Eco-friendly changes I made over the summer

A dose of discoveries and dash of deep feelings

I haven't posted in a while because I have been making changes and you know, living.

Here’s a recap of what I did:

• I sold my car. We are now a one car household and the cost savings have been great.

• I upgraded my bike to an e-bike. It is now my main mode of transportation.

• I planted sweet potato, cucumbers, and tomatoes in the garden.

• I started vermicomposting.

• I didn't buy any seasonal plastics. For instance, those bubble wands in the plastic container. The temptation was real.

• I wrote to my city councillor. Look at me getting political.

• I spent more time outside. Hot, humid or rainy, I was out.

And what I started doing:

• I make my own oat milk.

• I make my own foamy soap by reusing my Bed Bath & Beyond foam dispenser.

• I eat more legumes. So yummy and a great protein source.

• I use and make my own environmentally friendly cleaning products.

• I organize my waste to see what I can reuse or stop purchasing.

• As much as possible, I buy in bulk using reusable containers. Looks like I'm moving towards zero-waste living.

• Whenever I am at the park, I pick up litter and properly dispose of it.

• I also speak more about climate change.

Making these changes challenged a lot of my assumptions. I used to think it would be costly and time consuming to adopt an eco-friendly lifestyle. In fact, I saved money, improved my health and I have a better pace to my day. I am cultivating a new lifestyle and, in the process, I feel happier because I am making a conscious effort to do what I can to address the number threat to our home - climate change.

It's not all sunshine and rainbows.

This summer was emotionally taxing, and no, it’s not because I didn’t buy those plastic bubble wands. It was difficult to witness the unprecedented wildfire season and to hear stories of destruction, displacement, loss, suffering and death.

In Canada, although wildfires are common in forested and grassland regions from May to September, according to wildfire experts, climate change played an outsized role in how intense it was this year. To give you an idea of the scale, by August 26 approximately 14.9 million hectares of land was burned - that’s like triple the size of Costa Rica. According to CBC news reporter John Paul Tasker, federal data revealed that the figure is significantly more than the 10-year average of 2.2 million hectors burned in any given year.

Although my family wasn't directly impacted by the wildfires, we weren't spared either. When the air quality was at its worst, we wore masks, confined ourselves inside as much as we could, and we had to entertain a toddler indoors (not easy). Watching the news, it wasn't lost on me that we could be next. The context may or may not be the same, but we would be faced with making difficult and urgent choices: whether we should flea or not, where we should relocate and what to bring. I have included a list of emergency preparedness resources which I found helpful. All this to say:

Thoughts and prayers just don't cut it.

Extreme weather events driven by climate change are not normal, nor should it be communicated as a common occurrence that we should anticipate.

So...that was my summer. I made some changes that enriched my life, and I also felt deep sadness witnessing preventable suffering and loss. On the latter point, it has propelled me to take more action and to speak up.

What about you? What changes did you make? Or what change did someone else make that inspired you?

Resources: Preparing for an emergency

• Emergency plan - Canadian Red Cross

• Emergency kits - City of Gatineau

• Emergency kit and grab-and-go bag - Province of British Columbia

• Emergency preparedness plan and kit - Province of Ontario

• Emergency preparedness guide - Government of Canada

• How to help in disasters - Professor Kimberly Nicholas, sustainability scientist

References:

1. (2023, August 23). Mapping the scale of Canada’s record wildfires. Aljazeera. Retrieved August 25, 2023, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/23/mapping-the-scale-of-canadas-record-wildfires

2. Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (n.d.). Mapping the scale of Canada’s record wildfires. CIFFC. Retrieved August 27, 2023, from https://ciffc.ca/

3. Lindsay, B. (2023, August 19). There are complex reasons for our dire wildfires, but scientists say climate change plays key role. CBC News. Retrieved August 25, 2023, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/wildfire-factors-climate-change-1.6939911

4. Tasker, J. P. (2023, August 11). Canada reports worst wildfire season on record — And there's more to come this fall. CBC News. Retrieved August 25, 2023, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-wildfire-season-worst-ever-more-to-come-1.6934284#:~:text=Canadian%20wildfire%20officials%20said%20Friday,the%20late%20summer%20and%20fall