The power one person has to change the climate
We all must find a way to reduce our carbon footprint
You may have heard of Greta Thunberg. If not, you should watch her speech to the United Nations on YouTube, or check out her TED Talk. She’s a 16-year-old Swede, wise beyond her years, who is (hopefully) igniting worldwide climate action. Some of those actions include children and youth staging strikes called Fridays for Future to draw attention to and demand climate action.
In solidarity, student strikes are organized in Waterloo Region the first Friday of each month from 12:30-1:30 p.m. at different locations, supported by “adult” groups like Kitchener Waterloo Climate Save, RISE for Climate Waterloo, Divest Waterloo, local chapters of Citizens’ Climate Lobby and 350.org.
In a recent post on Facebook, Greta believed she had to explain why she was doing what she was doing to address complaints that she sounds and writes like an adult, and how she stopped talking and eating when she was 11 when she first learned about climate change. How she’s been at the receiving end of a lot of hate. How she was diagnosed with Asperger’s, obsessive-compulsive disorder and selective mutism. How she speaks the truth. Because the truth is black and white: we need to stop greenhouse gas emissions. I was in tears.
I often think of the half-century David Suzuki has spent informing, educating and pleading with us in multiple ways to look after our planet. What keeps him going? And why after all these decades of fact-based evidence are global carbon emissions still on the rise?
Einstein is credited with saying that if you keep doing the same thing you can’t expect to get a different result. Any smoker, drinker, dieter, addict or gambler knows how enormously difficult it is to change behaviour. But change we must. The time for talking is done; the time for taking action is essential.
We each need to find our own way to reduce our carbon footprint, and walk more gently on this planet so there is a livable future for our kids and grandkids.
There are multiple online resources to determine your personal carbon output and where you can improve. We have monetary and caloric budgets to stay in the red and in good health. Why not a carbon budget?
Take driving, for example. If you drive a car with an internal combustion engine that uses gas, Natural Resources Canada reports your car is responsible for the release of about 4,600 kilograms of CO2 into the atmosphere in one year.
If you multiply that by the 34,320,737 motor vehicle registrations in Canada (Statistics Canada report 2017), minus the 49,000 or so electric/plug-in vehicles bought in Canada between 2001 and 2018 (Green Car Reports) that’s about 157.6 million metric tons of CO2 every year. (I know the math isn’t perfect as I am just subtracting the accumulated EVs from the annual registration figure.)
The provincial government is doing its best to kill electric vehicles (EVs) in Ontario. Without rebates, with Metrolinx removing EV chargers from GO stations, and car manufacturers realizing there is no market for EVs in Ontario, it is exponentially more difficult to reduce our carbon output. In all fairness, there is hope the region’s public transit system will greatly improve with $10,715,713 in expected funding this year from the provincial government.
The general failure of our current provincial government to do its job must not stop us from doing ours. Reality dictates that we each have to halve our carbon output. Take your pick from the following list, and then pick something else, and then something else.
Plant trees. Carpool. Take public transit. Work from home. Ride a bike. Car share. Eat less meat. Turn your AC off and your heat down. Get involved with an environmental group and/or political party. Write letters to politicians. Talk to others. Repair instead of replace. Rent or share instead of buy. Buy local. Buy organic. Shut off the lights. Don’t waste food. Use refillable water bottles.
It’s easy to dismiss our individual actions as inconsequential, but they add up. As Greta has said, we need to step up and be adults about it, and good role models. Do we care enough about our future and the future of our children or grandchildren to take action?
Now here’s your inspirational quote from Ryunosuke Akutagawa: “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.” Let’s make some waves.