On Saturday I was covering the Earth Day celebrations at the Beaver Lodge Lands.
As I was leaving, Chuck DeSorcy from Greenways Land Trust asked me what my Earth Day Pledge was. I was kind of caught unawares, not really sure what I could do to make an impact toward climate change.
I consider myself quite “with it” when it comes to climate change action. I divert 90 per cent of my waste to recycling and compost — the only “garbage” I throw out is when I empty the vacuum, since I can’t be sure there are no microplastics in the dust. I use only hydroelectric power, which can be said for most British Columbians since BC Hydro is our major electricity provider. I thrift more than I shop new, and when I do shop new I make sure to do it from local businesses. I hold on to electronics and other high-value items long after they expire, and when my ancient technology bites the dust I try as hard as I can to replace them with used items. I do not eat meat, and am phasing out other animal products. I have taken my money out of banks that fund fossil fuel exploration. I garden, compost and try to return carbon to the soil through those kinds of methods. I try not to fly, and when I do I purchase carbon offsets for the flight.
The only place I feel like I am failing is with driving my car, which I have to do in order to get to work.
But DeSorcy had a point. There is always more you can do. For example, even though I try to recycle as much as possible I can choose to purchase food that doesn’t come in packaging. I can buy beer in growlers instead of cans, I can use my own bulk bags instead of buying plastic bags of potatoes. I can bake my own sweets at home instead of buying packaged granola bars. I can ride my bike for non-work trips. All of these are things I can do to make even a little more of an impact to reducing the effects of climate change.
I’m not the only one who can do this, either. Choosing to live sustainably can be intimidating. The amount of work that is needed to acheive true sustainability is astounding. It also can lead to paralysis, because at the end of the day the small things we can do pale in comparison to the massive effects big corporations, industries and governments have on the environment. Me choosing to bike to the grocery store doesn’t do much when compared to the fact that there are hundreds of coal fired power plants constantly belching out CO2.
That being said, imagine the effects that millions of people each doing a few small things would have. If the roughly 40 million Canadians all decided to do a few small things, that’s up to 100 million small things that each have an impact. Now we’re talking about the same kind of scale as shutting down a few coal plants. That kind of groundswell in positive change will have other effects too. Using less electronics, for example, will lower your hydro bill, and will put less strain on the system, which will make it easier to run on hydroelectricity without having to add fossil fuels into the mix. People changing their banks to credit unions or other banks that do not subsidize fossil fuels will eventually lead to the big banks having to adapt to meet the new carbon-friendly market.
More people choosing to bike to work even part of the time will increase demand for bike lanes, which will themselves make more people want to bike to work. These are the kinds of positive feedback loops that can come up when we hit critical masses, and they’re all good.
Earth Day may be over for the year, but we all live on this Earth every day. There’s always more we can do, and we need to do everything we can. There are many resources out there to help. I would recommend getting in touch with local groups like Strong Towns Campbell River, Greenways Land Trust, the Beaver Lodge Trust Society or Youtube channels like Gittemary Johansen or