A hypothetical weekly plan for a Climate Counselor.
Climate grief is often driven by feelings of hopelessness and a perceived insignificance in climate justice movements. What if there was a tool to help people feel differently? Well there can be, with ODNR Climate Counselors. Climate Counselors would serve as liaisons between ODNR and local communities and could help community members feel less isolated in their climate and environmental-related struggles.
For example, if a parent feels anxious about their kids growing up in a world with climate change, a Climate Counselor could help educate them on the realities of change and realistic steps they can take to combat it in their own life. They may offer suggestions, provide resources for further research, or just lend an ear and do what they can to ease anxieties. Climate Counselors could also spent their time visiting schools, or local businesses and educating them on feasible sustainable practices they could incorporate into their life. In this situation, a Climate Counselor may run a workshop with employees of a local business and share sustainable waste management resources with interested businesses, or they could help students organize a recycling drive at the nearby high school.
Is this realistic? Maybe not so much. People tend to hate any government or government-affiliate telling them what to do, I can imagine there might be huge backlash from parents if ODNR “Climate Counselors” were permitted inside classrooms. How would this employee get involved in the community if they were constantly ostracized because of their government association? Also, where would they get their information, what would they be permitted to share? How much of their work should be determined by the government and how much should be left up to their disgression? Isn’t that a lot of responsibility for one person to shoulder? Nevertheless, there might a thread here to tease out in future design conjectures.
Perhaps providing grants for climate-aware therapists could be an alternate solution?
