Saturday, Oct 4

Welcome to Your Daily Dot where Dot will share tips, advice, and stories on how we can make our world better.

Dot thinks you'll love this story about helping refugees assimilate by participating in community gardens and another story about how prepping for disaster can help a community come together. 

And speaking of community, Dot heard from a reader wondering about the value in us coming together … and responds with a few community-building tips. Read on. 

Dear Dot,

I keep hearing people talk about how important it is to build community as we confront a warming planet. But I live in a medium-sized city where people keep to themselves, so I’m not sure how to do that … or even really why I should. Help?

– Shawna

Dear Shawna,

I, too, have noticed that the buzz around community-building is growing louder, mixed in with warnings about “collapse” and “breakdown.” It can be hard to keep a cool head when confronted with predictions that sound like the plot of a dystopian sci-fi. 

But whether or not we’re on the brink of societal and/or ecological collapse, the idea of creating community remains a good one. For a start, we know that loneliness is a problem, with almost one-quarter of people around the world reporting that they feel lonely. Robert D. Putnam, in his book Bowling Alone, argues that reduced civic engagement is leading to growing isolation.

Assuming we accept the premise that we are lonelier and more isolated (and not everyone agrees that loneliness is, in fact, an epidemic), then community-building seems a good idea. But even if, instead, we accept Our World in Data’s reportage that loneliness has remained fairly consistent over time, Dot maintains that community-building is still an important piece of climate action. Consider this, from renowned scientist, broadcaster, and climate activist David Suzuki, who recently told a reporter that “The units of survival are going to be local communities, so I’m urging local communities to get together.” With increasing emergencies in the form of earthquakes, floods, droughts, and storms, he says, “governments will not be able to respond on the scale or speed that is needed for these emergencies.” 

Citizens, Suzuki says, are “going to be at the front line of whatever hits and [had] better be sure [they’re] ready to meet it. …”

So … what can we do? Read on. 

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