Unequal Impacts and Agency

You’re probably less doomed than you think.

If you spend much time trying to figure out how to ready yourself for this accelerating climate crisis, you will likely encounter the idea that there’s nothing you can do. Game over, man.

You don’t have to look very far to find people ringing in the apocalypse and inviting you to lie back and greet the collapse. Writing and teaching about climate foresight, solutions-based thinking and personal climate strategies over the years, I’ve had hundreds of people (almost all dudes) go out of their way to tell me how there’s no hope, nothing to be done, our ruin is upon us and I’m an idiot to suggest otherwise.

I, alas, tend to base my foresight on facts, and here’s the fact: this is not the end of everything. We have already likely avoided the worst-case scenarios, even if we have locked in a magnitude of crisis many of us worked hard to prevent. It is not too late to limit global heating and ecological collapse, and even the harsh future we’re tumbling towards is still a future full of choices.

A lot of people face grim options in battered and brittle communities, sure, but almost everyone still has options. Most listeners to podcasts like mine — educated, informed, and better-resourced than many — have an array of opportunities to make workable plans, seek relatively safety, ruggedize our lives and work with others to ready our communities for what’s coming. Most of us are far from powerless. A lot of us may in fact find that meeting the planetary crisis liberates us to live lives of greater purpose, connection and secure prosperity than the lives we live today.

We may not yet personally know how to start building those lives, but that’s a different problem.

Give it a listen…

Alex

If you want to learn more about your own options for the future, my Personal Climate Strategy: The Basics class is a great place to start. The last class of 2025 will be held tomorrow Tuesday, December 16th, from 12pm - 2pm PST via Zoom (yes, it will be recorded!). Registration closes tomorrow, December 16th, at 11:00am PST.

This is your chance to learn the foundational components and frameworks for understanding planetary discontinuity: How it impacts your choices and key decision timelines, and how to make better informed choices about your present and future.

Almost 500 people have taken this short intensive (from all around the planet), and we have a great group forming for this class.

Registrants also get special discounts and early access to my in-depth Personal Climate Strategy Workshop (next one coming in late-January)

Step into 2026 feeling more ready and confident.

Get all the class details and sign up here: https://alexsteffen.thinkific.com/products/courses/personal-climate-strategy-class

Want to know what others think? For a review of my basics class, check out “How to Prepare Yourself For an Uncertain Future - The Review.” For a review of my workshop, read “Alex Steffen’s Personal Climate Strategy Workshop: A Review.“

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