Resilience in the face of the ‘long emergency’

(With acknowledgement to JAMES HOWARD KUNSTLER)

My new mantra is ‘resilience’. It’s officially my new favourite word and I have a lot of favourite words as they are my tools of trade. But resilience is my absolute favourite as of now.

It perfectly sums up how we need to approach peak oil and climate change. It’s succinct, positive, definite and strong.

We need to build resilience, we need to be resilient. Our systems and infrastructure need to be resilient.

Our food gardens, water supply, lighting, heating, cooling – they all need to be resilient.

Our finances, our means of earning money, our health, even our psyches needs to be resilient.

To me, resilience means that if one thing ‘falls over’ not everything does, that there is diversity and strength in systems to weather a shock and still be standing. That something can ‘fill the gap’ left by a problem, life continues to some degree…you haven’t put all your eggs in one basket and subsequently backed over your basket.

The Macquarie Dictionary defines resilience as; elasticity, rebound, recoil, ready recovery, buoyancy, even cheerfulness.

But how do we go about it?

I’ve summed up what I believe is the start of a resilience plan. The Steps we need to take to build resilience in our communities. I’ve taken my years of working in media and communications for emergency services, where I responded to emergencies using communication as my tool on a daily basis, and I’ve applied the same ‘crisis management’ strategies to preparing for a post carbon future.

Aside from the topics raised in this article, now is the time for communities to carefully and thoughtfully examine how they can build resilience and preserve the following; society and social structures, law enforcement & justice, health, culture, bio-diversity, emergency response, insurance, and recovery.

This is a long emergency, as James Howard Kunstler has described. Most emergencies I dealt with in emergency services lasted a few hours, perhaps a few days – never weeks, never years, never decades – never like we are now facing with peak oil and climate change.

It’s going to be hard work, it’s going to be tiring, frustrating, exhausting, depressing, busy, draining. Our energies will be shattered and scattered as we look for solutions. We’ll respond and react to problem after problem, to crisis after crisis at a heightened level day after day after day after day… it could easily take a tragic toll among us.

You first
Firstly, YOU must become resilient. Build support systems, create networks, find your inspiration, TAKE TIME OFF, rest, eat well, keep in contact with Nature, support others, acknowledge, accept, celebrate, have fun, laugh, and cry.

Steps to resilience
Identify
Admitting and identifying the problem is a good first step and one a lot of people will struggle with. People honestly think nothing will change and everything will just keep going the way it is today. Discuss and identify the issues, ensure you include lots of diversity in the groups you discuss these problems with. Talk about vulnerabilities, what are they and how can they be managed, improved, changed, or accepted. Who’s in your community? What strengths do you have in your human resources? What skills are lurking in the masses? Do you know your neighbours?

Pre-plan & Pre-pare
Being prepared is a wonderful thing, it gives you such confidence. It’s not bad luck to talk about the ‘what ifs?’ In fact it’s a sign of good management to discuss scenarios and to talk about the ‘what ifs?’ Perhaps it may not be as bad as what you expect, if you think the worse, you might be pleasantly surprised. In all seriousness, table top scenarios, community discussions, acknowledging the possibilities and planning for them – they are all powerful tools of preparation and preparation is the key. Whether it’s a public talk you’re giving or laying a concrete slab, preparation pays off. It’s also good to underpromise and overdeliver. Preparation = information therefore information = empowerment.

Mitigate where possible
Is there something you can do today, right now to mitigate a problem? To reduce your vulnerability. To build resilience today?

Communication
Ah, my favourite subject. Communication is another powerful tool we humans have in the face of adversity. Communication = information, information = empowerment, When we communicate, people have an understanding (hopefully!). If we communicate before a situation arises, even better. If people are prepared and know what might happen, what might be expected of them, how others might respond, and where to get more information it often leads to less panic and mayhem when the incident actually happens. Communicate early and often. Communicate pre, during and post events. Keeping people informed reduces rumour, mis-information and problems later. PS there will always be someone who asks “why wasn’t I told?” no matter how thorough you are – it’s just one of the mystical laws of communication.

Have structures in place
Another current favourite topic. Google ‘peak oil’ or ‘climate change’ and see what happens. There is SO much information out there we can no longer excuse our ignorance and continue living in denial with “well I didn’t know that” or my other favourite “no-one told me” – another mystical law of communication that must be followed for the fabric of the universe to be maintained. Community groups, activists and even some leaders around the globe are telling anyone who will listen what is on our horizon. Leaders know – and they have an absolute moral and ethical responsibility to HAVE STRUCTURES IN PLACE. My personal aim is to lobby for the systems to be built around the people. Put the structures in place. Those of us who know have a responsibility to do this.

Resources
We will need resources. Now is a really good time to identify them, where they are located, who can get to them quickly, how many we have and how they can best be activated in an emergency. Are they readily available and easily accessible? Resources can be many things and should include people.

