It's A Bird, It's A Plane

A great way to reduce your carbon emissions is to stay home, or close to home. Although air travel only accounts for about 5% of global emissions, it is an amount that is increasing quickly as people fly to far flung places looking for greener grass.

An article in the NY Times highlights the impact flying has on our carbon footprint in an article titled "Your Biggest Carbon Sin May Be Air Travel".

"For many people reading this, air travel is their most serious environmental sin. One round-trip flight from New York to Europe or to San Francisco creates a warming effect equivalent to 2 or 3 tons of carbon dioxide per person. The average American generates about 19 tons of carbon dioxide a year; the average European, 10.

So if you take five long flights a year, they may well account for three-quarters of the emissions you create."

We have some difficult choices to make moving forward and many current behaviours will need to change. For one aviator it all came down to choosing between civilization's technology and nature.

Charles Lindbergh, interviewed shortly before his death in 1974 made his choice very clear.

"Lying under an acacia tree with the sound of the dawn around me, I realized more clearly the facts that we should never overlook: that the construction of an airplane, for instance, is simple when compared [with] a bird; that airplanes depend on an advanced civilization, and that where civilization is most advanced, few birds exist.  

I realized that If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes."

Me too.

A Good Day To Take A Walk

Today was a good day to take a walk.

It was a beautiful day in Digby, Nova Scotia for having my own one person march to honour both the first day of Fall and the People's Climate March, the largest such gathering in history.

Fall is taking place everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere (happy first day of spring to all of you in the Southern Hemisphere), and the People's Climate March is being celebrated everywhere in both hemispheres.

We have so much to lose for such little gain if we continue on the energy path we are currently on. But The People are speaking, and The People want renewable energy development NOW.

If we aren't going to make this shift for ourselves, then let's do it for our kids. Our whole tribe will benefit.

Zone of Survival Monday

Experts agree that the best survival zone is established inside a sturdy cave. Wow, talk about back to the future.

There are an infinite number of things we don't need, but only a limited number of things we do require. Those are the things that guarantee our survival.

Ensuring we have everything we need to survive and thrive has always been difficult. With current challenges, like extreme weather and extreme capitalism, it is getting more difficult.

In the short term it is possible to create a zone of survival with a minimal amount of things.

In able to respond to natural disasters, or any other situation that alters the way things work, every household should have an emergency kit/camping supplies containing the following essentials:

• Water
• Food/Cooking Supplies
• Warmth/Shelter
• Medications/First Aide
• Sanitary Supplies

In a longer term situation like persistent economic trouble, the fall of capitalism, or the collapse of civilization, one needs to consider a longer term plan. Hardly alarmist, any one of these scenarios is possible in the coming years considering where we are headed globally.

Creating A Zone of Survival

No

• Within 500 + kilometres of the coast and potential flooding from sea rising, tsunamis, and water-borne contaminants.
• Under 200 feet above sea level, or at high altitudes susceptible to solar radiation exposure.
• Close to volcanoes and super volcanoes (Yellowstone in northwestern USA).
• In an earthquake/seismic/avalanche/fault zones (North American west coast, or New Madrid Fault Zone in central, USA).
• In a river flood plain, or downstream from dams.
• Within 200km of a coal-fired power plant, nuclear power plant or waste storage facility.
• In a large city.

Yes

• In a rural area with an ample water supply, 
• Plenty of fertile land 
• Abundant forests.
• Close to or with small groups of like minded people.
• In an area with unspoilt nature close by.
• Somewhere with a mild climate.
• Far from large population centers.

After looking at these lists, Linda and I realized that there are very few places in North America that fit the bill, or at least ones that don't experience 8 or 9 months of winter and cold temperatures that will definitely affect survival rate.

But if you are equipped with the supplies, skills, and knowledge for simple, cooperative and self-sufficient living I think you will have an advantage over those reliant on crumbling corporate for-profit systems, regardless of where you are living.

