There is not one solution to the climate crisis, engineering advancements are only one piece of the puzzle. Human-centered designers are uniquely situated to meaningfully contribute to the important work of helping people adapt to our new climate realities.
The climate crisis is a challenge of a scale that humanity has never seen. Most of the discussion around mitigation of the climate crisis is engineering-centric, with technologies like carbon capture, renewable energy, and geo-engineering dominating the conversation. But technology will only get us so far, it is also necessary to re-think major support systems in our society, from what we eat, where we live, to how we work, and how we understand how value is created. There is no aspect of modern life that will be untouched by the climate crisis, and human centered design is uniquely positioned to get people through these transitions with as little negative impact on their lives as possible; designing austerity as a service.
For some context on what adaptation looks like, in addition to some ongoing research of mine, we will look to Dhaka, Bangladesh to get a glimpse of the future realities of climate refugees, we will take a look at the United States’ and British austerity measures to curtail consumption on the homefront during World War 2, and we will look to the Human Rights movement’s efforts to build a functional definition of dignity.
We will then discuss a potential path forward for design with the goal of highlighting the specific strengths of our field, and thinking through how we can have a positive impact on the world in our emerging context. Some of the questions we will be examining are:
– What could onboarding look like for high-impact shifts in daily life?
– How do we measure the disruption of core routines?
– How do you start small and slowly evolve personal limitations in ways that are manageable?
– What concessions, incentives, or substitutions could ease the transition to this new reality?
– How do we help maintain human dignity in the face of extreme disruption of life?
The goal of this hypothetical framework is not to present a solution, but to discuss some of the key questions that will help build the foundation to serve our local communities.
