Wrote Nina Newington a few days ago, on Day 218 of Camp Now
It’s been unusually hot recently. Record breaking. Last year was unusually dry. Record breaking.
The fire that burned right up to the boundary of the proposed Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area burned so intensely it consumed the forest soil, exposing rocks that gleam white as teeth in what used to be forest.
There is no usual anymore. Weather is weirding as a result of climate change. Climate is destabilizing as a result of emissions from burning fossil fuels.
But the day before Canada Day our Prime Minister put out a video announcing that our climate targets were ‘too expensive’.* So we’re going for higher emissions.
*Also view CBC News Report
How did the fossil fuel industry end up calling the shots? Can forests survive if wealthy societies like ours refuse to slash our emissions?
Climate change can happen too quickly for ecosystems to adapt. How do you protect a forest? I spent a lot of time the last few days writing to Mark Carney. Too much time. I set in motion making an appointment with my MP too.
I don’t for a minute think it is enough to meet with elected officials, let alone calling and writing to them. I think it is good to do those things but we need to do far, far more.
No one thing is going to turn the ship. If we save ourselves and the living planet, it will require transformation. Social, economic, spiritual. By which I mean a transformation in how we relate to the rest of nature and to other humans.
We can each work towards that change. Tzeporah Berman’s work is inspiring. So is Jason Hickel’s ‘Less is More.’ Currently I’m reading Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s ‘Theory of Water’ and Jeremy Lent’s ‘Ecocivilization: making a world that works for all.’
All I know right now is to find other people doing what makes sense to you and do it with them. I read somewhere that we need people to:
— work to limit the damage
— imagine where we want to go
— create alternatives now
Nobody can do everything. We can all do something.