Meaningful Change Through Permaculture Design

"Vision is not seeing things as they are but as they will be." 

Looking to make meaningful changes toward a more sustainable lifestyle? Do you desire to do less harm through using less energy and resources? The principles of permaculture provide an excellent framework for making such changes happen.

This framework is not one-size-fits-all because different locations may require different solutions.

In The Essence of Permaculture summary (available here), David Holmegren says, "Despite the inevitably unique nature of future realities,the depletion of fossil fuels within a few generations will see a gradual return of system design principles observable in nature and pre-industrial societies, and which are dependent on renewable energy and resources (even if the specific forms of those systems will reflect unique and local circumstances)."


12 Principles of Permaculture Design


Observe and Interact 

- Pay attention.

Catch and Store Energy 

- Harvest energy while it is abundant.

Obtain a Yield 

- Make sure you're getting valuable results.

Self-Regulate: Accept Feedback 

- In a sense, our whole society is like a teenager who wants to have it all, have it now, without consequences. We have to be open to modify dysfunctional behaviours.

Use and Value Renewables 

- Reduce dependency on scarce resources like fossil fuels.

Produce No Waste 

- Waste not, want not. In nature there is no waste, only resources.

Design from Pattern to Detail 

- Observe natural/social patterns and apply them to design of systems.

Integrate 

- Capitalize on how things work together: land, plants, animals and people. Co-operative and symbiotic relationships will be more adaptive in a future of declining energy.

Use Small, Slow Solutions 

- Local resources and responses, manageable scale.

Use and Value Diversity 

- Diversity leads to greater resilience.

Use Edges: Value the Marginal 

- Important things happen at the intersections.

Creatively Use and Respond to Change 

- We can have a positive impact by carefully observing, and then intervening at the right time.

A one acre self-sufficient homestead.

"The idea behind permaculture principles is that generalised principles can be derived from the study of both the natural world and pre-industrial sustainable societies, and that these will be universally applicable to fast-track the development of sustainable use of land and resources, whether that be in a context of ecological and material abundance or one of deprivation." - The Essence of Permaculture

Peak Driving Monday

"Americans are driving less, and evidence suggests it's not about the economy."

In no year previous did Americans drive more miles than in 2004. It was peak driving since vehicle miles travelled has declined in almost every state since then. While researchers have a variety of explanations, they are not quite sure of the actual mechanisms at work.

Is our love affair with the car over?

For the past 8 years our personal experience has been following the same bumpy road and we have been driving less and less. Why?

• climate change
• price of gas
• we have been enjoying a more local lifestyle
• to save money on vehicle maintenance
• we don't want to support the fossil fuel industry
• we have been biking/walking/rolling instead of driving

Is the era of the private automobile racing all over the continent coming to a close? Are we learning to be more settled and content with where we are at?

How have your driving habits changed?

Common Sense Is A Super Power

"Don't worry - God (or technology, or the Gods of technology) will save me."

At one time common sense was common. Then common sense became not so common. Now common sense is so rare that it's considered a super power.

We ignore what we see around us and the gut instinct it triggers, and instead choose to believe the same old lies that pushed us to the brink in the first place.

Common sense will tell us that 5 planet lifestyles are not possible indefinitely. That the ongoing social, spiritual, and environmental destruction wrought upon the world in the name of profits before everything else is leading us to an appointment with collapse.

The disasters are mounting. The Canadian tar sands are an ongoing disaster, the weather is mighty suspect lately, and the rich are getting richer at a faster rate while the rest of us are heading in the opposite direction.

Catastrophic flooding, endless war, runaway oil trains exploding and wiping out a small town with great loss of life, illegal global surveillance, the destruction of the middle class - and those were just this week's headlines.

I don't know about you, but my spider senses have been twitching for a while now. That was one reason Linda and I began taking more earnest actions in changing our lifestyle back in 2001 - we had a feeling that things were not right and were likely to get wronger before they got better. We wanted to return to sanity.

