Climate Circles

• PLEASE NOTE CLIMATE CIRCLES GATHERINGS ARE POSTPONED FOR NOW. WE MAY RESUME ON THE LAST MONDAY OF THE MONTH WHEN FEASIBLE. PLEASE EMAIL COORDINATOR@BLOMIDONNATURALISTS.CA FOR UPDATE. Thanks for understanding!

No one is coming to save us. It’s up to us, the people who care about climate change, to make a difference. To make it happen, we need a place to express our care and turn it into collective action. We need a setting which provides a continually positive experience to encourage long term commitment so we can achieve successful projects. Climate Circles is based in the geographically unique Annapolis Valley region of Nova Scotia. We will meet weekly to support climate-caring people in achieving the grassroots climate project outcomes we all hope for.

What are Climate Circles?

Climate Circles project is a new program of the Blomidon Naturalists Society. BNS members and friends might remember Climate Circles as a weekly, community, everyone-welcome meeting on all things related to climate change: learning, grief processing, activism, local mitigation and adaptation project planning, and more.

Climate Circles first occured as a volunteer-led pilot project started by Emily LeGrand at the Wolfville Farmers’ Market on Monday evenings running from mid January to mid March 2020. The meetings consistently had 40-60 people in attendance each week, with over 100 unique attendees over their in-person course.

Why is the Blomidon Naturalists Society re-launching Climate Circles?

The BNS will be taking on the continuation of Climate Circles moving forward, as we slowly emerge out of the pandemic and are able to meet in person again. The BNS and its members recognize that the decade between 2020 and 2030 is a critical window for climate action, and therefore, for human survival, as well as an in-tact and recognizable biosphere. Given that the BNS is an important social convener of naturalists and nature-lovers in the Annapolis Valley, and that most nature lovers at this point, in 2022, are concerned with climate change, it makes sense for the BNS to support the relaunching of Climate Circles in our community. As well, many BNS members were original Climate Circles attendees.

Climate Circles represents a wonderful way to rebuild our sense of community after the isolation of the pandemic. Many climate action experts agree that climate change is a collective problem requiring collective action. In short, we need to come together to both adapt to and work to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.

The climate emergency is deepening- but there is still time to change course. The International Panel on Climate Change has pointed to 2030 as a potential tipping point, making it more important than ever to gather and build relationships that can increase our capacity to translate our care into community support & collective climate-responsive action projects. 

Climate Circles acknowledges that the causes and solutions of the climate crisis are deeply bound up with struggles against unjust, extractive systems and cannot be tackled in isolation. We aim to support and build these foundational communities in order to uplift existing work & create and sustain local-level, citizen-driven climate action projects.  While the course of Climate Circles is not yet determined, as we seek to explore community interests and needs, the general plan is to host regular facilitated meetings that are intentionally structured to encourage fun, effective, positive, inclusive and supportive sessions that address the topics most relevant and motivating to those in attendance. 

Climate Circles is a place where people build community and see that they are not alone in their climate concerns and desire to connect, act, and learn new skills. While we may be caught in a common storm- we are not all in the same boat, and Climate Circles works to create a safe space where everyone is actively welcomed to unlearn from unjust systems. It is somewhere they can dream up and begin work on projects that no one person could take on alone. It is a regional hub of all things climate action where everyone and anyone worried about climate change and motivated to figure out how to respond is actively welcomed. It is a place where we believe everyone has something to offer to the movement and that it is our collective job to figure out how to make space for everyone to contribute.

How and why are Climate Circles designed the way they are?

Coming together regularly and working together can be hard. Our society hasn’t necessarily taught us to value cooperative skills. Many, if not most of us have strong feelings about climate change: fear, urgency, frustration, a sense of clarity about the best way to respond, a sense of confusion about what can be done, hopelessness, a lack of agency, and more. And generally, we aren’t always the most fun to be around when we are experiencing strong emotions. And when we don’t enjoy meeting or feel effective at it, we tend to stop meeting. With all this in mind, Climate Circles is a carefully designed space that gently guides and supports each of us toward being our best selves: our kindest, patient, open-minded, inclusive, curious, pro-active selves, while we meet together to tackle this existential and unprecedented challenge. The hope of Climate Circles is that we learn enjoyable, fun adn effective ways to meet together in order to be able to meet long enough to develop the complex responses to climate change that we will need at the community level.

In practical terms, Climate Circles is a facilitated meeting space where all ideas for taking action are welcomed, using the open space meeting technique. This means that anyone can come with an idea for action and can use the meeting to find like-minded others wanting to work on an aligned idea or tactic. Groups can and do change each week as a result, though many people, wanting to meet their needs for continuity and accomplishment, join the same group every week. Groups of one are valid! There is also a time set aside for community-building, learning new ways to work together respectfully, cheerfully and with self-awareness, and for announcements and identifying opportunities for the groups to offer each other help. 

Where is the Climate Circles project at right now?

Right now, Climate Circles is in the capacity-building and fundraising phase, led by Emily LeGrand, Climate Circles founder and BNS board member, working on contract. The current work goals are to establish an Advisory Group for the program and to fundraise with the support of the Small Change Fund enough money to hire at least one skilled facilitator/coordinator to run the Circles for at least a year.

How can I help or get involved?

You can join the advisory group if you think you have the time and perspective to offer. 

And/or, you can donate to the crowdfunding campaign!

Crowdfunding Campaign to Relaunch Climate Circles

Support climate circles by donating through our campaign here, in partnership with the Small Change Fund. Thank you so much for your support!