How do we care for our people as we take action on the side of life and adapt to a changing world?

Human civilization is out of balance with nature. For centuries, industrialization and global capitalism have polluted the air, burned down rainforests, and wiped-out countless species of plants and animals—warming the climate to levels that endanger much of life on earth. The impacts of this ecological devastation are significant and only getting worse, and they tend to hit hardest in communities least responsible for the damage: people who are forced off of their land; who are living near dirty-energy factories and suffering high cancer and asthma rates; whose agricultural harvests are devastated by drought, flooding, and erratic growing seasons; or whose access to healthcare makes them more vulnerable to global pandemics. Those who justified this destruction in the name of economic growth are learning too late that there is no economy on a dead planet.

In our lifetimes, we will determine the fate of our species and millions of others through the decisions we make about the climate crisis. A lot of choices have already been made, but there are also many others awaiting us that matter.

So what do we do with this responsibility? How do we take action on the side of life, for ourselves and for one another? How do we end centuries of ecological destruction while at the same time protecting our communities from the impacts of a changed climate? Indigenous communities at the frontlines of climate chaos have been leading the way to creative solutions rooted in ancient wisdom. Over and over, they show us that the corporate capitalism and the overconsumption that got us into this mess will not get us out of it, and that change will come from grassroots movements and communities.

“Relentless consumerism is unattached from rationality or from the pursuit of balance between our needs and what nature can provide,” says Ayala Lindabeth Dias Ferreira of the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement. “The sense of time for nature differs from that for capital.” What does this mean for our solutions? How do we reconnect human needs with what nature can provide?

We must also ask ourselves how to govern our communities to navigate unfolding crises locally and regionally, while communicating and coordinating globally. Environmental impacts do not respect borders, and so we must work together across them with a sense of shared responsibility and mutual care and respect for one another, on nature’s time. We must put our support behind those experiencing the worst of the impacts, knowing that their fate is bound up in ours. And we must demand that those responsible for the crises pay for the solutions.

Because the problems facing the earth and atmosphere are so big, change will not happen overnight. The impacts of a destabilized climate are already here and will continue for centuries to come. We can meet the despair that comes with what is dying with the hope that comes with the possibility of new ways of defending life. We don’t know what the future holds, but we do know that solutions grounded in care and cooperation will help us mitigate the crisis, adapt to the impacts, and claim meaning and joy in our lives.