How many more warnings will we ignore before we awaken our slumbering super powers and heed what we can see and feel in our bones? It is like the old joke which I interpret as being about failing to take action when opportunities present themselves.

A city is experiencing a terrible flood. A man is sitting on his front porch watching the water rise when a fire truck pulls up.  

“Get in! Everything’s going to be underwater!”  

“No thanks", the man says confidently, "God will save me. The firefighters drive away, siren blaring. 

An hour passes and the water is now lapping on the porch. A boat comes by.  

“Get in! You’re going to drown!”  

“No thanks", says the man. God will save me.” 

The water rises over the house. The man is now on the roof. A helicopter flies overhead.  

“We’ll lower a line. Grab it or you’ll die!”  

“No thanks. God will save me.” The man drowns.  

When he gets to Heaven and meets God the man asks, "Why didn’t you save me?” 

“First I sent a fire truck. Then I sent a boat, and finally a helicopter. What more did you want?”

It doesn't matter if one believes in a spiritual god sitting on a cloud, or the financial gods of capitalism sitting on the bull of Wall Street, or the science and engineering gods of infinite technical wisdom perched upon their super computers and rocket ships, we are going to need to save ourselves.

It is up to us to do what looks right, and what feels right.

The warning signs are there. It is time to reclaim our birthright, our super power. It is time to return to using our common sense and start making much-needed changes.

Fracking Facts in BC

Fracking poisons massive amounts of water with a unknown toxic soup.
But you can always buy 'clean' (and expensive) water at the mall.

• Natural gas is not and never has been a clean fuel. 

• The government of British Columbia wants to export up to four trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year from BC. 

• Natural gas has advantages over coal and diesel fuel. When combusted natural gas has fewer greenhouse gas emissions. But when the source is considered - shale rock - a broader view is required.

• Hydraulic fracturing or fracking operations free gas trapped in rock. This uses tremendous amounts of water, sand and toxic chemicals to create cracks or fractures in the rock that allow the trapped gas to be released.

• In northeast BC today, fracking operations at just one one shale gas pad with a dozen wells on it will toxify the equivalent of all the water in Saanich’s Elk and Beaver lakes, where Canada’s Olympic rowing teams train. 

• The greenhouse gas emissions associated with natural gas produced from such water-intensive operations are poorly understood. Some models estimate that the emissions associated with shale gas production are only slightly higher than those for conventional gas, while others place them on par with coal.

• The US Environmental Protection Agency, among others, underestimate actual emissions by as much as half.

• Gas production in BC’s remote Horn River Basin near Fort Nelson produces unusually high amounts of CO2, which must be stripped away before the gas can be piped and used. Currently, the stripped CO2 is simply vented to the atmosphere rather than captured and stored.

• Neither government nor industry appears keen to do field studies required to determine the impacts of this extraction method.

• Recently, members of the Fort Nelson First Nation raised objections to a potentially massive giveaway of water rights in their traditional territory to pave the way for accelerated shale gas production. 

• Responsible governments would acknowledge the obvious: We can’t in good conscience proceed with fracking in the absence of basic information - information that is obtainable given the will, and which they should be obliged to publish.

• The BC government is proposing a quintupling of natural gas production in BC.

source

Denialists Say, "Don't Worry - Everything Is Fine"

Just because you deny something, doesn't mean it isn't happening

The Canadian government recently withdrew from the United Nations Convention to Combat Drought and Desertification (UNCCD), the only country in the world to do so. My homeland, and its international reputation, is being destroyed by a denialist political organization.

Does that sound too alarmist? I don't think so.

Denialists choose to ignore evidence as a way to avoid uncomfortable truths. Science and first-person accounts are dismissed in favour of beliefs that allow the pillage and plunder of the ecosphere to continue. All for the benefit of the few, and to the detriment of the many.

