Community Resilience Amid COVID-19

CEC is exploring how, together with you, we can turn the COVID-19 pandemic into a catalyst moment for how we build deep community resilience and address the impacts of climate change in our region.
Read below for resources, thought pieces, and actions you can take now.

Future Ancestors

The following is part of a series of reflections CEC’s CEO Sigrid Wright occasionally sends our leadership team about the…

Some moments change your life. Algunos momentos cambian tu vida.

Some moments change your life. It was January 2011 and I was crossing the street with my children in our…

Getting Real About Plastics and Recycling – Webinar Q & A

Below are questions and answers that were posed in our Getting Real About Plastics and Recycling Webinar. CEC staff and…

Finding Solar Joy – and Savings – During the Pandemic

We’re spending more time at home, which means many of us are rolling up our sleeves on long-delayed home improvement…

Inside Julia’s Kitchen: Meet Julia Blanton, SBC Food Rescue Program Coordinator

Recently on Inside Julia’s Kitchen, a podcast of The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts, host Todd…

Embajador de la Comunidad: Being a CEC Ambassador To and For the Community

Embajador de la Comunidad: Being a CEC Ambassador To and For the Community Recently, I needed to translate “Community Ambassador”…

TEDxSantaBarbara: The Pandemic Did Not Solve the Climate Crisis

TEDxSantaBarbara: The Pandemic Did Not Solve the Climate Crisis CEC's CEO Sigrid Wright recently joined TEDxSantaBarbara's Mark Sylvester to discuss…

For The Community Environmental Council, The Show Must Go On

For The Community Environmental Council, The Show Must Go On, by Kara Shoemaker This article was originally published by…

Navigating by New Constellations

The following is part of a series of reflections CEC’s CEO Sigrid Wright occasionally sends our leadership team about the…

Adaptive Leadership Practices: CEC CEO Sigrid Wright on Adapting During a Crisis

California has received global attention for its goal of requiring all new homes to be zero net energy (ZNE) by 2020. A big component of achieving ZNE has been to sharply ratchet up energy-efficiency improvements in buildings. The challenge is turning out to be the glut of solar power during the afternoon but not enough renewable power after sundown to meet heavy evening demand. The crux is not having enough energy storage capacity. By CEC President's Council Member, Dennis Allen. This post originally appeared in the Santa Barbara Independent on August 7, 2020

Resilience From the Ground Up

Climate resilience and community resilience are so intimately connected, it’s hard to think about one without the other, as the…

Unraveling the Kinks in the Local Food Chain to Build and Sustain a Resilient Food System

Like a heat map, the COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to areas of strain, places where we need to pay…

The Long Emergency

The following is part of a series of reflections CEC’s CEO Sigrid Wright occasionally sends our leadership team about the…

Saving Food, Saving Lives: Santa Barbara County Food Rescue During COVID-19

Crisis Response Directly after the stay-at-home order went into effect on March 19, I began hearing about the increased…

Burn Your Maps

The following is part of a series of reflections CEC’s CEO Sigrid Wright occasionally sends our leadership team about the…

The Earth Without Us: An Earth Day Reflection from Sigrid Wright

Here we are, weeks and months into an unprecedented global exploration into isolation due to COVID-19. And once again, the most poignant takeaway of this new territory may very well be our keen rediscovery of how our lives depend on one another.

Sigrid Wright, Director Of The Community Environmental Council. | Credit: Daniel Dreifuss

How COVID-19 Could Help Us Get Through the Climate Crisis

This piece originally appeared in the Santa Barbara Independent on April 15, 2020. Read their full Earth Day issue here.…

How the Pandemic Could be a Crossroads for the Climate

The pandemic could be a crossroads for the climate if we act together now. We’ve learned a few key things from the climate movement that can be helpful here. And vice versa; what we’re learning from this extremely challenging public health crisis could make this a watershed moment for climate change and an enormous opportunity for transformation.

Bold, Timely Solutions That Can Inform COVID-19 Community Needs #climateresilience

The pandemic exposes our region's social, economic and environmental strengths and vulnerabilities – the exact type of community resilience CEC's Climate Resilience Roundtables are designed to help us work toward together. See community-driven solutions we've developed that could support us in this time.

The Blades Of Wind Turbines Catch The Breeze At The Saddleback Ridge Wind Farm In Carthage, Maine. (Robert F. Bukaty / Asssociated Press)

Here’s what a coronavirus-like response to the climate crisis would look like

LA Times Both the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change are global crises with the power to derail economies and kill millions of people. Society has moved far more aggressively to address the coronavirus than it has the climate crisis. But some experts wonder if the unprecedented global mobilization to slow the pandemic might help pave the way for more dramatic climate action.

Coronavirus Shows Us Rapid Global Response To Climate Change Is Possible

Teen Vogue The way the world has been able to mobilize itself and shut down in the blink of an eye to properly respond to the coronavirus is proof that political leaders actually do have the ability to make rapid change happen if they want. So where is that rapid response for the climate crisis?

Panic Illustration. María Medem / New York Times

Climate Change Has Lessons for Fighting the Coronavirus

New York Times Global efforts to slow down warming offer a cautionary tale for the effort to slow down the pandemic.

How You Can Take Action Toward Climate Resilience

Climate resilience is community resilience – a whole community approach that ensures everyone’s wellbeing is considered. It requires deep thinking, surfacing of issues such as inequity and inclusion, and long-term planning so we don’t continue to operate the same old ways in a world that has changed.

Get regular updates each week as we add new information:

Please contact our Outreach & Education Director, Kathi King, at [email protected] if there are resources we should add to this page or other support we can provide during this challenging time.