Unpack how climate change is reshaping not just ecosystems but our emotional landscapes. This episode connects the rising trauma of a changing climate to the challenges faced by seafood systems in the Great Lakes and around the world. Through systems thinking and trauma-informed design, we examine how climate disruptions ripple through fisheries, communities, and the human psyche, as well as how new approaches can help us respond with care, clarity, and resilience.

Episode Transcript

Episode Guide

• 00:00 Intro to In Hot Water, Great Lakes Edition
• 02:40 Cheryl Dahle, design strategist for systems change, returns in this episode to explain how a systems design approach is a relatively new way to problem solve through an examination of human behavior
• 06:21 Cheryl started her career as a journalist and, disillusioned, left to found a nonprofit, Future of Fish, working empower thriving, resilient ocean communities by driving innovation and investment to small-scale fisheries
• 15:45 Systems change in the seafood sector - how does it happen?
• 18:32 Having returned to journalism, Cheryl focuses on how the media covers climate change with the Solutions Journalism Network
• 29:10 In 2021, the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies, Global Climate Change and Trauma released a detailed briefing paper describing the current state of knowledge and gaps on climate change and trauma. We asked Mary Foydor, a transdisciplinary designer about trauma-informed co-design, to tell us more about the links between climate change and trauma
• 30:13 The definition of trauma
• 31:11 Guiding principles to a trauma-informed approach to designing solutions
• 36:54 Climate change is a trauma that we're experiencing collectively
• 38:47 Joy-washing and the decolonization of trauma and trauma-informed design and care
• 41:14 Final words: Our future is uncertain, but open with possibilities. If we can hold open that space of uncertainty and invent into it, we have a really good chance.

Resources

1. 1. Recommend this series to anyone who enjoys seafood and is curious about how climate change is affecting our seafood-producing regions.