On March 26, I left Duluth to begin a 93-day road trip to visit friends and family around the country. During this trip, I’ve also had opportunities to talk to people about climate change in such places as St. Paul, Louisville (KY), Missoula (MT), and Spokane, (WA). And whether it was speaking to Climate Smart Missoula, Gonzaga University’s Institute for Climate, Environment, Water or climate activists with Third Act, it is abundantly clear that many of us are trying to figure out how we can collectively make responsible and sustainable choices while at the same time feeling a deep sense of angst and uncertainty about our future.

I found myself going back seven years and thinking about 2019 when a group of us decided to begin lobbying the Duluth City Council to pass a climate emergency resolution. I decided to join that effort after reading a 2018 climate vulnerability assessment which had been presented to the Duluth city government but a year later still hadn’t been read by most government employees and locally elected officials. The assessment projected warmer temperatures, more droughts and milder winters, and identified how climate change would have significant impacts upon our most vulnerable populations. This lobbying effort was coordinated by Lisa Fitzpatrick here in Duluth and the Climate Mobilization Project based out of New York City.

Margaret Klein Salamon, Founder of the Climate Mobilization Project and author of Facing The Climate Emergency, wrote. “Living in climate truth is hard, but it’s the only way forward. Once you begin to live in climate truth, you will experience a wide range of emotions, and they will be intense. They will be upsetting and overwhelming, but that is wholly appropriate to the stakes of a crisis that is set to lead to mass destruction and death. Your painful feelings spring from the best parts of yourself, from your empathy, sense of responsibility, love for others, and of life. These feelings connect you to all life and fuel the work ahead. Immersing yourself fully in them is a heroic, even sacred, undertaking.”

Looking back over the last seven years of my life, which included the experiences of lobbying the city council, reading Salamon’s book and all the different climate projects that I’ve participated in with such groups as Climate Steps, Climate Clock and Covering Climate Now, I had come to realize that choosing to face the climate truth wouldn’t be easy but it was essential to me leading a more meaningful and resilient life.

Yes, there were days when I was feeling depressed and maybe overwhelmed. But even on the difficult days, those painful feelings definitely made me a more empathic and compassionate person who wanted to use whatever skills and tools that I possessed to help the greater good.

I had decided that at the age of 63 that I would immerse myself in reading and writing about climate change as well as finding opportunities to become a climate activist. Doing this work was often hard but always felt sacred and even at moments heroic.

Pema Chodron, a Buddhist monk and author of The Places That Scare You: A Guide To Fearlessness in Difficult Times, wrote, “we can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us and make us kinder and more open to what scares us. We always have this choice.”

I have clearly seen how the circumstances of climate change have hardened so many people. There’s the president, members of Congress, numerous business leaders as well as some of my own friends and family members, who have become emotionally and mentally hardened whenever the topic of climate change comes up. Whether it’s out of resentment or fear, it appears they refuse to acknowledge or accept the reality of climate change. They have chosen to do everything possible to simply deny it.

For myself, it was all about being open to admitting that climate change did scare me but that I couldn’t allow these circumstances to harden me and thereby shut me down or disconnect me from the reality of climate change. And given that Duluth is my home, I had chosen to do everything possible to engage, educate and empower the citizens of this city.

We have some important choices to make. First, we need to tell the mayor to hire a new sustainability officer for the city government. Second, we need to find ways for more citizen input and participation in public-private initiatives to address climate change. Third, we need to support local schools to promote climate literacy and offer mental health services to young people experiencing climate anxiety. And the list goes on.

We hope that some of you will choose to join us at the monthly meetings of the Duluth Citizens Climate Commission and help organize the city’s first climate town hall this fall. For more information, drop us an email at risson1954@gmail.com.