Why I'm Writing a Climate Out-Of-Office
Dear client–please bill your late project fees to the climate crisis.
It’s been really hot this month. The Pacific Northwest was hit with an unseasonably early heat dome. It fuelled the fires (literally), and some of my loved ones were scarily close to evacuation zones. It was only the beginning of May. Across Canada, the number of wildfires raging is already 100+ higher than ANY other full fire season collectively in the last 6 years. And it’s only May. Fire season runs until September. It’s a stark reminder that things are “fine” and climate crisis is happening “elsewhere”… until it isn’t.
But back to the recent heat dome. While it was nothing like the wet bulb event (heat dome + high humidity) of 2021 for heat, it was still too much. I live in a part of the world where this type of heat is uncommon. My apartment building doesn’t have AC (almost nobody in the city does), and in fact, it’s specified in my lease that it’s illegal to independently install it. It was 30C/87F inside the apartment all week during the day, with relatively high humidity. My computer still functioned (unlike the 2021 heat dome where temperatures were in the low 30s at the coolest part of the night), but working in those conditions is unsustainable, makes it difficult to focus, and is still hard on the technology (not that that’s a deeply important reason haha).
It’s also stressful. It is challenging to work in extreme weather events for emotional reasons; you have to really focus on keeping yourself hydrated and experiencing a climate-triggered event is quite honestly scary and traumatic as well. Is it going to get worse? Will my loved ones be okay? Even if it’s a “mild” event, it demands time and space to reckon with and handle. I attempted to work through the wet bulb in 2021 where humidity was close to 100% and the heat was high-30s inside during the day. I regretted it. As I took meetings that my computer could barely handle, through the lag my clients asked if “it was really hot, or something?” to my video feed where I had a wet towel around my neck, face visibly flushed. It wasn’t their fault: I should have cancelled the meeting.
Even if my computer managed to make it through the lag, my brain was just as laggy. Those conditions were truly dangerous, and we had to focus primarily on keeping our core body temperatures cool at regular intervals: lots of cold showers, cold cloths, water. Over 600 people died in my province during that heat dome. Medications were compromised, further exasperating deaths and emergency visits.
When heat events come now, I’m extra careful to take care of myself. And there will be more this summer. I can hope there’s no wet bulb events, as those are supposed to be “once in a decade” events, but who knows; climate crisis means those events won’t be once in a decade for long. North America is now entering an El Niño weather season where the temperatures are no longer being mitigated and subdued under La Nina. The Guardian just released an article saying partially due to this, but mostly due to human activities, the world is likely to breach the 1.5C warming threshold by 2027. This won’t be permanent:
Prof Petteri Taalas, the secretary general of the WMO, said: “This report does not mean that we will permanently exceed the 1.5C specified in the Paris agreement, which refers to long-term warming over many years. However, WMO is sounding the alarm that we will breach the 1.5C level on a temporary basis with increasing frequency.”
Global average surface temperatures have never before breached the 1.5C threshold. The highest average in previous years was 1.28C above pre-industrial levels.
The report, published on Wednesday, found there was a 66% likelihood of exceeding the 1.5C threshold in at least one year between 2023 and 2027.
But it certainly means more difficult working conditions and harder, scarier times ahead.
All this is why I’m making a climate-related event out of office this year. It may be inconvenient for some clients, but it’s unhealthy and unsafe to work in these climate events. It applies to the Fall season as well: British Columbia can be hit with huge storms that cause large-spread flooding, cracked BC’s largest highway in half in 2021, and can knock out the power for days, depending on where you live and what the conditions are. I don’t want to sheepishly write another individual email to a client apologizing that my power might be lost because of a storm while I’m anxious about the severity and whether or not it’ll impact us directly. These events WILL become more and more common.
So an OOO it is.
In all seriousness, though, communication even in times of stress is important to clients and maintaining a business. It doesn’t mean I have to work under difficult weather conditions though; that’s part of the privilege of being self-employed. My out of office will actually read something like this:
Hello!
