Climate change is big, but area experts will be in Edmonton next week to show you how you can take small steps at home to fight it.
Some 400 people will be at MacEwan University on Thursday, Oct. 3 for Edmonton’s third Change for Climate Talks. The talks feature nine community leaders who will share their stories on how Albertans can help stop global heating.
About 73 per cent of Edmontonians are concerned about global heating and want action on it, said Andrea Soler, one of the organizers of next week’s talks. These talks are meant to get people motivated to take action on climate themselves.
While next week’s talks are sold out, Soler said videos of the talks would be posted to the Change for Climate website in late October.
Local act, global impact
Sturgeon County tiny home advocate Kenton Zerbin will speak on tiny homes at the talks. He built and now lives in a 28-foot by 9-foot home for about $90,000 that has significantly reduced his family’s environmental impact.
“We actually spent $260 on heating for the whole year,” he said, which is what most people would spend in a month.
Buildings are the third biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada after oil and gas and transportation, the Prairie Climate Centre reports. If we want to address climate change, we need to move beyond little things like changing light bulbs and address how we house ourselves, Zerbin said.
“Tiny homes allow you to open up other life choices,” he said.
Zerbin said a smaller home requires less building material, which means you can invest more in solar panels and insulation (as he did). It discourages consumerism, as you don’t have room for as much stuff, and reduces your home’s operating costs, which means you don’t have to work as much and have more time and money for your hobbies.
“There is something to be said with learning to live with less,” he said.
Andrew Bell of the Electric Vehicle Association of Alberta said he would speak on how transportation accounts for some 28 per cent of Canada’s carbon footprint. Get an electric car and buy renewable power, and you take basically all that carbon off the board.
“That’s an opportunity that’s available right now. You don’t have to wait for it,” he said.
Global heating means wilder weather that makes it more difficult for farmers to grow food and streets more prone to floods, said urban farmer and speaker Jocelyn Crocker. If you buy local or grow your own food, you reduce greenhouse gas emissions from flying in food, support local jobs, and (with a garden) create water sinks to guard against flooding.
“I have an apple tree in my front yard, and for two months out of the year I don’t have to buy apples,” Crocker said.
Bell said he’s taking steps on global heating because he can already see its effects in local weather patterns, particularly when it comes to wind.
“I’ve got three kids myself, and I don’t want to be in my twilight years thinking I should have done something.”
Global heating is a huge problem that requires, big, systemic change, and we can get to those changes by starting with a whole bunch of little ones, Crocker said.
“The problem is so big I can’t even comprehend it, but you know what I can do is I can grow carrots.”
Videos of the talks will be posted to changeforclimate.ca later this fall.
