Thank you so much to all who completed the survey! When I put something out there like a survey, there’s always a chance it will be crickets. But y’all delivered and it was so heartwarming to see that so many of you are invested in this journey. I’m excited to connect more deeply with all of you as Cramming for the Apocalypse evolves and just so happy to be on this ride with you all.
Beyond the fact that anyone responded at all, it was enlightening to receive your responses. This post is both a summary of your responses and a reflection on some of my personal takeaways from those.
But first, one observation I had was that you all have a lot to contribute to this community. As this Substack evolves, my goal is to create a way for you all to connect with each other in meaningful ways. Also, I gleaned from some narrative responses that you have so much to offer this space and I would love to collaborate with those who are interested in doing so. If you are interested in collaborating in some way, you can complete the survey below or email me at crammingfortheapocalypse@gmail.com to tell me what you’re thinking.
With that, on to my reflections from the survey…
Barriers to Climate Action
This one was clear. The idea of taking climate action instills both overwhelm and a sense of futility. 67% responded that it’s overwhelming and 49% expressed feelings of futility. Although based on a number of the write-in answers, the percentage of those feeling futility is much larger than half as you’ve honed in on specific aspects of that futility.
First of all, I feel you. I feel all of it. On a good day (when I’m not listening to the news), I feel excited about the work I’m doing, I feel ready to take on the world, and I feel like we’re chipping away at the system. But on bad days (which vastly outnumber the good days), I wonder what all this work is for? Can I, one person, do a damn thing when it’s a whole system that needs to be both burnt to the ground and rebuilt with a completely different mindset?
I especially feel the responses from folks noting that governments need to take action against the fossil fuel industry because otherwise we’re doomed. I get stuck in this loop a lot and it sucks. A podcast that really gets at this is Drilled hosted by Amy Westervelt which is described as a “true crime podcast about climate change” which shows how much the fossil fuel industry has funded in order to dupe us into thinking climate change is our fault. The most recent season, “The Real Free Speech Threat” also does an incredible job diving into the lengths corporations and governments are going to squash climate and environmental protest around the world. It shows what we’re up against.
On the other hand, though, there’s so much happening around the world that gives us hope. While it can feel futile and overwhelming as one lonely person, you’re not alone. There are millions of people doing the work. Also, over the course of this project and other work that I do in the climate world, specifically working as the communications contractor with Families for Climate here in Oregon, I’ve discovered that there is not one way to take action. And especially, the version of climate action you take doesn’t have to be–nor should it be–out of your realm of experience and passions. You don’t need to invest in electrifying your home or buying an electric vehicle to take action. You don’t need to be pounding on the doors of the legislature to make change. You can look around you and find your place in this movement to make it both fun and effective. But where to start?
One way this community intends to help out with this is to help many of you interested in finding your place in this movement as well as to dig in and find your optimism. In a few months (after our kickoff series of disaster preparedness tools–see the next section for some deets), I will be partnering with Kat Davis, currently the climate justice advisor at Portland Public Schools (and who you heard from in the latest podcast episode) on a series based on her radical imagination course (note this will be a benefit for paid subscribers).
What I love about Kat’s approach is that it helps confront a variety of challenges when it comes to climate action. First, it fills you with hope. So much of the sense of futility and overwhelm comes from a lack of hope for a better future. This is called “the hope gap.” By reimagining what a better future could actually be, we have something hopeful to work towards. Second, it provides a framework to think more concretely about how you can take action. And third, it creates a community of people working towards the same thing.
Barriers to Preparedness
I discovered something kinda cool from your responses–many of you are already prepared! I love that and what that means is that many of you have a lot to offer the community, particularly the third of us that said we’re overwhelmed or don’t have time to prepare for disaster effectively. But also, most of you (over three-quarters of you) said you’d still like a preparedness toolkit.
