Coaching and climate change

The tidal wave of awareness of the impact of the human species on planet earth would be difficult to miss - Greta Thunberg and David Attenborough have reached the world with a stark message of ‘enough!’ and impassioned pleas for radical change to reverse the devastation we are creating.

It does feel as if we are being handed a last chance to change our behaviour, and to have a more caring and respectful approach to living in our world, whoever, and wherever we are.

While this call to action clearly needs our urgent attention, it can also lead to a range of emotions being experienced. We can feel overwhelmed and ill equipped to know what to do and how to start, and this can lead to anxiety and stress.

A second wave has followed, in the form of our information rich world and media culture. A mass of facts, figures and advice on what you can do, such as: recycle more, eat less meat, buy less and travel less. We can also feel not good enough when you hear people confidently telling you what they are doing, whilst you are still struggling with sorting your waste into different bins!

Quite understandably, there can be fear and anger, particularly in the younger generation who may feel this is a legacy of the previous generation who have squandered their natural environment through greed, and overconsumption. A blame culture can easily surface.

These are all-natural human reactions and there is a wide range of support to be found - just hearing reading recommendations can provide a first start in educating ourselves further.

In his book ‘Love Letter to the Earth’, Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh shares his belief that we all need to move beyond the concept of the ‘environment’, as it separates the Earth and us, and suggest that we than see the Earth and ourselves as one.

For those looking for a practical handbook which breaks down and answers specific questions in an easily digestible format, there is the book “There is no Planet B”, by Mike Berners Lee. Mike’s book includes such questions as:

Do we all need to become vegetarian? How can we fly in a low Carbon world? Does it all come down to population?...and many others.

If you are a coach and would like to be part of building a global community of coaches enabled to process, act and support our clients to do the same in the face of emerging unprecedented events, you can join the movement at the www.climatecoachingalliance.org or take part in one of the many free Climate Coaching Action Day events on March 5^th.