weWhere in the world are you?
Wellington, New Zealand What do you do in the world? Director, Communications and Outreach for the Royal Society of New Zealand In one sentence, what is climate change? It's a pandora's box of troubles caused by the misuse of our planet's resources resulting in increased greenhouse gases, seal level rise, droughts, fires, storms, which we can and must fix with fun, seriousness and tenacity. How does climate change affect your life? A big part of my working life is dedicated to publicising information and solutions because the Royal Society of New Zealand sees it as being a very important issue we must deal with now. What do you feel you can do about it? A lot by engaging business, governments, communities and individuals. Do you feel there is more you could do? If so, what is stopping you from doing those things? Always, time. What's your favourite Sunday afternoon activity? Walking in the Karori sanctuary, enjoying native plants, listening to native birds of New Zealand with friends and family.
0 Comments
Where in the world are you?
Wellington, New Zealand What do you do in the world? Try to stay outta trouble! I run a consultancy for non-profit organisations & community groups: www.justinmeade.com In one sentence, what is climate change? Stoopid-human-greed-mismanagement of earth's natural resources for short-sighted 'growth', industrial evolution and capital gains. How does climate change affect your life? Has given me the reactionary direction of living a life of sustainable simplicity and affordable, low-impact Tiny House living. What do you feel you can do about it? Embrace nature without paining it and build my own inexpensive Tiny House as an example of how beautiful and affordable Tiny House living is. Especially in the ridiculous rabbit-hole fantasy of the current housing crisis. Do you feel there is more you could do? If so, what is stopping you from doing those things? Tough question. Probably. Nothing comes to mind. What's your favourite Sunday afternoon activity? Probably hiking. Definitely something to do with embracing nature and the outdoors. Snuggling. Extra for experts: Do you remember how you first became active in climate change? Was there something specific that triggered you to act? How old were you then? How old are you now? For me, it's discovering the joys of Tiny house long-term living and the absolute sense it makes in so many areas of my life. Where in the world are you?
Wellington, New Zealand What do you do in the world? Recent MSc graduate, studying atmospheric chemistry (now public sector bro working in mental health regulation). In one sentence, what is climate change? Perturbation of the earths climate system due to the unabated rise in anthropogenic-driven fossil fuel emissions. How does climate change affect your life? Aside from working in climate science; it is something I actively advocate for and educate others on. In terms of true physical effects, that is something future generations will feel the full brunt of (..why we need to act now). What do you feel you can do about it? Share my own knowledge to those with less of an understanding of the issue, making people realise everyone contributes in some way. Do you feel there is more you could do? If so, what is stopping you from doing those things? I am trying to learn how to communicate complicated scientific knowledge in a way that is more accessible - which is the most I feel I can personally do. What's your favourite Sunday afternoon activity? Going for a hike, getting a take away coffee (in my keep cup) and then going to the veggie market for the week's haul and getting a falafel wrap. Extra for experts: Do you remember how you first became active in climate change? Was there something specific that triggered you to act? How old were you then? How old are you now? I have always been very aware of environmental issues due to the influence of my greeny parents but it wasn't until my first year of uni (studying geology) where it became more apparent that not everyone cares about these issues, which triggered me to want to learn more and try and communicate what I felt to be extremely important to others. Where in the world are you?
Wellington, New Zealand What do you do in the world? Trainer In one sentence, what is climate change? The changing of weather systems due global warming. How does climate change affect your life? By making me worry. What do you feel you can do about it? Just my own little attempts to limit my impact on the world. Do you feel there is more you could do? If so, what is stopping you from doing those things? Joining an environmental group ... just deciding which one. What's your favourite Sunday afternoon activity? Falling asleep reading a book under a cat. Extra for experts: Do you remember how you first became active in climate change? Was there something specific that triggered you to act? How old were you then? How old are you now? Joined Greenpeace when 15 but climate change was only a part of the story. Now 52. Free space: write anything you like, nothing at all, or ask us a question The world seems to be currently going through one of its periodic swings to thinking there are easy answers to problems. Whilst scary in itself (the rise of the far right) this is particularly depressing when thinking about how to engage people in the non-easy problems of climate change. Where in the world are you?