One of the other responses that I’m particularly excited about is that 75% of you want to dive more deeply into community preparedness. This is super exciting to me because it also hones in on one of the most important aspects of disaster prep and that is resilience, which is also something nearly 80% said they wanted to do deep dives into. It’s clear that you all know what it takes to become more prepared and it’s not just storing food and water in your own basement, it’s thinking broadly about the people around you.
In fact, if it's one thing I’ve learned from all of the conversations I’ve had with disaster researchers, it’s that the number one factor that leads to survival in a post-disaster situation it’s knowing your neighbors. And not just their names, but really knowing them.
This has made me really excited about what this community can offer in the way of disaster preparedness. In fact, we’re going to start by attempting to satisfy nearly 80% of your desires for a disaster preparedness toolkit. This will launch in April and planning for this is currently underway as I bring in my friend Brekke Wagoner from the Sustainable Prepping YouTube channel in to assist me. You’ll hear more from Brekke in a few weeks with a podcast episode about preparedness, but you can also read about her in this story I wrote for The Progressive last summer about progressive preppers and you can get to know her even more in this story in USA Today from December where you can get an even better sense of Brekke’s frankness–and hilariousness–when it comes to prepping. Y’all, that last quote from Brekke in the story is just <chef’s kiss>.
In any case, we have a 10-week toolkit/course already in the works that will make disaster preparedness a digestible and less overwhelming task. We’ll also include discussion opportunities where y’all can discuss what you’re doing, challenges with what you’re doing preparedness-wise, and also any recommendations for your fellow community members. I’m so excited to launch this and I’m particularly excited to work with Brekke on this.
Skill Building Resources
And Finally, the other major theme to come out of the survey is that y’all want to learn some skills! I love this because, obviously, I do too. That’s exactly what I’m trying to do with this journey.
Given that we’re all dispersed around the world, these kinds of workshops would be virtual. I’ve already started talking with Aria Joughin, the founder of MakeWith PDX to start crafting some virtual opportunities. No specific plans yet, but just know that we’ll bring MakeWith’s commitment to creating a judgment-free space for learning for people of all backgrounds. If there’s a skill MakeWith’s team isn’t focused on, I’ll find the right person for that session.
These virtual sessions will likely launch closer to the summer, so stay tuned.
Other Topics and Interests
While those were the top three trending responses to the survey, I learned a whole lot more about y’all from your responses and here’s a quicker rundown of all the results.
Top resources/toolkits and discussion groups you’re interested in:
Virtual skills workshops – 79%
Disaster Prep Toolkit – 77%
Climate Action Toolkit and Resources – 66%
Book Club – 50%
Disaster Preparedness Accountability Groups – 37%
Virtual Climate Cafes/Climate Grief Processing Groups – 37%
Some of you also expressed interest in sessions around how to build community, mentoring opportunities, and legal actions to take. I think one thing this community can most certainly offer is a way to connect with each other. Once we launch all of these paid subscriber benefits, I’ll launch the Chat feature and post occasional discussion prompts so that you have a way to connect with each other and hopefully find some folks local to you as well. I’m also digging the book club idea–maybe something quarterly? Stay tuned for more on that!
You’re interested in deep dives into the following topics
Climate resilience – 77%
Disaster preparedness on a community level – 75%
Exploring social systems beyond capitalism – 72%
Climate futurism – 56%
Science fiction and climate change – 49%
Parenting and climate change – 44%
Climate grief – 26%
I’m so excited to explore these topics with you. I’m particularly excited about doing more about disaster preparedness on a community level as I noted previously. I’ve had a few people reach out directly to me to talk about how to do this. I think that’s such an important issue to discuss because we live in a society that values individualism and has driven us away from the sense of community. In fact, I wrote a piece for Romper coming out any moment now that talks about this around parenting. So I’m excited to talk more about all of this and rest assured these deep dive topics will be available to all subscribers–free and paid alike!
Thank you all so much for being here and I’m excited for what we’re creating together!