, start to plan, start to take the steps you can with the people you care about most.
Keep calm and learn fast.
— Alex