What I did to support #ClimateStrike as a baby boomer!

    HOW DARE YOU?  KEEP THE OIL IN THE GROUND!

        

    Sourced from Stuff

Yesterday the 27th September 2019, thousands of school of students around New Zealand left their classes and joined the #ClimateStrike.  Teachers from my school went as well as many students. 

In many cities around New Zealand the thousands of students were joined by adults who also feel

that is time we take action and declare a "Climate Emergency".  Hundreds of thousands around the world have been doing the same over the last week. This movement is not going away.

Being a "baby boomer" I can remember many historic events (some more significant than others) that have occurred over the last 50+ years. They include (not really in order)

The assassination of JFK, 1963

The death of Marilyn Monroe

The end of the Vietnam War 

The Beatles first songs.

Woodstock

Neil Armstrong walking on the moon -"One giant step..."

The bombing of the Rainbow Warrior

David Langes's Oxford Debate " I can smell the Uranium on your breath..."

The 1981 Springbok Tour

The first Star Wars movie

Rod Stewart's songs - the first time round

Nelson Mandela's release from prison and election as President of South Africa

9/11

Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the United States

The Amazon on fire 2019

The list goes on but nothing is as important as the events happening in our world right now. Greta Thunberg has inspired and challenged us to look at our world in a different way. Her "how dare you?" comments at the United Nations Climate Summit have echoed around the world and made many adults really look at what has been happening to our planet and realize that we all need to change what we have been doing with regard to how we are living, consuming, discarding, polluting.

But it is not all doom and gloom. There are many things I can do to change my impact on the planet.

A recent video by Greta Thunberg and George Monbiot talks about two ways we can start to reverse 

climate change.

So what did I do? I have already started changing small things. Like many, many people we have a veggie garden, compost bins, we recycle our paper, cans, hard plastic, glass bottles.We have reduced plastic - we no longer buy plastic wrap -using beeswax wrap (made by a friend). Glass jars and lids are recycled and used in the pantry. We buy free-range eggs and organic chicken. We own bikes and use them for small trips - although to be honest, I haven't yet biked to work. But is this enough?

Is my current ifestyle sustainable? is our planet sustainable? The answer is no. The key word in Climate Change is "change". I cannot ignore what is happening to our planet, I also need to change

what I am doing to reduce my impact on the environment, although I am already doing small things, so to make a start on a sustainable change I changed Laundry Powder! A very small change I admit but I want to look at how we ( includes husband and one cat) are living on our planet. And changing laundry powder is one tiny, tiny step. Greta Thunberg's passion and call to action caused 1.6million people around the world to do something about Climate Change.

Yes, I know it was only laundry powder but it's a start and a change.