Why not try carbon fasting for your Fast for Climate Leadership? It’s so easy. There are so many ways you can do it. Each person designs their own carbon fast so that it is something that stretches them toward a new level of conservation, and healthy lifestyle.
CarbonFast through Diet
Choosing your diet consciously is an important way to reduce greenhouse gases and improve the environment. Factory farming of all types is much harder on the environment than organic farming. Buying your food from small local farmers is much less energy intensive than buying, processing, and transporting food from all over the world. Fresher and more delicious too!
Reducing the amount of meat you eat is always helpful. Some people would give up beef and lamb because they produce a lot of methane and because it takes a lot of pounds of grain to grow a pound of beef. Those who have already stopped eating red meat may stop eating chicken, or go vegetarian or vegan. Some will choose to pay for organic food.
Organic farmers enrich the soil using natural methods and don’t dump excessive chemicals and organic nutrients into the water system. Some will begin to plan to grow their own food.
CarbonFast through Transportation
On April 1st pick one thing to do for a day to see how it feels.
If you usually drive, try taking the bus or riding your bike. You might find it much less stressful. Learning how to get around on a bike is fun and exhilarating with the added benefit that you get your exercise and become fit. Walk as many places as you can.
Take the train. Write the government a letter telling them the trains aren’t running often enough and are too expensive. Train travel has to be made more attractive. Try Skyping more often and flying less. Airplanes are the most energy consuming mode of travel.
CarbonFast through Investment
April 1st book yourself an energy audit for your house. Think about how we will heat our homes without oil and gas. Can you renovate for better efficiency?
Do you have a rooftop that can generate good power with solar collectors? Invest in the future. Help meet our power needs so that we don’t even need coal or nuclear power. We need a lot of solar collectors. If you don’t have a good roof, or you don’t have the money to invest, connect yourself with a Renewable Energy Coop. In Ottawa, support Ottawa Renewable Energy Coop. Lease them your roof and they will put the solar collectors on.
Take your investments out of fossil fuels if you can figure out how to do so. Try to make money on the solutions, not the things that hold us back.
CarbonFast through Simple Living
Make April 1st a buy nothing day. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Go through your closets and pass on some things somebody else might enjoy. Instead of going out, stay home and do something interesting. Have a social time with family. Play games. Make crafts. Get unwired for a day. Listen to music. Make music.
Turn down the heat and wear sweaters. Hang out your clothes to dry – outside or inside. Plan your use of electricity. Pay attention to water conservation. It takes energy to treat water. Pay attention to what you put down the drain. Make your daily living habits a sacred ritual that honour our mother, the earth.
And Don’t Forget to Take Action!
- Write a letter to your city councilllor about bike lanes and complete streets that are safe and accessible for everyone.
- Lobby your city to stop selling bottled water at city hall and make fountains available. Tell them your thoughts on a pipeline going through your city.
- Write a letter to your premier about the overall energy strategy for your province. In Ontario you could write a letter against nuclear power and recommend the province negotiate a water power agreement with Quebec. You could ask for much stronger house retrofit programs for conservation, and an expansion of the amount of solar and wind power that can be sold to the grid.
- Write a letter to the Prime Minister and the Environment minister demanding a whole new level of environmental protection laws to replace the ones he eliminated. And a restoration of the environmental science work that was being done in Canada. Insist that those leaky tailings ponds in the oil sands be cleaned up by the oil companies before any new projects can be started.
- And send your letter to the newspaper as well – perhaps a shorter version. Post it on your facebook page. Tweet it to your followers. Spread the word. We need to engage the public and we need to let our politicians know that if they don’t show strong leadership on this file, we will not elect them.
Ask our leaders to:
- Eliminate all subsidies, tax breaks, and exploration incentives to fossil fuels.
- Put a price on carbon
- Develop a Renewable Energy Plan for Canada.
One letter, one action, one public education event at a time, we can raise public awareness that we are engaged in a major transition time. We are building the road to a future we can be proud of. We are building a world that will respect nature; that will offer a good life for our grandchildren and their children.
Don’t be a fossil fool. Put Climate First on the First of the Month.
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