Build confidence in the community
Isn’t it just so much easier to do something when you know how to do it, what’s expected of you and what’s expected of others? That’s confidence! A confident community = an empowered community. Communication plays a key role as does education and practical experience in building confidence. Resilient psyches are very powerful!

Have a back up plan
Murphy’s Law – whatever can go wrong will go wrong. Take note of it and have a back up plan. If one road is closed does your plan fall in a heap? Have a back up plan.

Have more back up plans
The long emergency is a unique situation. Sure we’ve dealt with crises here before, but not of the intensity and frequency we will face in the future. Add to that the fact we will have less available ‘energy’ – power, electricity, petrol, goods, food etc – in the future due to peak oil. Increasing demands (for emergency response) in a depleting energy environment – who’s planning for that?

Have alternatives
When all else fails have an alternative plan – creativity, flexibility, responsiveness, the courage to accept feedback and make the necessary changes are all good things.

Diversify
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket – someone may drop it. Practice resilience in all its glorious forms.

Feedback
Factor it in, accept it, do something about it. If something isn’t working change it. If something is working keep doing it.

Identify
The closing of the loop… go back to the beginning and start working through it again.

So that’s my 13 steps to resilience.

But who is going to do all this? We need leaders and those leaders need QUALITIES…

Qualities needed for community resilience
Leadership
Isn’t it great when someone knows what to do? Someone who inspires you, someone you want to be around? Leadership is an innate quality. People are born with it (or not). It can be honed, but it can’t be ‘made’. Poor leadership has got us into this mess. Good leadership can get us out. The same bad leadership that got us into this mess is NOT the same leadership that will get us out. If ‘they’ had that foresight in their thinking, we wouldn’t be here in this mess in the first place.

Trust
‘Sigh’ so lacking in today’s leaders… Trust is the key. We need to trust our leaders because we will be following them. Without trust it’s all over. If I don’t trust you, I’m not going to do what you ask of me.

Ingenuity
Being ingenious! Inventive, talented, skillful. Excellent qualities to have and encourage in others.

Creativity
As it relates to flexibility. The ability to creatively look for answers, solutions, new ways of doing things, new ways of using things. Not being locked up by that “we’ve never done it like that before” type thinking.

Know limitations
One of the greatest qualities a leader or a community could have. It takes great strength and self-awareness to know, let alone acknowledge your limitations. A good leader surrounds themselves with good people who possess the skills that complement their own personal limitations. It also shows a lack of ego, which is a good thing.

Able to ask for expert support
See above

Community empowerment
An empowered community goes a long way toward a resilient community. Understanding, feeling ownership, being involved in the process and in decision making all lead to empowerment.

Established networks
Now is a really good time to build networks – not when the crisis is happening. Networks, whether physical or social need to be establish BEFOREHAND, not during, not after, but before. Now is a really good time to build networks, while we have the time, resources and technology to do it.

Understand skills base
In your community, in your leaders. A skills base of expertise is part of communication, networking and preparation. All important strategies for emergency preparation.

Identify inequities and those most vulnerable
‘They’ say the measure of a community is how it treats it’s most vulnerable. People who have nothing to lose – have nothing to lose. Identify and ADDRESS inequities. This is part of social cohesive and inclusiveness. People who feel isolated probably are isolated and they also feel desperate. Desperate people will do desperate things. Ensuring equity and support and caring for our most vulnerable is GOOD social management and will go a long way in the long emergency.

Things will change
Understand that things will change. We are living in an illusion of stability. Things will change. It is very likely that our future situation will be very different to our current situation. Things may never return to ‘normal’ and they will definitely not be ‘stable’ once the long emergency really kicks in. We need to define a new ‘normal’ and be prepared to redefine that too. We need to communicate this to people so they are prepared.

Responsive to and understanding of change
A fundamental quality we must all adopt. See above.

Communication
Back to my favourite subject. Communication. One I’m dedicating a thesis to in fact. But let’s just focus on one aspect of communication in society. How do a lot of people get their ‘information’? From the media. The television news, radio, internet and newspapers are their sources of what’s happening. When a disaster occurs there is a predictable pattern of reporting that newsrooms follow and it is timely for our leaders to understand this process – no surprises then. These stories and the process of reporting them will go something like this…

How the media will report a ‘disaster’
• Initial reports – media report what hard facts are immediately available and vision of the incident.
• Cause of emergency – more details, more information emerges of the incident
• Stories of individual courage – the ‘human interest’ of the story, in depth ‘features’ appear
• Effect of the disaster – financial costs, industry costs, ‘loss of’ costs, final fatality numbers, and more features of various aspects depending on the type of disaster
• Safety warning and inadequacies – the media (public) examination of the incident begins includes letters to the editor, more features etc
• Emergency response and inadequacies – media (public) examination of the emergency response
• Blame – who is to blame?
• Aftermath and recover – the one year on story, costs, losses etc, lessons learnt

This is my take on resilience, why it’s important and perhaps a few ideas and thoughts on how we might go about creating it.

I hope you find it useful and please ask yourself; ‘how can you build resilience in my community?’