Speaking of denialists, in a recent comment here, reader TJ Smith called my blog out as environmental alarmism. I am sure Steven Harper and his Anti-Environment Minister Peter Kent feel the same way when they drop by Not Buying Anything.

Here is TJ Smith's comment:

"Great for everyone who has a small home. More power to ya. I get tired of subliminal messages that America and it's hard earned wealth is wicked and we should all be emulating third world nations, as if they purposely choose a shack or lean-to for habitation.  

In a country where we produce more goods worldwide, are the most productive, the most generous, the most intelligent, the most pro-active in technology and research, has the best health-care (until Obama kicks in), you think we'd be free to build a home any size we want without facing ridicule from liberal socialist.  

The population only fills 3% of the earth, so overpopulation is really not the issue. If Texas had the same population percentage as England based on land size, there would over 100 million people in the Lone Star State. Last I heard England isn't running out of room.  

If people want a big home, that's their freedom in America. It is the American dream. My home size is actually under the national average for home size, but I'm certainly not going to berate or shame rich folks for doing so with some passive aggressive call to "save the earth". Trees are a renewable resource. We aren't going to run out.  

But guess what all you tree huggers, plastic is filling up the dump grounds and now Grocery stores are calling for paper bags! How ironic is that? The ones who thought they had the "new world" solution ended up screwing up what was the most efficient way to conserve. 

The earth is self sustaining and will support twice the population it now serves. In the next 20 years you will see this proven."

I guess me and thousands of other concerned citizens could be wrong about the direction our planet is going, and perhaps the Earth can support billions of high-consumption individuals driving big cars and living in big houses.

Given the evidence however, I don't think that I am being alarmist in warning that 3-planet lifestyles are not sustainable, and that a move toward smaller footprint living is required to turn things around.

The Traveler's Dilemma

I have yet to see significant changes in the amount N. Americans travel

What do you do when you want to see friends, but they live 1500 km away? It is a simple living dilemma. Stay and we don't get to see valued co-conspirators, go and increase our carbon footprint.


The Offer

Recently our beautiful, generous mates in the next province over invited us to come and see them. Problem is, we live 1500 km away from each other.

How generous are they? They offered to pay for our air fare, our room and board for as long as we want to stay, and a car for our own personal use while we are there.

The Dilemma

In seven years we have only left Vancouver Island once, for my brothers wedding. Even then, the event was only two ferry sails from home. Other than that trip, we have kept to within about a 50 km radius of our home since moving here.

Our no-travel living is quite a change from our previous life of near-constant car travel. We enjoyed a life of adventure and discovery out on the open road during our leisure time, and daily commuting was a part of having full time jobs in the city.

But then we asked ourselves what our lives might look like in a post-oil world. We asked, "Where do we want to be when we make the change to a low-carbon lifestyle, and can't travel as easily any more?

Our answer was the west coast of Canada, a place we have long loved for its natural, semi-wild setting.  We moved, and stopped traveling. We didn't really plan it that way, it just kind of happened as we were  slowly entranced by our locality, and felt less of a need to be somewhere else.

Then there is the expense, and the amount of carbon produced while using fossil fuel dependent modes of transportation.

One of the big problems facing humanity right now is climate change caused by the intense use of fossil fuels since the industrial revolution.

A great deal of those emissions were produced in the transportation sector.

"The combustion of fossil fuels. such as gasoline and diesel to transport people and goods is the second largest source of CO2 emissions, accounting for about 31% of total U.S. CO2 emissions and 26% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2010. This category includes transportation sources such as highway vehicles, air travel, marine transportation, and rail." - source

The Solutions?

As carbon is part of the problem, reducing carbon-intensive activity is part of the solution. So does this mean we can't travel to see friends any more? Visiting friends and family is the number one reason most people give for the purpose of their travel.

