I am both a cyclist and a driver. But much more than that, I am a father in the age of climate crisis.
Fiona. Ian. Derecho. Floods. Fires. Famine. It’s almost back to back, but we’re doing next to nothing about it. Can we face the elephant in the room and prevent runaway climate change, collapse? Can we pause for a moment and reconsider our obsolete, short-sighted, rat-race lifestyles?
“We fly where we want. We drive where we want. We eat what we want. We buy what we want. That’s what’s driving growth. That’s what’s leading us to ecological & societal collapse. Thats what needs to change.” — ClimateDad
Do I love my car more than my kids? Not in a million years. We need to get most cars off the road to make way for real, people-centered community. When parents drive their kids to hockey practice, is it love? Or is it killing them?
The only way to survive the climate behemoth is much more radical change than most of us have even begun to think about.
Out of necessity I too drive when I must, in these crazy, suicidal times. But my heart sinks every time I turn the key. I’d love to park my car, share it, recycle it — anything but private car ownership for each of us.
Nobody knows for sure when we will cross the tipping points to runaway, unstoppable climate collapse. It’s not looking good. Those of us who choose not to drive might just be saving your kids lives.
But we can’t do it without you. It’s easy to be cynical… just a little bit harder to truly be alive. Besides, survival is so much more fun.
Let’s rebuild our lives, our world that the car has done so much to destroy!
When I look for #financialadvice at any major Canadian bank, I see virtually no mention of anything but money. No genuine concern for whether we will survive the #climatecrisis, #ecologicalbreakdown, #war and #militarism. The entire system is fundamentally divorced from the very thing that gives us life — our #ecosystem / #ecology / #environment . Or in short, the things we need every day: food, air and water.
Sure, there’s a niche for #ESG / #ImpInv / #SustainableFinance / #SustainableInvestment — and that’s great! All the financialadvisors in the world will tell you, “sure, that’s great, but” you’ll make much more money investing in the death machine, the military-industrial complex. Most people continue to dedicate their time and energy mindlessly to #fossilfuels and destruction. If you dare to do otherwise — kudos, you’re in a small but hopeful minority!
Our financial system is nothing short of obsolete, corrupt, suicidal. Will we see beyond our money?
“When the last tree is cut, the last fish caught, the last river poisoned, only then will we will realize, too late, that wealth is not in bank accounts, we can’t eat money.” — Indigenous saying
While we look for comfort to our bank balance, our net worth — how can we look our kids in the eye? Fully knowing how they will die slow deaths from floods, firestorms and war, thanks only to our short-sightedness and greed.
We can and must do better!
Photo credit: RMIT on flickr, Creative Commons, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
“The extreme flooding in B.C. is unusual. In the future, it won’t be.” – CBC News
Anger, is what I feel.
Anger, and also compassion. Because the people who are fanning the flames of the #climate crisis, with greed and blind materialism, are ultimately hurting themselves as well as everyone else. We’re all in this together.
I’m watching the devastating floods unfold on CBC. Just seconds later — multiple, aggressive ads, pushing huge, belching trucks to whomever will buy. At the same moment we have both the destruction, and the cause. Thoughtless, selfish, socially acceptable greed.
In each ad the shiny new pickups are shown destroying nature, each in a unique fashion. One has driven out to a caribou herd. Another is tearing up the ground, just for the fun of it. In the third, believe it or not, an idling truck roars so loudly that it destroys a snowman. A spitting image of exactly what we’re doing to the climate — too crazy but true.
The farmers and tradespeople who actually need trucks already have them, and are not the target of these ads. But the ads function as intended. Profiteering corporations pay tens of thousands of dollars to seduce their targets — many good people, our neighbours and friends. Through climate everyone is the victim.
Is this the world we want? Is this the best we can do?
What’s happening in BC is just the beginning — it’s up to us just how bad it will get. Our choices, our priorities, our actions or inaction. Lifestyles that once were okay, becoming nothing less than murder.
The ads themselves are criminal, should the law treat them as such? Or better yet, increase carbon taxes so high that such behaviour would be untenable?
We live in a society where we are ruled more by old habits and norms, than by using our brains. We’re more worried about doing what’s ‘cool’, than doing the right thing. That has to change, or we will perish.
Every day I see well-meaning people obliviously idling their cars. In parking garages, I see moms idling SUV’s with kids in the back, hatches wide open, slowly loading or unloading. Meanwhile, millions of us overheat our homes and workplaces, rather than dressing properly for winter.
What can you do about climate change?
There’s no longer any excuse.
There’s nobody to blame but ourselves.
We need to stop pointing fingers, pull together and act.
Or… don’t complain when storms, food shortages and even war, kill us and our children.
Will you be part of the change, the action, the work that needs to be done?
We all know how to put one leg in front of the other. But how many have really learned how to walk? Once you’ve mastered the tricks of the trade, walking is fun, great exercise and good for the environment.
(1) Time of day. Mornings can be ideal… it tends to have the bluest skies, and is the best time to enhance your circadian rythms, e.g. a good night’s sleep. But anytime is good, whatever works for you. Once or twice a day is ideal, but if you can’t do that, aim for every second day. Continue reading “10 tips for great urban walking…”
Grow for yourself, as a part-time or full-time job, learn, volunteer…
Whether you’re out of work, or would just like to get outside and pitch in, this is a great time to get growing! Options include your own backyard, neighbour’s backyards, community gardens, organic farms… www.FoodWork.ca/Grow
In our time — the anthropocene — how many of us are doing what really matters? How will history remember you, me, all the others who denied or despaired? Bilbo & Frodo didn’t run away from what needed to be done, or sit around and blame everyone else. Models of action, against all odds — exactly what we need today. Shall we rise to the challenge?
“I share this photo every spring, of a Scarlet Tanager pair that I found on the ground by a neighbor’s glass door. It was spring, and he must have been chasing her (she’s the one with yellow plumage). They both hit the glass and died instantly.
“I thought about the long journey these stunning neotropical migrants had made from their wintering grounds in South America, and all the challenges they’d overcome to return to their breeding grounds here in upstate NY. It just seemed heartbreaking and senseless for them to die this way.
PeterBlanchard.ca 