Dunedin, New Zealand What do you do in the world? I'm the director of the Centre for Sustainability, a research centre of the University of Otago. In one sentence, what is climate change? Climate change is shorthand for the many environmental changes that are the result of increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and includes warmer and rising seas, melting ice sheets and glaciers, more extreme weather events, changing weather patterns, and a hotter globe. How does climate change affect your life? It permeates my thinking all the time - how the actions of people today are shaping a devastatingly different future for my grandchildren. My city Dunedin will be the worst impacted by sea level rise in New Zealand, with around 10,000 people living in homes that are less than 50cm above sea level. The impacts are already starting to be seen here with warmer winters and more extreme weather. What do you feel you can do about it? It's part of my work - I do research on how people and businesses change to adopt lower-carbon energy and mobility - see http://energycultures.org/. Also I was one of the authors of a recent report for the Royal Society of New Zealand "Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy for New Zealand". In my own life, I try to make low-carbon choices - walk to work, eat vegetarian food, heat our home with renewable fuel, and drive a (small and old) hybrid car. Do you feel there is more you could do? If so, what is stopping you from doing those things? I'd like to have a fully electric car, because in NZ our electricity is 80% renewable, so this means minimal GHG emissions. Retrofitting our hybrid to fully electric is the next plan. One thing I would like to do is to fly less, but my work (ironically) involves quite a lot of flying, and at present we are not able to offset the emissions. I'd like to rectify this. What's your favourite Sunday afternoon activity? Going for a walk up a steep track that starts a couple of kilometres from my home, and goes up 1000 feet into alpine vegetation with a glorious view of the city and mountains. Where in the world are you?
Seattle, USA What do you do in the world? Stand-up economist and founder/co-chair of Yeson732.org carbon tax measure In one sentence, what is climate change? Increasing global temperatures, changing weather patterns, ocean acidification, and other results of human emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. How does climate change affect your life? There are immediate worries (like overly hot summer days) but mostly I worry about the future for my family and others around the world. What do you feel you can do about it? On top of the usual personal decisions (LED lightbulbs, etc), I make a living doing stand-up comedy about economics (standupeconomist.com) and I make sure to talk about climate change during my comedy routines, which are usually at colleges or corporate events. And I've co-authored a book, The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change. And when I do serious economics I'm an environmental economist, so I work on reforming our tax system by having higher taxes on "bads" (like CO2 emissions) and lower taxes on "goods" (like jobs and income). That's the focus of the Yeson732.org campaign that will be on the ballot here in Washington State in November: the basic idea is to replace part of the state sales tax with a carbon tax. Fossil fuels will cost a bit more, everything else will cost a bit less, and we'll be doing our part to save the world. Do you feel there is more you could do? If so, what is stopping you from doing those things? Not enough time in the day :) What's your favourite Sunday afternoon activity? Having some time to relax with my wife while our 2-year old naps, and then going to the park! Extra for experts: Do you remember how you first became active in climate change? Was there something specific that triggered you to act? How old were you then? How old are you now? I think it was back in 2000, when I was in grad school and got a free sample copy of an economics textbook claiming that climate change was a hoax. (See http://standupeconomist.com/my-hilarious-global-warming-exchange-with-ruffin-and-gregory/) That was in my late 20s, and I'm now in my early 40s. Free space: write anything you like, nothing at all, or ask us a question Good luck to us all! Where in the world are you?
