OUT FROM THE COLD

Although COVID-19 forced her hand, travel writer Nina Karnikowski was on her new path before the virus even had a name, having been inspired while on assignment in the Arctic in August 2019. In a Canadian town called Churchill, the so-called polar bear capital of the world, Karnikowski learnt about the impact our consumptive human behaviours (including air travel) was having on these remarkable animals, as well as our planet.

“I returned home with the realisation that I simply could not continue to travel with the speed and frequency I had been. I had to adapt and do better,” she says.

For those looking to make similar changes in their own life, Karnikowski suggests simplifying everything. “Get a bit Marie Kondo on your life,” she says, referring to the Japanese tidying guru. “Pare back so you can free yourself up and make sure you’re living the life you really want to live, a life that connects you to others and purpose and the planet, and not just the life society tells you, you need to be living.”