We would really like to see people, but they are all far away, and we can't easily walk, bike, or ride horses to traverse the distances between us, as much fun as that might be.

But the current offer on the table is so very generous and enticing.

We have the time, and they have the money. But can the planet handle our recreational, non-critical travel?

Do we miss our friends, or increase our carbon footprint? Should we stay, or should we go?

It's The Traveler's Dilemma. 

Priorities

No, we aren't doomed.

We just have to start looking at the planet as a really big Twinkie.

And it's the last one.

Feeling Hopey-Changey

Why wait? You can create personal change NOW.

So how is that "hopey - changey" stuff working out for you? Pretty good actually. Just ask an activist.

Rebecca Solnit is one of my favourite activist/writers, so it was with delight that I discovered how involved she is in the global change movement. Her recent words, written to the individual agents of action (you and me) are hopeful and encouraging. They increase my level of ambition for working toward a brighter future despite the darkness that sometimes threatens to overwhelm.

"To be hopeful means to be uncertain about the future, to be tender toward possibilities, to be dedicated to change all the way down to the bottom of your heart. 

There are really only two questions for activists: What do you want to achieve? And who do you want to be? And those two questions are deeply entwined. Every minute of every hour of every day you are making the world, just as you are making yourself, and you might as well do it with generosity and kindness and style. 

That is the small ongoing victory on which great victories can be built, and you do want victories, don’t you? Make sure you’re clear on the answer to that, and think about what they would look like." 

- Rebecca Solnit 

More and more people are not waiting for their elected officials to instigate change - they are doing it for themselves. Why?

Because it is the right thing to do. It is in accepting personal responsibility for the planet's ills, and then changing them, that provide the best route towards hope, and a better world.

Our little personal victories add up and create monumental victories for all.

So, in spite of the obfuscassion and misdirection I hear coming from the mouths of politicians and bureaucrats, I remain feeling hopey-changey.

How about you?

Live Simply - Lower Your Carbon Footprint

Complexity and consumption increase the size of your carbon footprint

Want to do your part for climate change? Living a more simple, less energy-intensive lifestyle can be a good way to contribute. Taking responsibility for your own carbon footprint is a step you can take whether world leaders can agree on a Kyoto replacement or not. 

Climate change denial has been harder to spin since Sandy struck. Hopefully that catastrophic event, and other weird weather globally, will have an impact on the UN Climate Change Conference negotiations taking place in Qatar over the next few days.

Qatar, an oil-producing nation, has the highest CO2 emissions per capita in the world. But I can't say much about my country, either. Canada is the largest consumer of energy in the world per capita, and the second largest producer of greenhouse gases (after the United States). We have just over 30 million people, but we use as much energy as the entire continent of Africa, home to 700 million.

The good news is that there is a lot of room for improvement.

Lower Your Carbon Footprint

Living more simply offers many ways to reduce your personal contribution to climate change. It could be as easy as walking more often. As Steven Wright said, "everywhere is within walking distance if you give yourself enough time". 

Here are a few other actions you can take, ranging from run of the mill responses to more outrageous ideas.

Transportation

• live close to work, or to a pubic transportation network. Or work from home. Or, if practical, quit work.
• walk, bike, skip, hop, run, jog, roll - all are low carbon footprint activities.
• consider vacationing at home, or close to home. 
• quit vacationing altogether after you quit working and no longer  need to "get away".
• bus, train, and ships are the among the most efficient methods for long distance travel. Sailboats and horses are pretty good too.