Wellington, New Zealand What do you do in the world? I run my own non-profit organisation/blog called Saving 2050 that's dedicated to sharing practical information about sustainable lifestyles. I am also the director of Shut Up & Dance, which is a relaxed dance class that falls in the health and fitness industry. I am an actress and freelance designer. In one sentence, what is climate change? Climate change is a change in global and/or regional climate patterns that has the potential to compromise earth's delicate ecosystem. How does climate change affect your life? Climate change affects my life practically through drastic changes in weather and emotionally when I see that the lifestyles of certain species are being compromised. What do you feel you can do about it? Foster supportive environments for people to discuss climate change, in order to understand it. I can run initiatives and campaigns to increase awareness with the ultimate goal of making sustainable living the easiest way to live (rather than a challenge, as many people find it can be). Do you feel there is more you could do? If so, what is stopping you from doing those things? Yes I do feel there is more I could do. Bureaucracy and a lack of environmentally inspired policy implementation combined makes it challenging to feel like you're making a difference on both an individual and national level. What's your favourite Sunday afternoon activity? Spending time catching up with friends or family; a walk, swim, coffee... Extra for experts: Do you remember how you first became active in climate change? Was there something specific that triggered you to act? How old were you then? How old are you now? I remember asking a vegetarian friend why she didn't eat meat and she told me that as well as animal rights being a precursor in her decision, the environment was suffering as a result of the increasing amount of meat humans consume annually. Where in the world are you? Wellington, at the moment. What do you do in the world? I try to be an inspirer of thought and positive action (I'm taking a break from science) In one sentence, what is climate change? Climate change is a forgetting, a disconnection, a disease of modern culture. How does climate change affect your life? The same way it effects everybody's life, what that means for my future I will only know as time goes on. It makes me think twice about having children. What do you feel you can do about it? Try to learn how to adapt, communicate the issue to people, look to solutions. Try to reduce apathy and increase empathy. Do you feel there is more you could do? If so, what is stopping you from doing those things? Fear is often a limiting factor, not having the money or the time to do more. If I could give up needing to make money and travel the world on my bike trying to educate, help and learn then I would... and I still might. What's your favourite Sunday afternoon activity? I have too many. Free space: write anything you like, nothing at all, or ask us a question I really believe we have just forgotten. There is a huge reconnection that needs to happen, to ourselves, to the other and to this planet. I think it's starting to happen but it's slow. People aren't willing to be inconvenienced... They will still fly and drive, yet talk about climate change without even seeing the hypocrisy in their words.... The more we shift the lens, the focus, to ourselves and our actions, and as we strip away the outer and look at our true intentions and why they're there, the better. We have to step into the uncomfortable truth of what we have become. Recently Jen met KaiCycle...KaiCycle is a bike-powered food scrap collection service. Their cyclists collect food waste from residents and businesses in the Wellington CBD and compost it, turning it from waste back into a resource. How did you start working with KaiCycle? When I first moved to Wellington I found myself living in a flat of "eco-conscious vegetarians" yet we were throwing all of our food scraps away. It actually physically pained me to do this. I was so upset, I just wanted to get on my bike and ride it to a local community garden. I had seen such bike powered food waste collection services start up around the world and I thought, why not Wellington?! So, I had an idea to start one. As luck would have it, someone had already had the idea. I was keen to get involved, however, I couldn't quite find much information. At the time I was working for Kaibosh and it so happened that one particular Monday night I came across a group of people in the front meeting space... I was like: "URMMM, hello?" And they were all like: "Oh we are from KaiCycle and workerBe, the Newtown urban farm". Well, if that wasn't a sign from the universe! So I sat my bum down and I haven't left yet. What does KaiCycle mean to you? To me KaiCycle is group of people working hard towards something bigger than themselves. For little or no financial gain but for the greater good of a connected, healthy and resilient community! It's amazing to be involved with an organisation trying to make grassroots change - one that is tackling important issues such as food waste, lowering carbon emissions, and local food provision. To be involved with people who understand the importance of soil and the beauty of worms. To be involved with people who wholeheartedly care about change. I mean it's not easy, so much time goes into these projects and most of us have other jobs too. We exist in a time of change and people involved in organisation like ours have to put in a lot of work. Sometimes it hurts, sometimes you want to give up, and sometimes you wish you could get everyone to care all at once. But we keep on going. KaiCycle, a link in the chain. KaiCycle is an important link our urban food system chain. We don't just compost your waste, we use your waste and recycle it into more food. We are food recyclers. Lots of residents and businesses in Wellington don't have access to composting facilities and we think they should. 30% of all Wellingtons kerbside collection is organic matter, which means it's recyclable. And more than that, it can make compost that can make food. Plus organic matter in landfill = methane... which is not so great for climate change. We have a sister called workerBe oasis, an urban farm in Newtown. Our farm uses permaculture and bio-intensive farming methods and we do our best to use only organic seed. We are serious about delivering nutrient-dense food to the people of Wellington. When we say the people of Wellington we mean the people of Wellington - half of the produce we make goes to Kaibosh who distribute this local, fresh, and real food to charities in the region. Jen's looking after comms, PR, and resident clown work at the KaiCycle headquarters, which is currently outside at an urban food farm in Newtown. KaiCycle were selected for the Low Carbon Challenge, a Wellington City Council and Enspiral-run accelerator for social enterprises. KaiCycle are running a crowd-funding campaign to raise money to build a shelter to provide a home for their bikes and community workshops.
