I could not let this Earth Day pass without acknowledging some things. So let's talk about success stories, and why we should have hope for the future.
For the first time in a long time I have hope in the environmental movement. Yes, there are still a lot of climate change deniers out there - and they are becoming more doomsayers than anything. I used to be one of them, a doomsayer, meaning that I didn't have much hope for the future, and would gladly tell you we were fucked six ways from Sunday.
We still are in a lot of ways...but like the first flowers that are poking through their lovely heads through the ground...we have reasons to hope.
In some ways I believe that the pandemic was a shot in the arm for the environmental moment. Bird watching boomed. People had time to watch nature shows and documentaries. Home cooking became something pleasurable for people to do again. Frankly my interest in cheese making flourished as well as I looked for something to do to entertain myself.
Interest in gardening grew as people wanted to ensure a source of healthy food for themselves as well as save money. What's really interesting is that the surge of interest in gardening seems to be driven by Millennials and Generation Z.
Some of these hobbies fell by the wayside as our fear of Covid faded, some of them didn't. Having reconnected to nature, food and each other have created bonds that simply cannot be ripped asunder. Remote work is here to stay as well, saving Americans gas and helping to prevent the raise of green house gases. It's been estimated that 87% of the American workforce are desiring a job that is either remote or has a hybrid quality to it.
This will fundamentally change how we see "city life" and how cities are organized, but that is for some future blog post.
Sadly a lot of gains that were made during the pandemic have since dropped as we go back into old destructive habits. Generally speaking however greenhouse gas emissions are three percent (3%) lower than they were four years ago. Progress!
When it comes to food and what we eat, we get some more good news. Roughly 1 in 10 college students identify as vegan/vegetarian full time. Many more are eating vegetarian dishes more than day a week. I consider myself to be a flexitarian, meaning that some meals are strictly vegan/vegetarian while I might enjoy a steak or hamburger as well.
The evidence that a flexitarian diet is better for the overall health of the planet is pretty well established and it goes under many names. However you can have all the evidence in the world on your side and you will simply not convince some people that all these little steps add up.
I'm just one of the millions it seems that is spitting in the ocean, and that is giving me renewed hope. It's a small change but small changes do create big results. That's how you change the world.
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| Get off the bench and into the fight! |
Although our personal garden plans seem to keep changing, we are still planning on making this property of ours an edible landscape somewhere in the future, but for now we do what we can.
While I've always supported environmental movements, I'm finally putting my skin into the game so to speak. I have become "radicalized" in the best sense of the word. The more I learn, the more I want to learn. The more I want to share.
It's nice to see that even my state is starting to recognize the little day by day steps that people need to make in order to secure a better future. It's not much, but it's a start.
For the first time, renewable energy (solar and wind) produced more energy than coal and nuclear power plants. We still have long ways to go and will still have a lot of hurdles to overcome but this is a hopeful sign.
I've seen more interest in community involvement, more public engagement in the environmental movement than I've seen in a long time.
I've seen a subtle shift in understanding; we humans caused this problem and that we humans - as flawed and as messed up as we are - can fix it.
Sadly there is no one cure and it's not going to be pie in the sky science that does it. It's going to be the individual, making the choice to move to green power and eating a better diet. It's going to be mindset. I'm not going to be around to see it, I understand that.
But your kids might be. Their kids will be. Their kids will reap the benefits of a better greener and more sustainable world. It starts today.
Plant that tree. Grow that garden. Walk, ride a bike, take the bus to work. Spit into that ocean and understand that every little choice you make to live a greener more sustainable life has repercussions that spread out like ripples in a lake.
In a lot of ways we are already moving towards that reality...and that gives me hope for the future.
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