“The trouble is, you think you have time” ...
Right now, our world's climate is sitting at 1.1°C, and even if we're choosing to ignore it,
we’re already experiencing the effects of this heating.
Currently, the Red Cross estimates there are as many as 50 million climate refugees (15 million more people than the entire population of Canada).
With each increase, our collective reality is predicted to worsen, and it is important to understand just how much at each interval in order to be driven to prevent it from becoming our shared reality.
At 2°C degrees of warming,
153 million people will die from air pollution alone (
more than the entire population of Russia, the 9th most populated country in the world).
At 3°C rise in temperatures, the changes we've created in the climate will become irreversible, creating room for record-breaking heatwaves and wildfires, more intense flooding, sea level rise and intense hurricanes, killing many and making much of the world unlivable, increasing the climate refugee numbers.
When we reach 4°C or more, the global human population is expected to reduce by 80% or 90%", and there is no certainty amongst scientists that we, nor any other living thing, will be able to adapt to this.
"We need such dramatic interventions in every sector of our world, from our energy to our transportation, to our infrastructure, our agriculture," David Wallace-Wells said in a
recent interview, "absolutely every aspect of modern life has a carbon footprint, and we need to not just reduce those carbon footprints, we need to eliminate them entirely."
FACING YOUR ECO-ANXIETY
I know this information creates eco-anxiety, as I type this I'm quaking in my boots out of a combination of fear and too much coffee. But we have a choice; fear the future and be fueled to change it, or ignore it, and allow our civilization to perish at the hands of collective inaction.
This is the story of our lifetime, what we do with it will write history in a way that human existence never has before. Our actions today, tomorrow, this month, this year, and this decade will decide on whether there is a future, ou si c'est la fin.
That's the choice. It's as black and white as decisions come, and it's time we stop pretending there's any grey area to swim in.
If we can adopt drastic new politics, put people in positions of power that will take radical action in response to climate breakdown, if we can transform our communities to reflect future living, then a livable future for all of us is still an option. But no one is going to do the work for us, each member of our species has to explode into action both individually and collectively.
I’m as guilty as the next person in falling for the falsely that we can buy our way out of this mess. Capsule wardrobes, plastic packaged vegan food, and zero waste lifestyles are not going save the planet, nor halt global heating, no help reverse it. These ideas and ideals help, every little bit helps. I’m not trying to minimize the efforts anyone is making, but we have to be honest with ourselves and know that we don't have time for baby steps, we need leaps and bounds.
Each step towards a brighter future starts with us. Through the wee pearls of wisdom I've gathered over my years of writing on this subject, I'm going to share the most effective ways (as far as I understand) to invest in fixing this situation as quickly and concisely as we can.
First, you need to understand
CARBON IS NOT THE ENEMY, the problem we have right now is too much carbon has been extracted from the bedrock of our planet and pumped out into the atmosphere. This
overpopulation of carbon has caused global heating and climate breakdown. But carbon plays an important role on this planet, and when drawn down into the soil and sequestered, it feeds life and all living things. Carbon isn't evil, we've just put it in the wrong element.
Once this is understood, we can look at our lives and explore how we can reduce our carbon footprint, prevent further global heating, and even, reverse global warming. Not just as individuals but as a society:
2. JOIN IN THE UPRISING
Join the actual uprising against the 1% who are responsible for the climate crisis we are in. Force governments to declare a climate emergency and meet
Extinction Rebellion's demands, join the
Sunrise Movement, join
Idle No More, align yourself with
Decolonize This Place ... it's all connected and all important, invest in branches of these movements going on in your community to help make drastic and powerful change.
3. VOTE FOR CLIMATE CONSCIOUS POLITICIANS
If they don't have the climate emergency at the top of their list, they're probably not the best people to deal with this.
4. MOVE YOUR MONEY TO AN ETHICAL BANK
Divest from banks funding climate breakdown, click
here for the how to.
5. DECLARE YOURSELF AN EARTH PROTECTOR
Ecocide Law is simple, powerful, and possible, and together we can make it happen. All you need to do is
click this link, declare yourself an '
earth protector' and donate 5€. You can read more about what Ecocide Law is,
here.
6. DISPOSE OF YOUR REFRIGERATORS & COOLING SYSTEMS RESPONSIBLY
I know it's nuts and completely random, but it is one of the most effective ways of preventing climate breakdown. Read more
here.
In Maslow's hierarchy of needs, there are five sections of human motivations which work in sequential order: physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.
For any of us to pursue the next step, the one before must be met.