You can sign up for their food waste collection service, or donate to their PledgeMe campaign at the links below. The Low Carbon Challenge will match their funding, so any money you contribute is doubly awesome. Where in the world are you?
Auckland, New Zealand What do you do in the world? I'm a business journalist In one sentence, what is climate change? The greatest danger humankind has ever faced...but if we tackle it, we will transform our values, societies, economies...and, oh, our energy sources too! How does climate change affect your life? It's bringing me into a closer relationship with the ecosystem - our life-support system. It constantly challenges me to work with nature in everything I do, not against it. As a business journalist, I'm excited to see more companies starting to think and act this way. What do you feel you can do about it? As a journalist, I'll keep writing and talking...to show where things are going wrong on climate change, and how we can get them right; and above all, to encourage people to act. As a family we're working on our carbon footprint. We've turned our 74-year old house in a net zero energy house, we drive a 4 year old Leaf, and we converted our 12 year old Prius into a plug-in hybrid so we get about 60km to a litre around town in it. We're down to one small bag of rubbish a week, plus some recycling. And we buy carbon offsets for our flights. As a member of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia, I've worked with others to persuade our Church trusts to divest from fossil fuel investments...and we're setting up a carbon offset program for Church air travel. We're working on this with Enviro-Mark...and we'll buy offsets in a Pacific biodiversity or ecosystem restoration project...since it is the Pacific members of our Province of the Church who are already suffering the effects of climate change. Do you feel there is more you could do? If so, what is stopping you from doing those things? I want to be a far more effective communicator on climate change. Sometimes I wonder if I should be more strident on these urgent issues. But then I think, well, no...I'm more effective as a journalist if I deliver the facts in as clear, concise and honest a way as I can...both on the great dangers of climate change, and the great upside and benefits from tackling it. What's your favourite Sunday afternoon activity? I'm a very keen cyclist...so I'm usually out and about our great city or nearby countryside, on road or off road, in almost any weather! Extra for experts: Do you remember how you first became active in climate change? Was there something specific that triggered you to act? How old were you then? How old are you now? As a student, I was involved in the first two Earth Days in the US in the early 1970s...but they were about point-source pollution such as industrial waste in rivers, or toxic chemicals on fields. I didn't latch on to climate change until the early 2000s, I'm embarrassed to say...and then I began including the subject in the presentations I give to the business community, and began working on my own carbon footprint. Free space: write anything you like, nothing at all, or ask us a question The work you're all doing with Social Climate is fundamentally important because... Climate change and other intense issues such as poverty and inequality are global….but the solutions are increasingly local. Each of us has an infinitesimal impact through our own actions...but if an infinite number of us act, we can change the world. The better we get at local solutions, and spread the knowledge, the greater our chance of aggregating that up to achieve global change. Then, we can achieve the absolutely unprecedented speed, scale and complexity of change we have to for survival. Such solutions require very strong, learning communities...with the essential attributes of:
Such communities are places where individuals are valued, helped and encouraged…so they too can participate in change. Wishing you all the best with your work! Rod Last week was exciting - we heard from our youngest climate millionaire yet. We were pretty inspired by what we heard, and wanted to write back... Dear Mystery Millionaire We can tell you're very aware already. Believe it or not, you know more about climate change than some of us older humans. You pointed out impacts that you've already seen - "The sea wall in Island Bay washed down. They fixed it but it will probably wash away again." And some great solutions that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions: "Get an electric car; use public transport and human transport; eat less red meat; don't travel so much for holidays". You asked us "How can intermediate school kids help?" Here are 5 things that we can think of:
There are lots of other things that you can do too, especially with a bit of imagination. You could think of something you love doing - like telling stories, making art, playing music, or being active - and then brainstorm ways of combining that with climate change. For example, I like making up bad jokes and putting them on posters. I've included a sneak peek of one of them at the end... Let us know if you can think of something we can do to help. Feel free to share Climate Millionaire - we'd love to hear more from you and your friends. Thank you, Mystery Millionaire! |
Social Climate blogHome to 'Climate Millionaire'! and other cool things. Want to help us collect a million stories?Categories
All
Archives
February 2017
|