Summer resolutions/Summer closure
The last post before the Passage shutters for its summer break is usually a somewhat serious one; today's concerns a pulling-up of my socks just when it's time to slip into sandals. And it refers to a different kind of footprint: the carbon one.
A friend pointed me toward ClimateHero's calculator to assess mine; though mildly pleased with the score, I could improve. The most significant changes will be to eat less meat, waste less food, and buy fewer pieces of clothing.
Want to try it? Giki Zero has mini carbon calculators for various categories, such as Holiday Flights, New Clothes, Food Waste and Commuting, and more. But stats are not acts. I needed a goal, so joined an online community, Take the Jump, ("Less Stuff, More Joy") to keep my resolve up. In an organic nutshell, the actions:
Reduce meat consumption/eat green
I live with an avid carnivore who considers mac and cheese a virtuous sacrifice. When we married, Le Duc did not even know the names of certain vegetables. Dreading my plant-positive diet, he assumed all cooking. He remains indifferent to any vegetable that is not a potato.
I liked this chart from CarbonBrief, which illustrates the relative carbon footprint of various foods.
If I'm honest, I have been using his meaty lifestyle as an excuse to avoid shifting my diet. For years, I have said I should make this change, but "he wouldn't go for it". Last week, he amiably agreed to two meatless dinners a week, and to recipes which contain less meat. (He has been on board with sustainable fish for decades, go figure.)
Waste less food
There are presently three, foot-long cucumbers in the crisper awaiting their turns, but two are doomed to meet a squishy end there. (Who bought these?) Sometimes it's a packaging problem: how many radishes can one eat at once? But mostly, it's out of sight, out of mouth.
Before shopping, we need to habitually check the fridge—and freezer. That freezer is like a rental storage unit where we stow things we don't know what to do with and then forget, except for ice cream.
This is the hard one! I don't think I buy a lot, but Take the Jump (TTJ) advocates buying only three new pieces of clothing a year! Giki Zero coaxes gently, saying, "Try buying no new clothing for three months."
The year is not yet half over and I've already exceeded TTJ's three-a-year, so either I'm done till 2025 (casts nervous glance at underwear drawer) or I'll be a hard fail. Might "new", be interpreted as carte blanche on the secondhand side? I buy about half my clothes secondhand, and vow to increase the percentage.
Friends inspire me
Friends are making all kinds of changes. Katrin takes cross-country trains instead of flights. Marilyn went carless, and rents for the rare occasion when she needs one.
 |
| Climate Fresk workshop, York University, Toronto |
B. is selling a distant, inherited house she used intermittently, and will retain adjacent land to protect the rural area from overdevelopment. MJ funded her eight-year-old niece's participation in Kids for Climate Camp, a summer day program. Susan literally gets her hands dirty by working on the land management committee of her senior's community.
It's hard to measure the results of some projects, but "perfect is the enemy of good", as Voltaire wrote, and though far from perfect, this summer I'm going to be better.
Last week, while in a thrift store looking for kids' books, I heard the siren call of a chic designer sweater, as-new, looks great. (I'll show it eventually, promise.) I thought, This is not going to be here in 2025. I'll donate something to make place for it, but we all know that more is donated than gets re-homed.
Geez Louise, this pledge is hard! It will be just as enlightening to see where I fall short as where I succeed.
 |
| Lac St-Jean blueberries |
Thank you for being here from fall through spring; I'll miss you. See you on September 9th!
 |
| Caught the bus! |
Comments
I try to keep my carbon footprint on the low side--and it is on the low side compared to many spoiled middle class Americans, of which I am one. So not on the low side in a global sense.
HOWEVER, I learned from my scientist son-in-law that the idea of the "personal carbon footprint" was developed by a PR firm working for British Petroleum. The purpose was to divert attention from the massive responsibility of large corporations. It seems to have worked. 100 companies are responsible for 70% of the problem.
Have a good summer in your beautiful city! e
The big polluters once operated under the radar; now they do not. This is not the result of them deciding to out themselves.
Have a wonderful summer….
I agree with the comment above that people have been pushed to feel that it's our individual responsibility while industry and business are off the hook. If big business wonders why people don't trust them...well stop treating us like we're idiots and can't see what they're up to.
I love the idea of buying less. I've been gradually removing clutter and things we don't use any more, and this has greatly contributed to our quality of life. We recently completed the clearance of everything in our jammed-full loft and I cannot describe how happy this made me!! Somehow, the less I have in my cupboards (including my wardrobe) the less I want to buy things.
Food waste is not really a problem for us as I tend to shop for food frequently and we are lucky in having fresh food shops an easy walk away. But, oh - I really need to stop buying those Egyptian fine green beans (though I then worry about the Egyptian farmers).
Thank you so much for your wonderful posts this year, Duchesse, and enjoy your Summer!
Murphy: Awww, just when we were wondering how you accessorize your trays!
I think their emphasis is on "new", but that assumes consumers have access to good secondhand sources. If I buy a used item online, the delivery adds to the pressure on the environment. My intermediate do-better step is to check my local (within a 15 min. walk) thrifts when I need, for example, an all-cotton tee for exercise wear.
Jean S: Thanks for that addition. AI does use a great deal of power and will only grow.
Jane in London: That was a big "aha" for me, too—how good it felt to get rid of an offsite storage locker. Going carless 10 yrs ago was another liberation... well, for me. Le Duc was slower to agree to it, but now he says you could not give him one. We shop locally too, but we still waste food, mostly because I think he buys for the days when we ate more.
There are many many things we can do as individuals to reduce our carbon footprint, but we need also to be more vocal in letting our elected leaders know this too….I’m afraid that the two ‘to be elected’ leaders of North America’s two largest countries couldn’t give a fig…the orange monster has always claimed climate change isn’t real…
All: I'm disabling comments for the summer, because I get so much spam.