All the good you don’t see

The heatwave in Europe right now is so fierce that nuclear reactors are shutting down and weather maps of the continent appear to be literally on fire. When temperatures flare like this, one might expect that people’s tempers would too. 

Obviously, they sometimes do. But we often forget how extreme climate shocks can also awaken people’s solidarity and instinct to care for one another.

Like when the four million people of Cape Town, South Africa averted a critical “Day Zero” shortage of drinking water by reducing consumption among wealthy people (along with a healthy dose of good luck). Or when countries around the world saved the ozone layer by agreeing to pass legislation—it is possible—to stop pumping chlorofluorocarbons into the atmosphere.  

Self-interest is obviously also a motivating factor in examples like these: if there’s no water for you, it’s just a matter of time before there’s no water for me. This lesson may be hard to grasp for people whose bank accounts insulate them from the struggles of everyday life, but it needs no explanation for those who lack the liquidity to build a bubble against misfortune.

That’s why, when society-wide catastrophes put our collective backs against the wall, people who have the least to give tend to be the most generous with what they do have. People with less give more, in other words.

If it’s not clear already, climate change is coming for all of us. So we have an incentive to work together—and this is already happening around the world.

In the United States, for example, a massive heat dome is building over the country that threatens a wave of havoc like the one sweeping Europe. But if (or when) extreme weather strikes, communities will be prepared thanks to the efforts of ordinary people who joined forces for mutual support and protection.

Distribute Aid partners from Los Angeles to Texas to the East Coast have spent years preparing for climate chaos. The American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN), for example, was founded in response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. They’re perfect partners for us because they play a similar role of connector between frontline groups and institutional donors.

Unlike the “lean”, fragile supply chains that dominate modern capitalism, disaster-resilient support systems aren’t dependent on single suppliers or delivery strategies. Instead, the strength of resilient supply chains comes from the diversity of their approach—if Option A isn’t available, there’s an Option B (or C, or D) that can be easily substituted. 

And as we’ve learned, it’s remarkable just how many people and organizations are willing to help when you ask them to be part of a coherent plan.

As ALAN’s director Kathy Fulton says, “[In] the past four years that ALAN has been working with Distribute Aid, businesses have stepped up to donate trucking services, material handling equipment like forklifts and pallet jacks, warehouse space, and even full analyses of how nonprofits and community based organizations should design their operations and networks.” 

We’ve also seen how generous individual people can be when a climate crisis hits, even when the impact is felt far from home. Following the Los Angeles wildfires in 2025, Landon Cheatham of Alex D Delivery volunteered to collect and haul supplies from Salt Lake City, UT all the way to Southern California—a journey of nearly 700 miles (1125 kilometers). 

“I was working 12-14 hours a day, if not more, before the fires started, “ says Landon. “When I realized I could help I knew the physical and mental cost would be staggering, but helping the people that needed it most was definitely worth it.”

That doesn’t mean it was easy, or a task to be approached casually. Landon and his wife spent days sorting donations and organizing a team of volunteers: from graphic designers who created attention-grabbing posters to tell people what was needed, to business owners who collected boxes full of supplies, to warehouse volunteers who loaded those boxes onto trucks. 

“At the end of the day I could stop and go home to my bed and my family,” says Landon. “There was a roof over my head and food in my stomach. The thought that I could be helping someone eat or get what they needed was constantly in the front of my mind nagging at me.” 

Landon’s desire to help turned out to be a more widely-shared sentiment than we often believe. The owner of his company, for example, volunteered the company’s trucks to transport the donations to Los Angeles. As Landon says, “There are so many people that you don't see helping [who] do it because they [love] these people that they've never met.”

Contrary to the messages we often receive from politicians and our culture at large, generosity and compassion are just as instinctual as selfishness. As Kathy, Landon, or anyone who has been inspired by these feelings could tell you, they feel better too. 

And we don’t need to be angels to be moved by them—it’s enough to simply be human.

PS. If you’d like to help people survive the heatwaves currently sweeping the US and Europe, here are the items our partners need the most: 

• Canned or bottled water

• Tarps/shade structures

• Batteries or solar chargeable power packs (for fans and other cooling tech)

• Fans of all sizes

• Electrolyte packets 

• Instant ice packs

• Insulin coolers

If you or your organization could make a bulk donation of any of these items, please get in touch at [email protected]. 

Quick hits

Here are a few more things you might find interesting:

• Even (or perhaps especially) if you don’t care much for football, Africa Is a Country’s coverage of tiny Cabo Verde’s Cinderella run through the World Cup—and how diaspora communities in the US celebrate it—is worth your time.

• Haiti’s first Cup appearance in more than 50 years may have ended, but not before filling the Haitian diaspora with pride at their fearless, joyful performances against global heavyweights.

• Speaking of the World Cup, here are the stories of nine refugees who fled war and oppression as children, before starring for their adoptive countries’ football squads.

• And if sports aren’t your thing, but you’re still interested in hearing some good news: here’s how Ghana cut child malaria deaths by 86 percent.