As the decade of the 20s (not the roaring kind) has begun the DI Climate Action Committee (CAC) had their first meeting of this critical decade. We are told by scientists that we (the Royal WE) need to reduce our collective greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent over the next ten years to have a chance of keeping the temperature increase of the planet to less than 1.5 degrees over pre-industrial times. Yes that is from about 1850 to now but more practically speaking this has happened mostly in the last 50 years. We have just concluded 2019 with the last 10 years being the 10 hottest years on record. Furthermore the temperature increase of the earth’s oceans has increased at a rate 4.5 times faster over the last 21 years compared with the previous 21 years. So in reality everyone on the planet needs to be involved in doing our part. So our CAC met to begin to set our priorities for action.
At are last meeting of 2019 we went through a priority setting exercise with people putting their name down on where they would like to focus their energy. Now the difficult part begins and that is how do we get started. A small group of dedicated people will start putting a process together to get us started as many people at the meeting just want to get on with making change happen. Hurray!!!
Topics we are looking at include: Getting visible about climate change (going to protests, holding community events to spark wider interest), learning more about the Green New Deal and encouraging our MP to speak about a motion currently before the House of Commons to adopt a Green New Deal plan for Canada. Another plan is to have an event to really understand more about the value of adopting renewable energy to help reduce carbon emissions. We spent time discussing stewardship of and preserving and enhancing the use of land in a sustainable way. We will continue to promote a plant based diet with future community meals. We will also look at reducing our use of fossil fuels for transportation, retrofitting our buildings, and reducing energy consumption in the home. We hope to stimulate sharing of tools and equipment and community resources and promote repair cafes.
So there are many ideas here and many more to work on. Check out our new facebook page – Denman Island Climate Action Committee to see what is happening and to contribute your own suggestions.