A couple of months ago the Guardian, Britain’s leading newspaper, announced that they would be changing the language around climate change. Instead of referring to the crisis as ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming’. They would be referring to it as a crisis, emergency or global heating. Which more accurately describes the plight of the planet.
For years it has been organisations in the development sector that have tried to sound the alarm that a crisis is upon us. And now, almost decades later, as people are listening, has the role of the non-profit sector changed?
What should we be saying now that the leading newspapers and international organisations agree that ‘yes we are indeed in the midst of a crisis’?
I’d venture, that non-profit and development organisations now need to pave the road to recovery. It is a tall ask. Yes.
The fight against eco-anxiety
But, it is one the sector has been preparing for. Most organisations have archives and archives of solutions for reforestation, cleaning up the oceans, reducing greenhouse gases, renewable energy and more. I know, because I’ve spent hours wading through them.
Now, it’s extremely vital to dig into these archives and share your lessons learned. The type of content that you share now is crucial. Shocking the audience into dealing with the problem without providing solutions that can empower people just increases already high levels of eco-anxiety and causes people, you’d like to get on board, to shut down.
Harbingers of hope
So, let’s share solutions, solutions and more solutions. Let’s share impact stories of small ventures that have worked wonders in places that were forgotten, dry and arid wastelands. Let’s share stories of how fishing initiatives actually helped saved depleted mangroves. Or how an agriculture project generated jobs and income.
Through your website, articles and social media your non-profit can share its know-how and become a harbinger of hope in a time when it’s sorely needed.
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Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be…”
– Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood by William Wordsworth