Food

• grow/raise as much of your own food as you can
• if you don't have access to soil join a community garden
• support local organic farmers
• eat low on the food chain
• stay away from convenience foods of dubious nutritional value with a lot of packaging
• keep to the outside of the grocery store where all the fresh food can be found
• eat less - the average North American could eat a few hundred calories less per day and be healthier
• raise back yard chickens
• guerilla garden in empty or abandoned lots

Housing

• live in a smaller home and cut energy use, utility bills, and CO2 emissions. 
• replace lawn with a veggie garden and fruit trees
• make your home as energy efficient as possible
• install solar panels and/or a solar hot water system
• compost organics and recycle everything else
• stop buying unnecessary stuff - high consumption lifestyles are high carbon footprint lifestyles
• say no to single use/disposable products
• lower your thermostat in winter, raise it in summer

The Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of this year. Hopefully, political interest in lowering carbon emissions doesn't also expire. Either way, tackling your carbon emissions through your very own low-carbon, simple living protocol is a way to contribute now.

GHG Emissions for 20 Common Foods

Extreme Weather And Climate Change Solutions

Last year's weather wasn't that great either...

You really don't need the weatherman to tell you which way the wind is blowing these days - it's plain to see that it is blowing hot and dry. Just over 50% of the US has been experiencing extreme heat and drought conditions this summer.

ThinkProgress.com is reporting that the hot, dry conditions are dominating recent adverse weather events, and that this is due to climate change:

"Like a baseball player on steroids, our atmosphere has been "juiced" with human emissions of greenhouse gases, which means we are going to be breaking heat records at an "unnatural" pace for a long, long time."

170 US all-time high temperature records were broken or tied in the second half of June. More heat means more energy, which means more extreme weather. This will have far-reaching repercussions.

Drought conditions over much of the US will put crops and food security at risk, and could raise the price of staple commodities. Water resources will be stressed, and rationing will need to be implemented over large areas. Green lawns and private swimming pools will become a thing of the past.

Global conditions will mirror events occurring now in the US, so this is a problem we all need to be concerned about. But what can we do? Thankfully, there are many actions that we can take to contribute toward a more livable planet.

Climate Change Solutions

1. Energy efficiency holds the greatest and most immediate benefits - conserve energy at home by using less of it in more efficient ways. Get rid of unnecessary appliances and electronics.
2. Travel less. Use plug-in and electric cars when public transportation is not available. Better yet, ride a bike.
3. Renewable energy - solar, wind, tidal, biofuel.
4. Quit using carbon-intensive goods and services. Good-bye planes and plastic, hello trains and totally natural products.
5. Offer tax cuts in the green economy.
6. End fossil fuel subsidies.
7. Eat a plant-based diet.
8. Grow a garden and/or support local farmers. Reduce food miles.
9. Stop wasteful, energy-intensive activities such as war, and recreational shopping.
10. Tax carbon-based corporations.

Are you concerned about climate change? If so, what changes are you making to address your concerns?

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

 50 Translations: "I'm scared."

Oh, the excuses I have heard. My teaching career started when 'the dog ate my homework' was still the most-used excuse going. By the time I retired from teaching dogs everywhere had been liberated from blame and slept comfortably. The most used excuse for late work had progressed to 'my printer/computer/disk ate my homework'.

By now I am sure the grade school excuse has progressed again and is something like 'I dropped my FlashStick in the toilet/sink/puddle'. It is not just the informal research gleaned as a teacher of young children, but my observations of people in general that made me aware that one thing humans do really, really well is make excuses.

There are all kinds of excuses being used to justify why 20% of the planet's inhabitants pig out on 80% of its resources. My favorite is "we work hard - we deserve it". If that were true, African grandmothers raising their AIDS-orphaned grand kids would be among the highest paid people in the world.

I heard nothing but excuses during, and since, the climate change talks in Durban, South Africa. Embarrassingly, my own country was among the most vocal examples of using excuses to avoid and delay urgently needed changes.

It does not matter if it is uncompleted grade six homework, or inaction on global inequality, making excuses only makes things worse. This is a lesson we should have solidly in place by the time we are about 10 years old. No one feels good inside when they resort to excuses - it only increases and extends the pain.

The pain suffered by humanity and the environment has gone on long enough. It's 2012 - NO MORE EXCUSES. It is time to shine the antiseptic spotlights of honesty, integrity, and responsibility upon our problems, both personal and global. Only this will treat the infection of denial.

