Today is Blog Action Day for climate change and what better reminder to all of us to take action than this morning’s article in the Globe and Mail telling us that rapidly melting Arctic ice will have “devastating effects on the planet.”  Researchers say that in 20 years, summer ice will have all but disappeared. What this means for the planet is that the melting permafrost on the continental shelf will release methane gas, further accelerating global warming, and the newly open water will have an impact on global weather patterns and ocean habitat.

As the article says, “you're essentially, for the first time, creating an ocean. Which is not something you want to do as a global experiment, because you cannot take the ocean away….If it's a disaster you cannot put the lid back on again and say, ‘Oh, that didn't work out, let's try that again.' You're stuck with what you've done.”

What a crazy global experiment. What can we do? Ultimately we need to change the way we think and make decisions to take into account that we live on a finite planet that cannot sustain us the way we are living right now. We need to change the way we live work and play to live within nature’s limits. We need to eliminate waste, eliminate CO2 and harmful emissions, and stop removing and paving over nature.  And we need to take care of each other. 

What can we do today? We can start to move in the right direction. Little steps and big steps -- like changing our behaviours at home to lessen our impact on climate change.  From buying less stuff to using less energy to creating less waste, we can all do our parts at home to start moving toward more sustainable practices. Download our household toolkits here for more ideas. 

In our businesses and organizations we can create sustainability plans, implement sustainable purchasing policies, look a the lifecycle of the products we create and become climate neutral in our operations. In our communities we can create and contribute to community sustainability plans that engage all stakeholders in the community in finding solutions. We all need to take action. Climate change isn’t going to wait for someone else to solve the problem. Don’t know where to start? Sign up for one of our Sustainability for Leaders courses in cities across Canada.

Written by Kelly Baxter, Executive Director

For more on Blog Action Day check out www.blogactionday.org