10 Comments
Jan 15Liked by Dhanya Herath, Jenny Sahng

I love your energy, enthusiasm and commitment to change that you are advocating in light of the troubles we are in that are effecting all species and ecological systems that support life.

I think it is also important to include despondency, despair and grief in your portrayal with appropriate articles and books. To be relentlessly positive is to deny our reality and will lead to disillusionment, burnout and sense of betrayal perhaps and then anger.

To allow all our pessimism to be expressed openly and discussed is very important I believe

An excellent book I’ve recently read is ‘At Work in the Ruins’ by Dougald Hine.

He had a long history of high level climate activism and speaking but eventually ran out of words.

He knew that what he and others like him were saying wasn’t true and that to live with this was too great a burden to bear.

He has many fresh insights consequently. There is work to be done which is what the title of his book states. It is the kind of work to be done that needs to be questioned in order to find appropriate responses.

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Jan 15Liked by Dhanya Herath, Emily Mabin Sutton, Jenny Sahng

One thing we should all do is to learn about Resource Overshoot and a good start is here: https://overshoot.footprintnetwork.org/. Then tell everyone about it. Why? because our profligate use of resources, driven by the capitalist imperative to consume, is at the root of the climate catastrophe. Have you ever thought about how many resources (and how much energy) are used in producing green energy infrastructure, electric cars, the phone you are reading on? Our priority should not be producing more green energy: it should be about using much less energy. We really need to look at both the embedded carbon and the non-renewable resources that have been used, when we buy something, not whether it is simply energy-efficient in use.

Good luck with getting your carbon footprint down to 2 tonnes. I am a vegan, living on a small boat and don't own a car (in spite of living in a rural area, which makes travelling very difficult). My footprint IS under 2 tonnes, but I have to keep an eye on things to keep it that way.

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Jan 15Liked by Dhanya Herath, Jenny Sahng

With a gap year between local elections in 2025, and central govt elections in 2026 (fingers crossed there’s an election before that), I’ll be investigating different avenues to move the needle on climate

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Jan 15Liked by Dhanya Herath, Jenny Sahng

Great stuff. I'm curious. How did you decide on two tonnes?

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It's great to have a list of orgs around the motu. I've just come across a Tairāwhiti based group that is bringing a local view of climate impacts and solutions. The most recent interview they've shared is with community leader/ activist Manu Caddie. https://youtu.be/kk8tzA7lFRM?si=qPe5DsZKIS3EOflq

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