When our denial ends, and we face our problems head on, we take action. When we finally do, it feels good, and we wonder why we hesitated with our excuses in the first place.

Canadian Government Lags Behind The Times In Durban

What if we created a better world for nothing?

It is a bad time to be a Canadian concerned about climate change. In Durban, South Africa, our country has been accused of "bullying" other countries into joining the naysayers, and throwing a wrench into potential positive change for a better, cleaner world.

I apologize to all the activists that have been working hard on guidelines to replace the Kyoto Accord when it expires soon. My government does not represent me, or most clear-thinking Canadians that I know, when it comes to taking action on climate change.

Please ignore our petty, small-minded, anti-science, business as usual bureaucrats, and get on with creating a cleaner, better world without us.

We will get caught up after we vote these climate clowns out of office next election.

No Gas Monday

"About 60 percent of the oil consumed daily by Americans is used for transportation, and about 45 percent is used for passenger cars and light trucks."  - Sherwood Boehlert

The dilemma of driving. Or flying. Or buying our food from producers in distant lands. Or relying on fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides to grow food on fossil fuel dependent industrial farms. Or conspicuous consumption.

There is a disconnect between our actions (relying solely on fossil fuels), and our well-documented knowledge of the destruction associated with their extraction and use.

In psychology this disconnect is called cognitive dissonance, and it causes unhealthy amounts of stress. In order to reduce the uncomfortable feelings that come from holding conflicting ideas simultaneously, we deny, and make excuses and explanations to justify our actions. "I have to _________ because __________."

Or we confront the truth, and change our behaviour. If we know fossil fuels are globally destructive, we begin to reduce our reliance on them as soon as possible. This is a more effective way of reducing the mental confusion and stress that results from repeating behaviours we know are not good for us, our families, or the planet.

Reducing reliance on fossil fuels = reducing cognitive dissonance and STRESS. We are happier, the planet is happier. Everyone - except Big Oil - wins.

No Carbon Monday

The Problem

The Solution

Simple Living And Climate Change

As another international conference on climate change faces being diluted to the point of uselessness by big money interests, many are wondering if meaningful action will ever come. Will Cancun go down in history as Can'tcun?

Author/educator Bill McKibben has been in Mexico the past few days, and says that people power is what is needed. He sees the current process as being successfully hijacked by big oil and complicit governments. Again.

"It’s on who has the power. And at the moment, that power rests in the hands of the fossil fuel industry and their allies in governments around the world. And until we build some independent outside movement power to push back, then we’re never going to get—we’re going to get scraps from the table, at the very best."  

Meanwhile witnesses representing the billions that are most affected by climate change protest outside watched by soldiers in Hummers. The people are not invited to the table. Against these barriers to change, what can a person do?

Simple living is an effective, and doable, solution we can adopt to address climate change. We can decrease our carbon footprint, and increase our enjoyment of living at the same time. We can take back our power, create a more just planet, and address the climate crisis.

 Living simply reduces our reliance on the fossilized forces advocating profit over human and planetary welfare. Taking personal responsibility for climate change will give us the power to push back as we become more self-reliant and sustainable.

Individual actions and choices are what will turn things around if our governments are indeed unable to fulfill their responsibility to their citizens. How can we expect Cancun to do anything if we are unable to change our own way of life?

The more simply and sustainably we live, the smaller our carbon footprint will be. Growing our own food, reducing energy-intensive travel, living in smaller more efficient spaces, and working less are all examples of ways simple living addresses climate change. A slower, deeper life requires less energy, saves us money, and reduces stress.

We should not be surprised, or daunted, by the failure of the establishment to make change. But we will be remiss if we fail to seize this historic opportunity for the people to come together and address this issue in a way we have never seen before. Living small-footprint, increasingly sustainable lives will be part of this response.