Our Focus is Climate
The steps you take matter.
Karen Lee and Mardi Crane-Godreau bring you ideas and inspirations on climate awareness, actions and repair in a new series, Climate: Small Steps Matter! Here, Mardi invites your engagement.
Irrespective of political affiliation, election week 2024 will likely remain fixed in our memories for the foreseeable future. There’s been much to reflect on. But in the days that followed, one topic became clear to me.
Climate change is real.
Friends, neighbors and others around the globe are suffering.
Damage to homes, farms, cities and nature will not stop without wide ranging effort.
Addressing climate change cannot be handed-off to others to fix. It’s up to us.
I needed to engage.
I thought about my previous climate oriented efforts, largely focused on committee work and analysis. I doubted that opinions, no matter how well considered, would be heard in the face of the booming voices of giants. But I wanted to have an impact.
Likely, if you are receiving this post, you know my work. I’m a scientist who’s focused on writing about Long COVID for a wide audience over the last two years. On reflection, I believe that as I do with my posts at Long COVID: Insights, I can educate, share perspective and practical advice on the topic of climate repair.
Hopefully there will be room for levity as well!
Why am I writing to you?
We, as leaders and as consumers, have a vast amount of power. Our own awareness and any that we can encourage in others, are key to unlocking that energy. If each of us becomes better informed, reducing carbon emissions can become a natural part of how we live, work and enjoy life.
Awareness followed by action will add up. Plant some clover in your lawn. Buy produce from local sources. Don’t idle your car. Resist the impulse to buy beverages in plastic containers. Be innovative; get a drying rack to dry your clothes.
Climate: Small Steps Matter! posts are dedicated to personal empowerment in our drive to curb carbon emissions and to help repair our climate and the natural world around us.
Your engagement is wanted and will have a significant impact.
Karen and I have a cache of ideas and materials that we have developed over the last several years. We’ll be sharing our ideas and we need your ideas too.
Income from paid subscriptions will be used to further environmental awareness and actions. While free subscriptions will be a mainstay for many readers, I’m asking for your generous support of these posts. We need you as part of this team.
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Most of all, ENGAGE. Every action matters.
We’ll leave you with some thoughts.
Inspired by watching time-lapse data provided by NASA showing the seasonal effects of photosynthesis on atmospheric carbon, we wrote and produced The Clover Solution for Carbon Sequestration. Enjoy.
If you have a lawn, or know someone who does, here’s a step that you can take to capture CO2 from the atmosphere and help to store it in the soil. It’s a useful step in climate repair.
As consumers, there is something we all can do to REVERSE climate change, not just slow it down. Read Glen Merzer's book, Food Is Climate ($10 Amazon), and you will see Dr. Sailesh Rao's scientific analysis about carbon sequestration. He presents evidence that animal farming is responsible for 87% of all greenhouse gases. We only need to do one thing: Stop supporting animal farming. We don't need to wait for governments to act. Growing crops instead of animals allows 90% of farmland to be return to its natural state. Once trees regrow as they did before they were cut down, climate change will begin reversing.
It would have been good to point out that it is important which variety of clover one uses. Some are good as a lawn substitute or inclusion: this has been done for years, so seeds are available, but be sure to check with an expert. Other varieties, including some sold in garden stores, are meant as cover crops or green manure. And some should simply not be planted at all, as they can become invasive and actually degrade natural biosystems. I like your approach of looking at the simple things we can do, but it is important that they include the information people need to make responsible decisions.