Resilience

Resilience is the ability to bounce back, to repel defeat through adaptability, creativity and resourcefulness. It is an idea that has become an essential element of climate action planning. Community resilience demonstrates that understanding and addressing risks and vulnerabilities proactively can improve the quality of life in the present and increase preparedness for potential disasters in the future. Resilient designs and strategies build on a community's unique strengths and resources.

On March 18th, 2025 we held our third community conversation - Risk and Resilience: Weathering Climate Crisis in Chatham County. We shared about our own personal strategies and practices of individual resilience - how we keep ourselves flexible, healthy and effective in the face of adversity - and also discussed qualities that make communities more adaptable and resilient. We heard from four engaged community members on their work in Chatham county. From our panelists we learned more about local climate threats and efforts to address them proactively.

Risk and Resilience Panelists

Climate Change Advisory Committee

Dr. Robbie Cox was president of the National Sierra Club 3x and is Professor Emeritus in Communication Studies and the Curriculum for Environment and Ecology at UNC. He is the current Chair of the Chatham County Climate Advisory Committee. Robbie outlined the current state of climate impacts globally and the challenges that positive climate action faces in the United States given current federal policies. He discussed some of the most difficult and costly ways that Chatham county citizens are likely to be affected by climate change now and increasingly into the future. He told us about many steps the county has taken to address climate concerns and long term sustainability - including putting solar panels on county buildings, installing electric chargers, beginning to electrify the county's fleet, identifying climate metrics and projects and generally working toward sustainable development policies (i.e. the 2017 Comprehensive Plan and the Unified Development Ordinance). Robbie has identified the single most effective thing we can do right now is to encourage our commissioners to adopt a detailed climate action plan.

Solid Waste and Recycling

Anayancy Estacio is the Education Program Coordinator for Environmental Quality, Solid Waste and Recycling in Chatham County. She piloted the Waste and Recycling Enthusiast Program (WREP) this past fall, where interested Chatham residents could learn about recycling, waste reduction, composting, and environmental justice, and then help the county with its community engagement and education efforts. Anayancy identified community relationships as being most foundational for resilience. She described case studies from around the world where it was the trusting, everyday knowledge that people in communities had of each other that helped them recover from extreme disasters. Her number one suggestion for building resilience is to make an effort to know and connect with your neighbors!

Health Department

Anne Lowry is the Director of Environmental Health for the Chatham County Health Department. She collaborated with the NC Office of Recovery and Resiliency to develop the first county heat action plan in the State. In response to increasing temperatures during the day but significantly also during the night, Anne recognized the need to educate people about the risks of extreme heat, how to address heat related illnesses when they occur, and to develop resources for vulnerable people who may not have access to air conditioning when it is most needed. She worked to identify diverse stakeholders in order to address the greatest needs throughout the county. She emphasized that the current plan is a work in progress and that it will continue to develop as the plan is used. We hope to support Anne and the plan by letting people know it exists! Read here: Chatham County Heat Action Plan.

Tandy Jones has been farming in Chatham County since 1983. He has raised cattle, sheep and horses. He has served on a number of non-profit, local government, and corporate boards including the Triangle Land Conservancy and Habitat for Humanity. Tandy is also one of the founding members of the Chatham Conservation Partnership. Tandy shared about some of the climate impacts he has noticed most in his farming career: increase of invasive species (both plants and animals), erosion from extreme weather and concerns about water supply for livestock. Tandy discussed the importance of land conservation for preventing the worst outcomes of climate crisis. While some people are critical of raising cattle, it is possible to raise them relatively sustainably and it is a practice that conserves land as opposed to the rampant development that destroys the natural carbon sinks that healthy ecosystems provide.

Our discussion...

Central to our discussion was the interrelated qualities of individual resilience and community resilience. We shared some of the ways we manage to endure in difficult times and what brings us back to our fullest, most capable selves during hardship. This word cloud includes the many traits and practices that participants associate with building personal resilience in their lives.

After hearing panelists discuss some of the specific challenges that global warming poses to our communities and projects that are addressing them, we came up with a second list of important aspects of community resilience to appreciate and build more of here in Chatham county:

Relationships: Know your neighbors; Share, Have fun together, Network, Intergenerational, Stick up for each other, include youth, include everyone, equity, inclusion

Leadership: Mentoring, Sharing experiences, leading by example, nontraditional leaders

Generousity: sharing experiences, sharing what you have, volunteer/engage/participate

Fun: Festivals, outdoor music, family events

Local focus: Support and include all parts of community, support local farmers and local businesses, know who needs what in your community

Communication: Establish local gathering places; viable, reliable news media; hear different voices, neighborhood listservs, connectivity

Education/Civic programs: Heat Buddies, WREP, Heat Action Plan, Resilience Hubs, farmer's markets, training opportunities for community members,

Endurance/Commitment: Long term, keep on keeping on

What we can do...

Again and again our discussion came back to community building. Baking cookies for a neighbor, having a potluck, participating as a youth leader in 4-H, your neighborhood or church, serving on a town or county advisory committee, starting or joining a nonprofit, and showing up to local events, are actions that can make us feel more connected and engaged with the people and issues around us. When we know the people in our communities and what their needs and strengths are, we benefit through the short-term vitality of local neighborhoods and institutions, can create systems that address current struggles, and are ready to support each other in times of crisis.

The climate crisis requires us to think ahead and to imagine the worst, but doing so can create a strong, lively, inclusive present.

Chatham Climate Action Network