Resolved
“To address our climate emergency, we must rapidly, radically reshape society. We need every solution and every solver. As the saying goes, to change everything, we need everyone. What this moment calls for is a mosaic of voices—the full spectrum of ideas and insights for how we can turn things around.” (All We Can Save, Johnson and Wilkinson, pg. xxi)
It’s early in the year. That time where so many of us sit down and decide what to do to improve ourselves—less alcohol, more water, more exercise, no sugar, no gluten, no meat, more yoga, etc. We don’t always follow through—individual action is tough. It’s really difficult to see a change you want to make and then go about and get started and see that everyone else isn’t doing the same, or are more successful than you are. Now, if you are one of those who do this every year, I’m not going to say that you should stop, but this entry, despite the name and the time of year, is not going to be about that. In fact, it’s not about individual action at all.
I hope that I’m not the one to break this to you, but no matter how little CO2 you emit, you will not, on your own, draw down the sum total of atmospheric carbon dioxide even by a rounding error. That is not an attempt at being bleak on my part; it’s me giving you permission to try to relax. Climate change is a symptom of systemic problems, not individual ones, so the answer cannot possibly be solutions that are reliant on people acting singularly. Continuing down that path will lead to burnout and cynicism; both of those things break down our resolve and leave us looking to deny any culpability that we may have in the global problem of climate change.
That’s not how we are starting this year. This year we’re doing resolutions a little different: we’re going to focus on our design specialties and what the professional circles we operate in can do to affect change. Think of an industry, any industry at all; does it need designers? (The answer is yes, overwhelmingly.) If it does, then we are in a position to be change-makers. Remember that we measure change through its meaningfulness, not its size, so whether we have toppled a fossil fuel company or convinced a client to have a conversation about sourcing local materials, we are making change—so don’t let anyone tell you any differently.
I’ve been reaching out to designers from the Climate Designers community and asking them about their goals for 2022, not for themselves, but for their industry. This entry has been percolating for a little bit in my head and I wanted to make sure I got a wide swath of designers to participate. I’m asking what they think make their goals possible, what might make them difficult to accomplish, and more. And I’m looking for more answers. I’m going to update this entry (or maybe even split it into parts—so keep an eye out) with answers that I get from the community. What this is is a start; it is something to organize around, even something to keep us accountable. We are people that are skilled at tapping into and even influencing our cultures and economies. We do that through color, material, font choice, animation, and more. Anthropologist Margaret Mead is supposed to have said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” No one is better suited to getting a message out there than designers, and we are highly motivated; we have the numbers, we have the tools, and most importantly, we have the resolve to strive for solutions.
So, call-to-action time
So, let’s see what our community is thinking. You can click here to go a Google Survey and answer a few questions.
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This entry was written by
Matt McGillvray
Matt is a designer and illustrator living near Portland, Maine, and has been working for more than a decade doing branding, illustration, web design, print design, social media posts, and even a little SEO.
When not designing he’s usually reading, writing, or running. His current big writing project is a book about design and climate change. He is a chronic teller of puns and will not apologize for that.