Hi there Buddies,
many things have happened and changed since I last wrote to you, with blinking headlines everyday telling me the newest angle on this global health, economic, climate, biodiversity, and justice crisis (the list could continue).
With the uncertainty of the spread of the virus, the changes to our ‘normality’ probably won’t disappear anytime soon. All these changes manifest in very different ways depending on where you are and what you do. As I may be slowly adapting to some parts of this new ‘normality’, doing climate action has taken on a different meaning for me. I am sure we all have very unique stories to tell and it’s exactly those stories that we would like to talk to you about this month.
The theme of the month of July therefore is:
“Doing Climate Action during the new normal”
- What does the new normal mean to you? What does your current situation look like and compare to what you were living before the spread of the virus and the associated economic crisis?
- In what way has the current situation had an effect on what climate action means to you?
- In what way is the current situation changing the routines of your daily life? Think, for example, about the ways you work, move around, or prepare your food.
- Are you still able to participate in and engage with political processes and in what way?
- Before the spread of COVID-19, were you engaged in climate action as part of a community or more as an individual? Has this changed due to COVID-19?
Since the concept of the new normal itself carries a lot of meaning with it, we have collected some quotes taken from this article that might be interesting for you to consider when you speak to your buddy:
The New Normal
“The ‘new normal’ discourse sanitizes the idea that our present is okay because normal is regular.”
“Not only does the ‘new normal’ framing inhibit our ability to heal ourselves, it constrains our ability to think expansively about fundamentally transforming society because it imagines a world that only functions for the elite. “
“With its emphasis on online tools to facilitate connection and escape confinement, the ‘new normal’ valorises the promise of virtual engagement, ignoring that almost half the world remains offline.”
As always, if this is your first chat with your buddy, just get to know each other first and leave this for another time. Let us know if there is anything we can support you with!
Throughout the next week you will also be hearing from us with information about a workshop that we will hold related to this month’s topic.
Ecologically yours,
Chiara
