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The climate crisis and the resulting beliefs about it can easily inspire meaningful action but can also elicit despair and hopelessness. In previous writing on closing the hope gap, I discussed the important role career development professionals can play in bridging the gap between awareness of climate change as a threat and a sense of how to respond both individually and collectively. Standing in the way of this, however, is a common set of misconceptions that can prevent clients from taking meaningful action in response to the climate crisis. Below are common career topics that arise with clients and how to navigate them.
You don’t need to be a scientist to help with the climate-crisis
When I started university, I assumed that a deep knowledge of science was required to work on climate issues. Looking back, this was silly. Just as you can oppose racism without studying it as a sociologist or anthropologist, so too can you help fight the climate crisis without being an atmospheric physicist or ocean chemist. Of course, it is good to have a general understanding of climate research, but there is room for many other roles in translating science into a more equitable and just future.
Instead of asking what a green job is, ask how the skills of a job can be used to help mitigate the climate crisis. From climate educators skilled at communicating and organizing various communities, to lawyers helping climate refugees seek sanctuary and reparations, there is a place for everyone in this struggle. Resources that can help explore these options include Eco Canada’s Career Profiles, McGill’s Careers in Sustainability, as well as my own career guide (shameless self-promoter that I am).
The pressure of prescience
Despite career development being a lifelong process and substantial personal development occurring in the years after high school (p.10), many experience pressure following high school graduation to identify their future career. The myth that generates this pressure implies that youth are granted prescience into their future career after finishing high school and that their choice will last until retirement. This false narrative creates a lot of unhelpful anxiety in trying to answer an impossible question of who they will be decades from now. That myth can be particularly distressing for youth concerned that the climate crisis will destroy the world as we know it, with 56% of respondents to a recent international survey of 10,000 youth reporting that they believe humanity is doomed.
Here, career development professionals can help clients by normalizing change over the lifespan. From education, new jobs and relationships to personal loss and chronic illness, life provides no shortage of life-altering experiences. We can reinforce the message that clients will not be the same person at 18 as they are at 65. Instead of asking what clients what they want to do forever, ask what they want to do next.
That is not to say that clients should not set and pursue goals, with value in visioning exercises that task clients to explore a world beyond their lifespan. Yet clients should be encouraged to remain open to the fact that their values may and likely will change and what they enjoy for work at the present may not be what they want in the future. This change is the norm, with research suggesting Canadians will have seven employers over a 30-year career.
Find a focus
In exploring my clients’ role in the climate crisis, I recommend they pick one or two environmental issues that interest them and join a community that targets that issue. Though it may feel uncomfortable to dedicate their time toward one environmental issue over others, remind them that they are not deciding what they want to do forever – simply what to do next. Whether in a volunteer or work capacity, they will learn new skills, clarify their interests and experience greater agency as they create change with other environmentalists.
For clients overwhelmed by choices, I use an exercise called Buckets of Hope to differentiate between what we passively and actively hope for:
First, write down the things that you hope will change regarding the environment.
Next, imagine there are two buckets, one labelled Active Hope and the other Passive Hope. Active Hopes are concerns that you hope will change and will actively work toward changing. Passive Hopes are concerns that you hope will change but cannot or will not actively work toward changing. Passive Hopes don’t have to be beyond your control but can be simply things that you are not going to put energy toward now.
Categorize each of your hopes as being in the Active or Passive Hope categories and imagine placing them into their respective buckets.
Now look at the buckets. Are you comfortable with the balance? If your Active Hope bucket is empty, maybe it’s time to add more volunteering/work activities into your life. If your Active Bucket is overflowing, then consider removing some of the responsibilities. What balance looks like varies from person to person, but this is a quick way to identify issues that you care about as well as which ones you want to prioritize.
The exercise reinforces that hope is an expression of our values and can help clarify what environmental issues clients want to focus on. What they put in the Active Hope category shifts values into action. These values may change or be reprioritized later as we continue to learn and grow, but we can find solace in the action we take, which, while small, have an incalculable impact on the world ahead.
Looking to connect with others in the field about the climate crisis? Check out the Climate-Aware Career Practitioners of Canada Facebook Group!