Thank you for emailing us at Little Fox. Unfortunately, due to an extreme weather event in British Columbia, we are unable to work properly, and will only be intermittently able to reply to emails. The climate crisis weather event is expected to pass by [DATE HERE], at which we will resume normal operations when it is possible/safe to do so and reply to you ASAP.
If you have a meeting scheduled with us or an important deliverable, we have messaged you to know whether or not we have to reschedule, in the case of a power outage.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
Emma
Feel free to steal it for yourself, if you’d like! Depending on the event, I might add in some details about the particular event. When the highway broke in 2021, our clients didn’t understand the severity of the storm until those photos that they texted us a few days later, asking us OMG ARE YOU OK? as they hit international news. In retrospect, I could have made the OOO a tongue-in-cheek message about how our power had been knocked out by the storm, and also just popped in a photo of the cracked highway to prove it was “serious”, although it’s silly in of itself to prove that the storm you’re experiencing has to be serious enough to not be able to work…
Anyway, I hope all the PNWers who follow made it through this last heat wave safely, and that if you’re reading this from another part of the world where a climate crisis-triggered weather event is ongoing that it passes through your area as safely as possible too. I wish I had a more meaningful balm to soothe off this one, to say hey, it’ll be okay, check out this cool thing, but I don’t have anything this week. It’s been a tough one.
~ Emma
Mini Note: I wanted to send out a shorter post after last week’s tome on Instagram that was 5,000 words long. If you’re enjoying my Substack, please consider supporting me by liking the post, writing a comment or subscribing if you haven’t yet!
Schedule Update: I’m going to be sending these weekly essays out on every Tuesday now, officially! :)
Update from the ‘I Hate Instagram’ post: I just read about how Meta is rolling out their version of Twitter’s verified blue check mark “Meta Verified” for a monthly subscription fee. It’s being marketed as a way to ensure authenticity and increase security for reliable sources, but on Facebook’s official blog post they describe the feature like this:
“We want to make it easier for people, especially creators, to establish a presence so they can focus on building their communities on Instagram or Facebook.”
With Meta Verified, you’ll get:
A verified badge, confirming you’re the real you and that your account has been authenticated with a government ID¹.
More protection from impersonation with proactive account monitoring for impersonators who might target people with growing online audiences.
Help when you need it with access to a real person for common account issues.
Increased visibility and reach with prominence in some areas of the platform– like search, comments and recommendations².
Exclusive features to express yourself in unique ways³.
As an update from March 17th, Meta Verified has been rolled out to the USA, but with one small change. Meta remarked that “We’re removing increased reach as a subscription feature for now, as we gather more feedback and further evolve Meta Verified.” however, this is by no means a removal of this option, just a temporary pause while the feature is in beta. Likely this is due to the fact that businesses are unable to apply for Meta Verified due to technical details around the verification process. I’m sure once this is sorted, they’ll bring back this feature to the blue badge.
So, yeah, the enshittification continues slowly; I fear soon non-paying free users will be even more pushed out of the algorithm than they already are. Yuck.
Reading: I Can Hear the Sunspot - a very cute gay romance manga about a deaf boy and the boy who takes notes in university for him. I recently finished “A Map for the Missing” which made me cry (It is a story about a Chinese man returning home to China for the first time to find his missing father and reckoning with his past.) and I wanted something a little fluffier after.
Watching: Skip and Loafer and it is adorable.
Listening: Not Taylor Swift :(
Some Bonus Things You May or May Not Want to Check Out
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The Green Graphic Design Course: For further education on Green Graphic Design, our complete educational offer (use code: SUBSTACK for 10% off).
Our YouTube Channel: For webinar replays discussing green graphic design, studio politics, sustainable packaging and more.
So sad to hear about the people that died in that heat dome. 600 is an unfathomable number...
“once in a decade” events are like the so-called 'unprecedented' events that keep being precedented lol
The shattered glass in the desert image was pretty cool and honestly the concept of OOO for climate reasons is so new to me but totally makes sense once explained. Thank you for sharing your template - I hope I don't have to use it at all this year lol