Thoughts on Climate Change

Érablière du village de Compton

Today marks the beginning of COP26, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. The highly politicized concept of climate change has polarized those who believe it is occurring and those who deny human activity is accelerating global warming. Whatever we believe, it is hard to change how we are accustomed to doing things in an effort to decrease our carbon footprints. 

I care very much about the world that my children and grandchildren will live in during this century! 

In the past few years, I have noticed changes in our seasons, as well as a decrease in the number and variety of birds and butterflies in our area. The Norway maple trees on our property dropped their leaves consistently on November 2nd and 3rd every year. The last few years they have fallen one to two weeks later, and this year, they are still green and secure on the branches on October 31. I know there are yearly fluctuations in weather, but the trends around the globe are hard to ignore. 

The David Suzuki Foundation suggests four ways we can cut our carbon emissions. 

1. How we get around. Choose walking, cycling and public transit over driving whenever possible. Choose more energy-efficient vehicles.
2. What we eat. Choose local foods, more plant-based meals, less meat and dairy, particularly beef and cheese, and don't waste food.
3. How we use energy in our homes. This is a challenge in Canada due to our weather. Canada is the number one per capita energy consumer in the world.
4. The stuff we buy. Buy fewer things, especially new things. "Refuse, Reuse, Repair, Recycle — with extra emphasis on refusing to buy goods with a lot of packaging."

Am I willing to make personal changes in line with these recommendations? I have a small SUV and enjoy driving. The public transit in our city is inconvenient at best and it would take me 40 minutes to go 4 km to work, with me walking half the distance to and from bus stops. I ride my bike as often as possible and try to consolidate my errands with the car. Train travel is also suboptimal in our area and very expensive, especially for families. Other countries in the world have superior public transit options. Canada is a large country with a relatively small population, so economic and energy-efficient options are a challenge.

Galloway cows- photo from@dedmandale_farms

I eat a plant-based diet and the carnivores in our household have decreased their meat intake significantly. We frequent our local markets and businesses. One of my co-workers and her husband raise pasture-fed Galloway cows and sell the meat from their farm. Dedmandale farms are one of several options we have locally in choosing more sustainable meat options. The CTV program W5 recently featured a report on the risks of industrial farming in creating new pandemics. 

"About 75 percent of new infectious diseases are zoonotic, meaning they started in animals...The stress that those packed animals in industrial farming are under also plays a huge role. The higher the stress an animal is subjected to, the less they’re able to fight new diseases."

The high demand for meat around the world has also led to widespread deforestation, which is also a contributor to climate change. Do we really need all the fast-food chicken and hamburger meat that is bad for our health and the environment? It bothers me to see acres and acres of corn and soybean crops that are destined mainly for animal feed. This type of farming has impacted our wild bird and butterfly populations.

Our home is heated with natural gas and the air conditioning is electric. Options for more sustainable energy sources are expensive and not readily available in our suburban setting. The best we can do right now is moderate our power usage and the temperature of our home. 

What can I say about all the stuff we buy?! In spite of aspirations to live a more minimalistic lifestyle, the easy availability of material possessions we do not need is hard to resist. We are a consumer society and "things" have become our idols. Much of what we buy has been produced on the backs of the poor in third world countries and with harm to the environment. Some people observe "No Buy November" and others observe "Buy Nothing Day" on Black Friday, the day after American Thanksgiving, to increase awareness of our society's materialism. Is the momentary gratification of "retail therapy" worth the harm to underpaid workers and the earth?

Érablière du village de Compton

We toured a couple of family farms in the Eastern Townships of Quebec earlier this month. The owners of this sugar bush remarked that 2021 was bad for maple syrup due to an early, warm spring. The leaves on the trees emerged about two weeks early and this stopped the flow of sap prematurely. It is important that spring temperatures increase gradually, with days a little above freezing temperatures and nights a little below freezing. 

Domaine Ives Hill

The owner of this Black Currant and Blackberry farm also commented that early flowering of their plants during a warm spring increases the risk of damage from a late May frost. They have noticed climate trends that put their crops at increased risk.

I need to try harder to reduce my carbon footprint. This may cost money and personal convenience, but it is important that we do all we can to sustain the planet for present and future generations. I was raised to believe this world would be gone in a few years as these were the "end times". Many people over centuries and millennia have believed they were living in the last days. We must live like the world is going to continue and be good caretakers of the earth.