Whew! It’s over. On Sunday night, we turned the calendar page to a new year and closed the book on 2023 – the hottest year on record by some margin.
As I went skiing in New Hampshire on New Years Eve on a mountain with zero natural snow and chair lifts eerily taking me over fully grassy slopes and as I went for runs in the rain in t-shirts over Christmas vacation instead of bundled up and dodging snowflakes, I couldn’t help but feel some extra melancholy. And while my corner of the world is absolutely feeling the effects of climate change, I also know that I’m one of the lucky ones.
For low-lying island nations, the fact that keeping warming to 1.5 degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels seems a near impossibility feels apocalyptic. For those nations, according to Fatumanava-o-Upolu III Dr Pa’oleiei Luteru, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, “Our survival is at stake.” For many, the climate crisis also means food insecurity and, as a result, increase risk of conflict. The World Food Programme estimates that climate extremes already led to food insecurity for 56.8 million people in 2022. According to the IPCC, this risk increases with a 1.5 degree increase and gets even more dire at 2 degrees. In fact, looking at almost any metric that is climate related or climate adjacent, whether food security, conflict, biodiversity, marine ecosystems, or, in fact, the very existence of small island nations, the outlook is grim. We are creeping closer and closer to 1.5 degrees celsius warming. But it’s important to remember that the calculus is not 1.5 degrees or 2.0 degrees. Every tenth of a degree matters and keeps us under potential tipping points. While current outlooks have us far surpassing even 2.0 degrees, that is not yet a foregone conclusion.
So now that it’s a new year, can we start over? Sadly, no. But we can make some intentional changes. I don’t typically make New Years Resolutions, SMART Goals, or intentions for the year. I don’t pick a word to define my year as I’ve seen so many people do on social media. But this year I definitely have some climate related resolutions/goals/intentions – objectives perhaps. And I have a word. More on that below.
Personal Objectives
1) Plan for Home Decarbonization
My home uses legacy natural gas for hot water, heating, clothes drying, and cooking. We have begun the process of talking to contractors to swap all of these out to electric alternatives. It turns out that it’s not always easy – gas is so ingrained in us as the gold standard that many contractors we talk to try to talk us out of converting. But by the end of 2024, I hope to have swapped out the hot water, dryer, and cooking. I understand that retrofitting our home for whole house heat pump heating and cooling will be a bit more complicated, but I do hope to have a plan in place by the end of the year so we can finalize that transition in 2025. Given that the majority of our electricity is generated from the solar panels we installed at the very end of 2023 and the balance is from 100% renewable energy through our utility, this transition will make a huge dent in our carbon footprint.
2) More Clothing Repairs
I’ve been really good over the past few years about buying limited new clothing. I have been less good about making my own repairs even though it’s something I preach about a lot. Well that’s about to change! I got a refurbished sewing machine for Christmas and I can’t wait to use it. Maybe I’ll even tackle making some clothing from scratch using deadstock!
3) Eat More Legumes
I transitioned to a mostly vegetarian diet in 2023 though I still eat some fish and a fair bit of cheese and eggs. But I still don’t eat enough legumes – specifically lentils! They taste so good. They’re so nutritious. And they have a regenerative effect on the land. Win-win-win! While I’m at it, I’d love to experiment with vegan cheese substitutes.
There are of course other things I’ll try to do, but for the sake of simplicity, I’m keeping it to these three for now!
Systemic Objectives
As we all know, climate change is systematic. It’s caused by the actions of big businesses, governments, and billionaires. It’s not caused by me alone (though my personal actions still matter). Because of that, in addition to my personal objectives, I have some goals to try to change the systems. OK I have one objective- my word for 2024: VOTE.
2024 is an election year in the United States. There are so many issues at stake in this election. It’s hard to narrow them down to the most important, but I believe that climate change is the biggest issue of our time. Addressing climate change won’t solve healthcare or inequality problems in this country, but it can help. As we know, climate change has health consequences that are not equally distributed (e.g., urban heat islands). In this country and globally, change disproportionately impacts the poorest. And the solutions are not equally accessible to everyone. Green space, for instance, isn’t accessible to everyone. Solar panels are often only available to homeowners. A well insulated home that is resistant to flooding may be a luxury not afforded everyone.
This election, I believe that we have to vote for candidates who will bring us towards our climate goals. And, while this may be an unpopular opinion, in the absence of perfect candidates, we need to vote for the candidates who are not climate deniers, who will not actively dismantle the EPA, who will work to phase out fossil fuels in our communities. Who simply have our best interests at heart.
The Green Ostrich 