The 2017 EcoChallenge has both inspired and motivated me to try a little harder to reduce my carbon footprint.  New behaviours (eating less meat, studying drawdown research and solutions) are becoming new habits.  It is wonderful to view the team feeds and to know we are collectively having an impact. 

This EcoChallenge has been, for me, both instructive and encouraging. I hope that NWEI and the Project Drawdown organizers continue to build on it and engage our best efforts beyond Earth Month...  It would be excellent to sustain and build on the impact of individuals, even as we recognize the need for systemic, cradle-to-cradle policies that shift human reliance away from fossil fuels. Thank you to the organizers, thank you to the teams... 

The violent volatility of our weather—so easy to forget on a sunny morning in Spring— struck me hard this morning as I was out with my dog.  In a matter of seconds, I watched the storm approach from the far side of the river. I barely made it back up our driveway and into the house, and then: crazy intense wind, hail, ice pellets, mixed with driving rain.  The temperature dropped from around  10°C to freezing.  And now, half an hour later, the clouds are breaking to make way for the sun. 

Many of the actions offered through Drawdown are habits of living for us.  For example, I burn next to no gas on my commute upstairs to my home office. (smiling)  I am fortunate to be semi-retired and working part-time with a trusted longtime colleague.  Based in a faraway city, my colleague handles client-facing meetings, and engages me to provide specific consulting services remotely from behind the scenes.  This is an amazing gift—thanks to the acceptably fast broadband service provided by our WISP, I can work from our off-grid homestead.  Weeks can go by when I don’t use the car.  I gather up errands and appointments so we get the most out of a single trip into town.  The next challenge for us is figuring out how to fund an EV or even an EV hybrid.  It bothers us that these options are really designed as status objects for the affluent.  My life-partner and I do the best we can, mostly using our small fuel-efficient car, and reserving the carbon-heavier truck only for jobs that demand it.  But we have started to think about the possibilities.  That’s for another post.  

Last night, my life-partner and I had an extensive discussion around the Drawdown quiz in the NYT, originallly published in June 2017.  Although we are committed permaculturists, we still learned a lot from this exercise. Highly recommend. I may return to it in 6 months to ensure the knowledge sticks! Here’s the link if you’re interested:  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/09/climate/drawdown-climate-solutions-quiz.html

As  our winter season wanes here in the southern interior of Canada’s Pacific Northwest, I anticipate the special sound.   In 2013, that sound began in late February.   Usually it begins in early March. This year, however, it did not begin, for me, until this morning. On my walk with my dog, Jake, at last, we heard the sound of water streaming down our steeply sloped mountain to the valley.  The Spring melt has begun at last!   We have between 120% and 140% of normal snowpack accumulation in our high mountains this year.  And so, while I’m happy to see spring, these years, these recent years, my joy  is shot through with apprehension.  Flooding and mudslides are more common now.  I resolve to try harder to minimize my carbon footprint, eat, waste, and consume less, grow and give more. I am making small bargain with the gods weather, If I do these things, will you spare us extreme flooding…will you keep our ferry afloat as the river rises...?  We will see if the gods of weather accept my offering!  (Photo: Taken of our village waterfall in the forest by my brother-in-law, August, 2015).

I have been thinking about meat consumption. While I am still cutting back,  I wonder if meat raising can be done sustainably, and actually help advance the goals of lower carbon.  For example, our chicks eat food waste and provide rich compost.  They are a natural no-till soil conditioner.   They give us eggs, and, eventually, meat.  But up to that moment, they well.  I’d welcome thoughts from the Drawdown Team on this, as I am still learning...