What now? What does enough look like?

We have been recovering from our Sustainable House Open Day last weekend, giving ourselves time to just potter a bit in the garden. We are thinking about the list we created about how we might go further into sustainability ( in last week's post) and what we might tackle next. DH is intrigued about electric vehicles...and given the news about the rate of climate change, we might all need to take concrete steps towards changing our lives and our economies, even before it becomes completely cost-effective on an individual level. Every movement needs 'early adopters' who show others the way.

Here is a very important article from George Monbiot: written on the eve of the Climate Strike

"in seeking to prevent climate breakdown, what counts is not what you do but what you stop doing. It doesn’t matter how many solar panels you install if you don’t simultaneously shut down coal and gas burners. Unless existing fossil fuel plants are retired before the end of their lives, and all exploration and development of new fossil fuel reserves is cancelled, there is little chance of preventing more than 1.5C of global heating".

"Individually and collectively, it is time to decide what “enough” looks like, and how to know when we’ve achieved it."

Did you attend the Climate Strike where you are? DH and I were part of a large crowd here in Perth Western Australia. We estimate about 15,000 people were present - a large gathering for our city. Here is a picture I took early on- later the whole of Forrest Chase was packed and there was standing room only.

The challenge is clear. 

Top climate scientists issued a report recently showing that over the last several years, sea-level rise, planetary warming, shrinking ice sheets and carbon pollution have accelerated; a sobering call to action for political leaders headed to New York for summit-level climate change talks this week at the United Nations.  The scientists say that “only immediate and all-inclusive action encompassing: deep de-carbonization complemented by ambitious policy measures, protection and enhancement of carbon sinks and biodiversity, and efforts to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, will enable us to meet the Paris Agreement.”

This is sobering stuff. So it is important that we each take what steps we can, and encourage others to do so too. Our government must make it impossible to, say, open new coal or gas mines and new coal fired power stations. At the moment the Australian government doesn't seem to want to do anything of the sort. We are going to be in struggle for life on this planet, and I think there is a lot of struggle to come. I hope we can, through our own simple living/sustainable living blogs connect with each other and encourage each other on the journey. Thank you for visiting mine.