There is hope.
Even in — especially in — the darkest moment.
Climate gives us everything we need to live.
It gives us everything that we love, cherish, everything we care about.
To ignore it — or pretend we’re helpless and nothing can be done — is nothing less than suicidal.
There is hope, if you take action.
Will you join the team?
Take action on Climate – GoodWork.ca/TakeAction
Climate change jobs, careers & volunteering – GoodWork.ca/Climate
This is what climate change looks like, American style. But it’s the same or worse, around the world.
Record breaking storms and heat waves. Millions and millions are struggling. Yet in this in-depth coverage, there is not one mention of climate change. Why not — let’s blame the electricity utility…
WATCH: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6446524 (5 minutes)
If we don’t stop driving, flying, consuming without limit — this is just the beginning.
Rather than the problem, would you like to be part of the solution?
Don’t wait for the neighbours. Work for climate action, as if your life matters! — GoodWork.ca/Climate
Are we awake, alive? Do our lives matter? Or maybe even… our kids? Or do cars and corporations matter more? Would you let billions perish as a result of thoughtless driving back and forth, belching climate chaos? Will you act as if your life matters?
Or do you prefer extreme weather, food shortages, housing crisis, war?
Please think about this and rise to the challenge! Do what you can, no less, no more. All our lives depend on it. There is so much you can do — if only you wake up, turn off the Neflix, get off your butt, act as if life matters.
What matters more?
Fancy cars aren’t “cool”. They never have been. Shallow egos, destroying themselves and their world. #Wildfires #Tornados #Floods #Heatwaves #Famine. Our addiction to cars and consumerism is nothing if not murderous.
What’s really cool? People who spend their time and energy on life, not consumer stupidity. People who leave the wheels at home and find a better way.
Yes, in our self-destructed world — built with little foresight by the oil and motor companies — I too have a car, out of necessity. But it is a modest car and I use as little as possible. I would not spend one extra dollar on this fundamentally corrupt industry.
What is this paved, smoggy hell that our communities have become? Is this the best we can do? Will we work together to build happy, healthy communities from which we don’t to “hit the highway” and escape?
Yes, electric cars are a notch better, but only a notch. It’s still a highway to hell.
Cars are not cool. They are murder weapons, destroying our communities, our lives, our world. So the next time somebody drives by you in a BMW, Mercedes, whatever …give your head a shake. They are the lowest depths of society, absolutely nothing to aspire to.
But we are creatures of habit, most people haven’t begun to think this through. The bottom line: it is our climate that gives us air, water, food, life. Cars and materialist, consumer culture are destroying all this. Meanwhile, the illusion of a “life of leisure” and the “open road” have tricked us into a fatal situation.
Will you join the forces for change?
#driveless #flyless #depave #sustainableliving #degrowth #carfree #localism
If we are to survive what’s coming, we need to take our feet off the gas. And instead, learn to use the legs and brains we were born with.
I picked up my son from work today, driving my “car”.
Why?
Because the air is so bad that it would be unhealthy to walk or cycle.
Bitter irony. The wildfires — caused by fossil-fool driving, flying, consuming — gave me no choice but to burn more fossil fuels. So I drive, only to cause more wildfires, more climate chaos.
Once in our car, temporarily sealed off from the world, my son says, “it feels like I’m cheating”.
“Everyone is cheating”, I replied. We’ve all been lured into a world where we’ve forgotten how to use our own legs, how to live in our own bodies, our own communities.
Instead we sit on our butts and press the gas pedal.
It’s killing us and our world.
There is a better way, a better life! Are we even looking?
Image: AndySinger.com
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!
– Peter Blanchard
#climatecrisis #climateemergency #climatecollapse vs. #climateaction #activeliving #activemobility #activetransportation #sustainableliving #degwowth | Wikipedia: Sustainable transport | Active mobility
@International Federation of Pedestrians @Canada Walks @America Walks @Walk Toronto @Walkable Ottawa @Centre for Active Transportation @BEST Vancouver BC @Car Free Day Vancouver @Twitter | @Facebook
“You may say I’m a a dreamer, but I’m not the only one” – John Lennon
Students Strikes for Climate Action
Friday May 3, across Canada
Toronto: Toronto Queens Park, May 3, 12:30 – 2:30pm | Ongoing
Ottawa: Parliament Hill, May 3, 11am – 3pm | Ongoing
Many more locations:
https://cop24climatestrike.com/
Facebook | #FridaysForFuture | #SchoolStrike4Climate | #ClimateStrike
Fridays worldwide:
Fridaysforfuture.org (2) | #FridaysForFuture
More info, organizations, volunteering: GoodWork.ca/fridays
This was a healthy tree. And behind it? That was an apartment building.
True, you can’t prove that this specific tornado was caused by climate change. But there’s an abundance of evidence that climate change is causing more frequent and severe extreme weather events — and that climate change is caused primarily by humans. So while we can’t prove this tornado was entirely caused by climate change, the chances are pretty good it would have been less powerful or occurred somewhere else. 1600 homes damaged or destroyed. So the next time you hop on an airplane, or choose fossil fuels over solar or pedal power: think again. What are you doing to your neighbours, your children, maybe even yourself? This is what climate change looks like. We all need to kick the fossil-fuel habit as best we can!
More: Ottawa tornado | How to help (more) | Climate change action
If you care about our children, and haven’t watched this extraordinary 10 minute speech by @Elizabeth May you need to do so right now…
“The good news is we still have a chance to save ourselves. To save the lives of our children, what would we not do? We as homo sapiens, the clever species, the smart ones, have at most 10 to 12 years to ensure that we stop greenhouse gas emissions. We are stepping up. We are going to rescue everybody…” — Elizabeth May | Youtube | Facebook
Climate change jobs, volunteering, more: GoodWork.ca/be-the-change
Continue reading ““To save the lives of our children, what would we not do?””
“After the panicky IPCC report on climate change, it’s easy for pessimism to set in — but that would be conceding defeat. Climate change is an inescapable present and future reality, but the point of the IPCC report is that there is still a chance to seize the best-case scenario rather than surrender to the worst. A bunch of her friends posted variations on “we’re doomed” and “it’s hopeless”, which perhaps made them feel that they were in charge of one thing in this overwhelming situation, the facts. They weren’t, of course. They were letting understandable grief at the news morph into an assumption that they know just how the future is going to turn out. They don’t.”
There’s no time for wallowing in denial or despair! It’s time for individual and collective action, not avoidance! Our lives depend on it.
Full story: Don’t despair: the climate fight is only over if you think it is | Rebecca Solnit | Opinion | The Guardian
Guardian: ‘Feeling “This is too big for me” is no use to anybody’
Grist: U.N. climate report shows civilization is at stake if we don’t act now
PeterBlanchard.ca 