I’m putting up a post every Monday dedicated to taking action on climate and ecology. The posts are for discussing action, talking about how to manage, developing strategy, telling the stories of how things can be different and how we can make that happen right now.
I’m in favour of proactive pathways – if we are going to acknowledge and debate the scary stuff we have to, at the same time, talk about what we can do, and then go do something.
Last week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its ‘Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change (Working Group 3 report)’.
They didn’t hold back,
However the Working Group 3 report is about what we can do,
… there is still time to change our ways.
…
Many of the measures in the IPCC’s roadmap are cheap, quick, and doable with current technology. Some, like improved mass-transit systems, offer additional benefits, like creating new jobs and addressing socioeconomic inequity.
“The global benefits of climate action exceed the cost,” Stephanie Roe, a lead author on the report and a climate scientist at the World Wildlife Fund, told Insider.
That’s from a piece in Business Insider that featured on twitter over the weekend: Here are the 5 solutions that scientists say can make a dent in the ClimateCrisis right now. It’s mainstreamed.
It’s been good to see people rising to the challenge rather than sinking into despair.
Greenpeace International’s synopsis of the report was also encouraging, pointing to six key takeaways,
(Greenpeace’s longer key takeaway report is here PDF)
Honestly, what it looks like to me is that we just need to get on with doing it.
A priority for New Zealand is to pressure the government to step up and make meaningful change, not the ‘we’ll change eventually’ stance we’re currently taking. That’s pressure on Labour to shift its fundamental position and make climate central to everything else the government does. And pressure on the Greens to speak out more, boldly, and make it clear what needs to happen.
We have local body elections this year, an excellent time to support progressive candidates and demand that our local governance also does what is needed.
I’ll keep banging on about the lifestyle stuff. Buy local, use less, fly less, walk/bike more, eat more plants and less meat if that’s healthy for you, compost, mend, do all the small things that add up when we are all doing them. There’s a lot of talk about individual vs systemic change, but system change still requires that individuals change. Both/and.
I’ll also keep pointing out that for people to change so that we get system change, we need stories of how things can work out, not stories of the end of the world. Be real about the seriousness of the situation and then spend time on solutions (see Marc Daalder’s twitter thread). Nothing will spur inaction more than despair. Action comes from hope and empowerment.
So here’s the challenge for today. Alec Tang said in his tweet,
*if* we acknowledge the urgency at hand.
How can we do that? How do we get enough people understanding the urgency and willing to act?
I’m with her ^^^
Needless to say, I don’t allow climate denialism of any kind under my posts. That includes arguing the Bart defense (‘humans didn’t do it’), or the Gosman defense (BAU capitalism must reign supreme/change is too hard) or the McPherson defense (‘it’s too late’).
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