ADR CORNER
ADR CORNER
Mediation Skills and Climate Change : Navigating Eco-Anxiety and Inspiring Action
ANA CRISTINA MALDONADO
In April 2023 , I was teaching a mediation training when Ft . Lauderdale was hit by an extreme rain and flooding event . Not a hurricane . Not a tropical storm . Not a king tide . Rain .
The Director of the 17th Judicial Circuit ADR Department was in my class , getting phone calls from her employees : " I can ' t leave my building . Everything is under water and only the tops of the cars on the street are visible ." Two colleagues had homes damaged in the floods . One had to be rescued from her house in the middle of the night .
Downtown Fort Lauderdale and the Broward courts shut down entirely . Seeing images of the closed courthouse , I began to think about how climate change affects our legal institutions : courts , lawyers and litigants .
The summer of 2023 brought more distressing headlines : July 4 , 2023 - hottest day on Earth in 100,000 years . Florida ’ s coastal waters reached 101 degrees Fahrenheit . The coral reefs are dying . The north Atlantic current is collapsing . We are experiencing the 6th mass extinction . The 14th homeowner ’ s insurance company leaves Florida .
These events and headlines were overwhelming and terrifying . Those feelings - being overwhelmed and terrified - are recognizable as symptoms of amygdala hijack , an activated survival instinct that left me feeling frozen , unable to fight or flee .
My mediator ’ s curiosity helped me get unstuck , to shift from fear and paralysis to constructive action . While searching for a way to engage more effectively with this complex issue , I learned two concepts : " ecoanxiety " and " eco-grief ."
• “ eco-anxiety : extreme worry about current and future harm to the environment caused by human activity and climate change .”
• “ eco-grief : psychological response to loss caused by environmental destruction or climate change .”
Naming the problem helped me reframe and understand the mental health challenge . We all experience climaterelated disasters ( either in person or as witnesses through the media ) but our feelings of powerlessness often lead us to push them aside , believing the problem is too vast to solve .
In the language of conflict resolution strategies , we hope to avoid the danger by not moving . Perhaps it will pass us by and go away . Perhaps it will solve itself . Perhaps someone else will fix it . It only takes the cooler breezes of autumn to put the hot summer aside as a past memory , no longer dangerous .
That was 2023 . Then , in 2024 , the “ 1 in 1,000 years ” flooding event happened again .
Modern life makes us blind to the patterns of nature until they intrude on our comfort . Those of us with means can better insulate ourselves or recover from the impacts , but that does not apply to many of our neighbors , who are $ 400 away from a financial crisis .
Our daily lives are consumed by the urgency of work , family and immediate concerns . The unrelenting cycle of crises , combined with compassion fatigue , leaves us paralyzed and powerless . In the language of mediation , we lose our capacity for selfdetermination on the bigger issue .
Mediators are agents of hope , experts in breaking impasses and inspiring change . We listen , reframe and engage people in hard conversations and problem-solving . We help people find areas of agreement and envision alternative futures .
In the realm of conflict resolution , " ripeness " refers to a window of opportunity for resolution . The best time to address climate change was twenty years ago , but the second-best time is now . As things stand , substantial and large-scale efforts are required to reduce carbon emissions by 2030 to avert catastrophic consequences .
Dr . Katharine Hayhoe , a climate scientist and educator , has said : “ The most important thing we can do to fight climate change is to talk about it .” My own " climate awakening "
PBCBA BAR BULLETIN 6 has led me to commit to these conversations , make individual changes in my life , get educated and connect with others in this endeavor .
Faced with eco-anxiety and eco-grief , we must punch through the paralysis and channel our emotions into action . Climate change is no longer a distant threat . It ' s here and now . Avoidance will not help us . This threat will shape the world we leave to future generations . It will fuel conflict after conflict . Lawyers and mediators have skills that empower us to be agents of change .
Can we do it ? Yes . Will we do it ? That answer depends on all of us .
Resources :
Drawdown : The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming , by Paul Hawken . ( 2017 )
2024 Law Firm Climate Accountability Scorecard , Law Students for Climate Change Accountability
“ Judge sides with young activists in firstof-its-kind climate change trial in Montana ” Associated Press . Aug . 14 , 2023 .
Ana Cristina Maldonado practiced as a full time neutral for 13 years , concentrating her practice in family , dependency , real estate , insurance and commercial cases . She has mediated over 2,500 mediations and trained over 400 mediators . As Chair of The Florida Bar ’ s ADR Section ( 2024-2025 ) she has championed the diversification of the field of dispute resolution . Cristina has a B . A . from Amherst College , a M . Sc . in Conflict Resolution from George Mason University and her J . D . from St . Thomas University . She is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese . Currently , Cristina teaches at Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law . She is the parent of a 6th grader , future member of the Class of 2031 .
For additional ADR tips and resources , go to www . palmbeachbar . org / alternativedispute-resolution-committee .