Connecting to Place

You might think it odd that I am putting this action straight after a piece on focussing your anger on the people who lied and delayed (and are still lying and delaying) action on climate change. However it is our disconnection to place that is both the reason why we don't notice and don't care enough about climate change.  As a society we move too often, we drive everywhere, we seek our relaxation/stimulation far away instead of local, we seek community online instead of in our community (guilty) , our food comes from far away instead of local, and we take our immediate neighbourhood for granted.  What is a Connection to Place and why does it matter? A connection to place is the difference between feeling completely at home in a place and living in a motel. It's the difference between a serious and casual relationship. It's about appreciating the uniqueness of where you live. I grew up in the semi arid environment of Broken Hill with its rich natural and human history but at school learnt about African animals and British history. Tourists come to Broken Hill to marvel at it but we didn't learn about it. To me a sense of place is necessary before you can commit to fighting for it and sadly I think that a sense of place is far too rare in our world where 43% of Australians over 15 years have moved in the last five years and 11% of those have moved 5 times in five years.  Advantages to taking the time to develop a sense of place 1) getting fit 2) local knowledge that will be useful in natural disasters 3) community connections improve community climate change resilience 4) provides a low cost, non consumerist relaxation  5) intellectually satisfying 6) connection to nature 7) relieves climate grief 8) know what you are fighting for

I think there are three main, interconnecting ways to develop a sense of place: physically exploring your new neighbourhood; making connections to people in the community; and researching.
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Physically exploring your communityGet out and explore! Drive around, walk the streets get a feel for the relationships between places. Visit your local museum, your Visitor Information Centre, your local parks, the nearby National Parks, the local library. Is there a local art or heritage walk in your town. Are there any learnscapes (purpose built natural environments) in your town?

I'm a big fan of walking the streets of a town. All of them! You really feel you know a town when you have explored it all. Observe it as you walk (don't play on your PokemonGO as I have done). Observe where the water courses and hills are, where the bike paths and footpaths are, the fruit trees and what time of year they fruit, see the history of the area in the buildings, memorials and signs, what time does the cool change come through (if it does) and say hello to your neighbours. 

My technique is to get a tourist map and mark the streets I have walked. 

Make connections to people in your community
Say hello to your neighbours, the people in the shops, the park rangers, the Visitors Information Centre people,  and the librarians at the library. Join some organisations, it really doesn't matter what because the aim is to meet people other than workmates. Try churches, Rotary, special interest groups, activist groups, Landcare.

It is by talking to your elderly neighbours that you find out that 60 years ago when they moved in the frosts used to reach the tops of the trees every winter. When you know more people you get offered fruit and vegetables during gluts, find out who has a chainsaw and a generator and find out how high the water came in the 1949 flood. 

Research
Explore your local council, local museum, National Park and local library websites. Maybe you have a local Aboriginal organisation. Go to the library and borrow local history books. Read the brochures at your local Visitors Information Centre. 
What are the local Dreaming stories for your area?
Are any fiction/picture books set in your area? Ask your librarian.
​What are the regular events in this town? How can you get involved with them?
Connect on social media to local organisations, groups, museums, national parks, council, and museums and galleries  so that you know what events are coming up.
Look at the 100 year flood maps for your town, find out about what direction bushfires come from, look at topographical maps and learn about local indigenous bush tucker. 

Connecting to your Place as a climate action both simultaneously reduces your contribution to climate change (because wherever your place is you will find it is fascinating and unique reducing your need to seek/travel/consume elsewhere) and increases your climate change resilience because you will know so much more essential stuff during natural disasters.