Everything helps in curbing carbon, from eating your leftovers to planting a garden.
It really can be that simple, says Tom Pedersen, director of the University of Victoria-based Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, which brings together researchers from UVic, the University of B.C., the University of Northern B.C. and Simon Fraser University to study issues around climate change.
Climate change is most effectively dealt with by individuals, Pedersen said.
“So many members of our society feel helpless in the face of this massive challenge to our future, and yet there’s no need for them to feel helpless because there’s lots of little things that they can be doing.”
Those small remedies can include being less wasteful with food, since Canadians throw away about 40 per cent of what they buy. This discarded food can end up in landfills and create methane gas, a contributor to climate change.
Similarly, growing a garden puts a food supply right at the doorstep, which reduces the need to hop in a car — and create exhaust — to get provisions.
Such basic examples are the foundation of a new video created for the institute that injects humour and a light touch into the serious subject of climate change. The 10-minute production, What You Can Do About Climate Change, has been posted online at pics.uvic.ca.
“We tried to keep it really straightforward,” Pedersen said.
He said he is frequently asked about how someone can have a personal impact on fighting climate change. The online video is essentially a reminder about useful preventive measures people have likely heard before, he said.
The idea was to take a humorous, folksy approach. “It’s kind of like your sister talking to you, just giving you some sisterly advice. We’re not trying to preach to anybody.”
The ultimate goal of the video is to “reduce a barrier to inaction,” Pedersen said.
Just about everything people do creates carbon, he said, but British Columbians are a bit ahead of the game because so much of our energy is generated by renewable hydro-electric power.
The video’s release has been timed to coincide with a report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, due to be made public Sept. 27 in Stockholm. Part of it has already been leaked, Pedersen said.
“The leaked information so far points out that it’s now virtually certain that human beings are changing the climate in a negative way, so the public over the next month is going to be increasingly concerned.”
Pedersen will be the moderator of a Sept. 30 institute event, webcast live from Vancouver, considering the report and its implications for B.C.
