I’ll confess something. A year ago I wasn’t particularly bothered by climate change, I mean obviously films like ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ and ‘Deep Impact’ provided a rather scary outlook onto what may happen to our world, but in my view I’d be long gone by then and someone else could sort it out. Pretty soon though, I woke up and began to smell the stench of my ignorance. This wasn’t something confined to disaster movies, this was a real life disaster and our petrol guzzling, throwaway lifestyle was having major effects on the world, right now!
I know, I was slow on the uptake, but now I fiercely support campaigns such as Oxfam’s which relentlessly push for everyone-everywhere, to do something about climate change. Having for the past few months begun working in my local community, talking to people about climate change and how it is affecting the world’s poorest countries, I can see many looking at me in a way I would have looked at an Oxfam campaigner a year or so ago. Working with my local Oxfam shop I was shocked when the first reaction I got from the sweet, elderly lady behind the counter was; ‘Oh.. not this again!’ Yes, madam, this again!
While working within my local community has been a challenge, it has without a doubt been utterly rewarding. Collaborating with local schools and the local college, I have seen the passion and knowledge that many young people have about this topic and their eagerness to learn how to downsize their carbon footprint. Going into my local sixth form college I learnt from their environmental officer that they now have a new scheme whereby they use their rainwater to irrigate their fields. Furthermore, passing by a new set of flats down the road from me, I noticed a parade of mini wind turbines, used to power part of the building. So, for while there was a number of people I came in contact with who seemed to want to ignore climate change, there were many more who were already acting on it. This made working with those who were eager to know more a really enjoyable experience and only compelled me further to talk to those who seemed uninterested, in an attempt to get them on our side.
Campaigning in my local area has shown me a great many things, particularly how those that don’t know a lot about climate change and what they can do about it, are eager to learn. One of the things I carried out with people from my local community was to get those from local business, the council, teachers and students to pledge a way that they were going to reduce their carbon emissions in 2010. Many were puzzled by this when I first approached them but after tentatively suggesting a few simple ways; perhaps to wash at 30, or become more creative with old clothes, people soon realised that it was a lot easier than they first thought. Pledges people made were truly inspiring and their motivation to stick to them was really positive.
Much of the time I felt that people wanted to do something, but were often left with little knowledge about how to do so. What was particularly surprising was how little people knew about events such as The Wave and the talks in Copenhagen. For myself, travelling to Copenhagen on Friday is a chance to give it the spotlight it deserves. No longer can we ignore the damage everyone has caused to our planet and it is time to stop getting so tied up with whether you’re a developed or a developing country and work together as allies in a bid to control our emissions and find ways to make our world an altogether better place to live in.
Furthermore, the talks and the support that campaigners will give during Copenhagen provides a talking point for ordinary people to understand what they should be doing to reduce their emissions. For while politicians are the ones in control, it is everyone’s duty to watch the energy that they are wasting. Copenhagen is a fantastic place for a diverse group of people to come together for one amazing cause, and if this ethos can be carried on afterwards, it would be a great starting point for our changing world.
Tags: carbon emissions, carbon footprint, climate change, COP15, Copenhagen, Farnborough, Pledges, UN climate change talks
