I’ve been feeling a little lost lately. If you know me, you’re aware how unusual this is for me. For a while, I’ve shared how walking this path at the intersection of people and planet has been life-clarifying for me. As a mom of two, writer, and in general ‘show-and-tell expert’ of easy, equitable, low-waste living, I delight in being stubbornly optimistic. And most days, I make it all the way to the end in this manner…despite the trash bin fire that the world is right now.
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End of Summer
I just returned from my annual summer trip visiting family in India. Weather-wise, this is the worst time to visit – 40-degree temps and unpredictable monsoons make travel and hangouts complicated. Plentiful mangoes and longer vacation times soothe the discomfort, though, so we go back every summer.
In India, the impact of the changing climate is quite evident. What’s also clear is the careful planning, preparation and the WORK that is going into reducing those same impacts. Metal nets shape mountainsides to prevent landslides, trees are being planted to hold back soil erosion, solar panels are everywhere, plastic use is way down, and young people are learning about forgotten native plants and rewilding the earth wherever they can. Yet, garbage is a huge problem, villages are washed away every season, floods, food shortages, extreme heat and droughts are more commonplace than ever before.
The view of my mum’s garden in Gurgaon, North IndiaBack home in Toronto, life continues as if the changing climate is somebody else’s problem
While I was away, Toronto had more 40-degree summer days than ever before, air quality was far worse here than New Delhi, forest fires consumed 3.7 million hectares of land (approx. 6X the area of Prince Edward Island), and despite knowing that 90%+ of our plastic cannot be recycled, plastic use is way, way up.
The impact of the changing climate is quite evident on this side of the world, too, but we’re falling behind on the planning, preparation and WORK that will help to reduce the impacts that are coming our way.
Climate change is here. We know what the solution is. To reduce our greenhouse gas emissions at a personal and societal level. We do the first by changing our individual habits and routines, by using less water and fuel, buying less, reducing food waste, bringing in less plastic into our lives, and by choosing low-impact foods like lentils and beans, grains, and fresh, fermented, dried or frozen fruit and veg over meat. We tackle the second by reducing our society’s dependence on fossil fuels and plastic, and by compelling our political leaders to do the same. Far-reaching goals, right?
Thankfully, there’s an overwhelming majority of us who believe in moving forward with stronger climate actions. I recently shared about the 89 Percent Project that reported how 80 to 89% of the world’s people want their governments to take stronger climate action. That’s an incredible majority of people around the world who want to build a safer, more resilient world for all.
A lot is going on in the world right now, and every conversation I have had recently has been about war, starvation and public anger. The very foundations of our world – food, financial, and social systems – are shaking. A fair, just and peaceful world is around the corner, but the actual act of moving us all past the corner is proving to be grindingly slow, incredibly hard and CONFUSING!
So in this time of conflict and confusion, what can we do?
Pick Just One Thing Today – and because I love acronyms, PJOTT
Here’s mine in this moment: Protect Nature. As other resources dwindle, we need nature, our forever ally, more than ever. So coast to coast, continent to continent, wherever you find yourself today, whatever your age, career or position in society, make choices that will protect our air and fresh water, trees and shrubs, wetlands and prairies, streams, rivers and lakes, and mountains too.
Go for a walk and see how she’s doing where you live. Avoid Chat GPT while you’re doing so. AI in its current form is depleting our resources at an incredible rate.
Here’s to a fresh start in September.