Climate Actions that Feel Good and Do Good
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I like hints for keeping lists of climate action options. One hint I’ve used, once a list is made, is to notice which options make you feel good (follow your heart) vs. those that do the most good for the climate (follow your head).
I’m simplifying here, of course, but the exercise provided a peek into my style of making decisions about climate change.
Heart
Sometimes you may be attracted to options that move you emotionally. They make you feel good because you’re doing your part in a very personal way. When you’re tuning in to your feelings and intuition this way, the feedback you get is pretty direct as a gut response.
This can happen when you know something is the ‘right’ thing to do even if you can’t tell exactly the impact it will have on global temperatures. The people below are planting native plants to help clean up a salmon river. I expect this works for their hearts even though they won’t get immediate feedback of how their work impacts global temperatures.
Head
At other times you consider actions because they will have most impact on climate. You use your intelligence and attention to the facts to create the most effective actions you can.
For these, it helps if there are clear feedback loops to connect what you’re doing to some measured result. For example, seeing a drop in your electric bill is direct feedback on how turning off your appliances reduces burning of fossil fuels.
The Balance
Taking a reading on your head/heart balance will help choose the actions that you’re going to carry out with your hands and your feet.
Neither head nor heart are better but having some idea of your initial balance lets you consider whether you want to change it as you move forward. Maybe you want to move more into one direction of the other.
Eventually you’ll be using both your head to sort out which actions actually do affect climate change and your heart for motivation to follow through with actions, however smart they are. Take a minute now to see if you want to adjust your balance of head and heart as you consider your options.
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