Right now, the majority of Western culture is focused on 'esteem' and 'self-actualization'. For most of us, the first three tiers we enjoy were gifted by our 'forefathers' actions. But this gift was only made possible by preventing others from having their 'basic human needs' met, which is a shit gift to give to anyone.
If climate breakdown and global heating continues, the false foundations we've built our ‘freedom’ on will be ripped out from under every one of us. So while the tip of the triangle might feel like a beautiful thing to bask in, the truth is that these pools of privilege we swim in are directly responsible for the web of problems our world is wrapped in.
We with apparent 'self-actualization' met, were/are accountable for continuing to drive change; However, we stopped paying attention to anything but ourselves, making space for the disturbed members of our society to dash around doing the dirty deeds that propped the hoax of our hierarchy, perpetuated pain, and polluted our air, soil, and seas.
In reality, as a society, until EVERYONE has their basic 'physiological', 'safety', and 'belonging' needs met and secured, there is no real authenticity nor substance in the top tiers.
Those of us sitting in that spurious space, need to adjust our attention away from the mirror and do what we can to repair the future we wrecked and the past we darkened.
Climate resilience and social justice walk hand-in-hand, they’re inseparable. That's the way mama nature intended things, and that’s possibly why acts which address climate breakdown are so magical. Each solution to filling and securing the triangle of another also happens to be amongst the most effective options we have for reversing global warming/heating. Powering the possibility for a regenerative equality that our species has never seen.
The first step is the physical requirements for our survival: food, water, sleep, shelter. Investing in securing all of these for EVERYONE in your local community, and abroad, WILL REVERSE GLOBAL HEATING and PREVENT CLIMATE BREAKDOWN. If we can achieve just this first tier for all in the next 5-10 years, we'll have legs to stand on.
FOOD
The most effective way to ensure we have food while also reversing global heating is through eating a
PLANT-RICH DIET (
does not need to be vegan) produced through
REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE (AGRO-ECOLOGY) and
REDUCING FOOD WASTE while we're at it, these acts combined can reverse
global heating by over 200 gigatons by 2050.
Regenerative food is produced through no-till, pesticide/fertilizer/herbicide-free farming, which keeps carbon in the ground sequestering it to build more soil, feeding life above and below ground. It creates healthy soil aggregates, increases the nutrition value of the plant, conserves groundwater, and aids in the resilience of drought and flooding. This type of food production is a gift from the world's indigenous people, offering a way of producing food that leaves the planet better off for the fact that it has occurred.
We must also stop eating foods which are out of season and/or shipped thousands of miles to get to us. Investing in the future of food means investing in regenerating local lands and supporting your local economy. Learn how you can invest in your local community, eat well, build soil, and regenerate the planet by making conscious purchasing decisions with this free guide: CLICK HERE Kiss The Ground.
WATER
REDUCING WATER CONSUMPTION is key, from
individual use to
the supply chains of major corporations, like GE. Every time we use water at home, it consumes energy, so when we take a shower, have a bath, do laundry, wash dishes, flush toilets, run taps, water plants, not only is fresh water consumed, and if that water is hot, or if a machine is used, it also consumes energy, which is produced through burning fossil fuels. If
95% of us adopted low-flow taps and showerheads, we could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 4.6 gigatons by 2050. If in addition we can invest in solar water heating, and the market for this grew by
25 per cent, the technology can deliver emissions reductions of 6.1 gigatons of carbon dioxide by 2050.
Throughout the
UNITED STATES,
CANADA, and the world, Indigenous communities still do not have access to safe drinking water. Find out what is going on in your Province or State and aide in ensuring the rightful owners of the land have access to its elements.
SHELTER
Our shelters use huge amounts of energy, cause huge amounts of pollution, and are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. For every new house built, the equivalent of another ends up in the landfill, so making what we have more efficient is a great way to aid in the reduction of fossil fuel burning and drawdown.
GREEN ROOFS and
COOL ROOFS could help create better energy efficiency and
reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 0.8 gigatons.
RENEWABLE ENERGY is offered by a number of companies in several different states and provinces. In general, all you need to do is sign up for it. Most electric companies will incorporate the charges into your electric bill, drawing the equivalent amount of energy you use from renewable sources. You just need to get in touch with your local provider and find out what your options are. If you can retrofit your roof with
solar, or have land to put an onshore wind
turbine on or start a
solar farm, DO IT.
The combinations of these shelter efforts, if made the norm,
could reverse global heating by over 200 gigatons by 2050.
