Tackling Climate Change One Win At a Time

Hello friends, and welcome to another edition of Wednesday Wins!

What a wild last few weeks it’s been. Why wild? Well, in the waste/plastics/climate change spheres, this is a busy time:

• Waste Reduction Week in Canada happened Oct 18 – 24
• Halloween – pumpkins and candy wrappers, need I say more?
• COP26 – a global “Conference of the Parties,” happening right now through November 12
• and…

Climate Reality Leadership Training

…a personal win for me. 🙂 I participated in and completed my first Climate Reality Leadership Corps training! This is the program developed by former VP Al Gore, way back in 2006. Since its inception, the program has trained more than 27,000 activists from 169 countries around the world. 1,470 of them have been trained in Canada, with 153 of them based in BC. The purpose of the training?

To explore “how we can raise public awareness of the climate crisis, build support for the practical solutions available today, and create broad, inclusive, and powerful coalitions to lead on critical climate and social justice issues.”

You know, just a few things. 😉

The more I learn about issues of food security/sovereignty, plastic pollution, climate change/justice/equity…the more I realize that it’s all connected. Plastic pollution has just as much to do with climate change as gas-guzzling cars. Monoculture food production and deforestation for industrial-scale meat production are just as much a contributor to global warming as the oil & gas sector’s emissions. It’s making those connections that seem to be the hard part.

Well, one way to make that leap is to talk about the wins: folks on the ground doing the work to improve their communities and their climate. So let’s get to this week’s wins! With COP26 on everybody’s minds, and Waste Reduction Week and Halloween having just wrapped up, my job is easy, peasy!

Save the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

There must have been something in the water this Halloween because never have I ever seen so much information shared about pumpkins! Not just any information, this was all about waste reduction and diversion and how to keep pumpkins out of the landfill. Why does this matter? Well, organic matter like pumpkin left in a landfill has no choice but to rot and burp methane, which ain’t too good for our climate. I saw so many businesses, individuals, and groups share info about what to do with your Jack-O-Lantern after it’s scared off all the trick-or-treaters. Things like:

• Cut your pumpkin into pieces and leave them outside for the wildlife to munch on
• Compost the pumpkin! (turns out they are high in nitrogen, great for compost)
• Save the seeds, roast and eat ‘em
• Matter of fact, if your pumpkin hasn’t rotted into a heap, try saving it to eat! I saw all kinds of yumtastic recipes like bread, soup, even a freakin’ latte! Why waste when you can eat??

This article from Anne-Marie Bonneau (aka The Zero-Waste Chef) has these tips and more, plus 13 recipes if you’re hankering for some pumpkin goodness. Yum!

Climate Activist Gives Oil Tycoon a Proper ‘What For’

In the leadup to COP26, TED held its Countdown Summit event in Edinburgh, Scotland – an event that was purported to “bring together 1,000 leaders in Edinburgh, Scotland, in October, as TED speakers share a blueprint for a beautiful net-zero future.” On the list of delegates were notable representatives including Christiana Figueres, architect of the Paris Climate Agreement! Also on the list was Ben van Beurden, CEO of Royal Dutch Shell. And, a climate justice activist, Lauren MacDonald. What could possibly go wrong?

In a TED panel that (at this point) needs no introduction, Lauren stood up to Ben and gave him such a shakedown that I was left with goosebumps. This video clip made its rounds around and around the Internet, but if you have the time, it’s worth watching the entire thing.

The reason I’m calling this a win is because this young woman, along with a small cohort of peers, stood up to “big oil” and had the courage to tell him precisely why what he was doing was wrong. This is important.

Often, in the fight against climate change, plastic pollution, or mega agriculture, our efforts seem futile, like we’re trying to move a boulder up a very jagged mountain. It’s almost impossible to get a conversation with the heads of any of the major polluters on this planet: they’re good at hiding behind personnel and management. And this is frustrating because as activists, we’d appreciate having the opportunity for a civil conversation. We’d probably get more accomplished! But in the absence of that…if you have the opportunity to share a stage with a major oil executive…it’s as good a time as any to ask him the tough questions, as Lauren did.

Power to the (young) people!

Reduce Waste, Save Climate, Support Local Community, Win

This might be the recipe for success for the myriad refilleries and low-waste shops popping up left, right, and centre. Here in Kelowna, I’m lucky to have access to not one, but two (!!) refilleries and it’s a dream come true. The best news ever? They made it through the pandemic (no small feat)! FILL recently celebrated its first 9 months in business and is about to hit its one-year mark. Hooray!!

Reaching these kinds of landmarks is a Very Big Deal for any business, but I think refilleries deserve extra kudos. They’re literally trying to unpackage shopping, which means trying to untangle weird consumer habits we’ve adopted over the last half century…no small feat!

This past September, the other refillery I frequent, Chickpeace Zero Waste, celebrated its one-year anniversary with some impressive stats. Most notably, they saved:

• 40,059 single-use plastics from entering the landfill
• 270 plastic toothbrushes from being bought (by customers choosing bamboo instead)
• 3,549 plastic shampoo and conditioner bottles from being used and discarded

Amazing stuff, right?! I recall seeing more plastic toothbrushes on Midway than I care to admit, so anything we can do to reduce that burden is FABULOUS!

For more stats and to view some seriously sweet graphics, check out their Instagram post, here.

Small-Scale For the Big Win

I love these refilleries because they offer alternatives to traditional shopping, but what I love more is the way they’re able to bring together communities. Both of my local refilleries make a point to support local and regional purveyors where possible. And remember how I mentioned in #2 (above) that it’s almost impossible to get a word in edgewise with CEOs of major corporations? Not so with these small businesses. More times than I can count, I’ve run into Allisha at Chickpeace or Gabi at FILL and had lovely conversations and lots of laughs. It’s the absolute best.

Refilling and going low-waste takes some unlearning, and it sometimes feels like a drop in the bucket compared to big-ticket items like climate change. But…our disposable lifestyle is fueling the climate crisis. That’s worth remembering.

Also worth remembering: with enough drops, eventually the bucket fills up. 🙂

With that, I will bid you adieu. Hopefully, these stories leave you feeling uplifted and encouraged rather than freaked out and overwhelmed. And, maybe even a little fired up??

Until next time!