Episode 87 - What can you do for climate action

We're here to raise awareness and inspire meaningful action by sharing stories, knowledge and conversations with thought leaders and change makers from sustainability to wellbeing and everything related to conscious living. Our mission is to empower you to be the change that you want to see in the world. What can you do for climate action? This is a huge topic. There is so much that we can discuss during this hour. Um, there's a lot that depends on where we are.

Both geographically, mentally, socially, like there's so many different aspects to acknowledge. I got into this space. Through years of changing and growing and understanding one of the things for me, looking back to that little kid that grew up in Argentina. How far I've come and how much I'm widened my perspective. I can say now that most of the things that I'm going to be sharing are my living experience more than just or theories. I want to share more. What can we.

One of the really important things to know is if you're alive, you are going to live a footprint in the world. How big or how small that footprint is, or how big or how small your impact is in the world is up to you. And this for me, brings me a sense of responsibility. As well, it brings me a sense of being able to do something. A lot of times we might feel like we are stressed. One person. What we do might not be significant. It is.

So I invite you to why them, your perspective to see that you matter. And what do you do matters? One of the main aspects of where we are right now and what's the root cause for me is disconnection. We have been disconnected from ourselves. We have been disconnected from our experience, our feelings. We have been living mostly in our heads. We have been disconnected in terms of how we see ourselves separate from others.

In relationship to others, we have been disconnected from our mother earth and this disconnection has been. One of the main reasons for where we are now, where we are now has two different main symptoms. One is internal. Other one is external, the external one. I think that we all know it. The climate change, the climate crisis, what's happening in the world. The other one, internal depression, anxiety, suicides. This is illnesses both come from the same disconnection. So connection is.

As we did at the beginning as well, acknowledging what we're bringing into this space. I want to acknowledge as well. And I think that it's really necessary to acknowledge what came before. The people that came before us, everything that has been done. whether we think of it as positive or negative, acknowledging what has happened, acknowledging all of the people, all of the work that has been done here in Oakland, acknowledging the people from the land, acknowledging their views.

Acknowledging their perspectives, acknowledging their perseverance and acknowledging the role as well. In this space, we have been conditioned to believe that we are just individuals. We have been individualized, everything, and the systems that are in place. Have made that a reality, they are enabling this, this connection and the sense of being separate yet. When we allow ourselves to reconnect, we don't see that anymore. For me, reconnecting with myself.

Reconnecting with my body, my feelings, understanding how my mind and my body work, my path, my journey of what we would call personal development or spiritual development is what led me to live in a way that is not what I used to do by being more aware. I got to the place of understanding the impact of my actions and my life. So one of the first things that I wanted to bring into the space is why do you care? Why do you care about. Being able to go to the beach without it being polluted.

Do you care about the next generation? Do you care about the mass plastics that are out there? Do you care about the animals? Do you care about the climate crisis? Do you care about social justice? Do you care about your own. What is the reason why you care? Because once we figured out, why do we care? It's easier to stay with that, to keep that, and to allow that, to inform our behavior, our actions. I know, as I was sharing before, for me, a lot of it started with me.

I wanted to understand myself more for me a lot, started doing my own health and wellbeing. And then that awareness allowed me to become more with the environment. With what is happening around me growing up in Argentina, I live nearby a lot of SLS. I grew up seeing what was happening on how our systems were making some people live in those situations with full amounts of rubbish everywhere. So it's important as well as we move through these spaces.

And for me, traveling opened my eyes a lot as well, how different people live, how different people are impacted. And for me, it's really important. The legacy that we choose to live behind really important. What do we want to live for the next generations? What do we want for ourselves as well? We still have, hopefully, unless we don't, for whatever reason, we still have years of living here and we already see the impacts of the climate crisis. So it's not only about.

That future are the future generations. It's also about the ones that are already here, including us. And yes, it's really important to see what will be the impact. So allowing yourself to know why do you occur really important? And it might be a combination of all of them, because I believe in that every single human being. Actually it's a caring, loving human being.

We've just been educated and conditioned in different ways, which means that our behaviors, a lot of times are more selfish, are not about the collective or the impacts of it versus thinking of our sales a of times. So just acknowledging that. As we understand why we can, we need to understand as well, our values, because we've been conditioned to live in certain ways. So when we understand our values, we can align our actions and how we make choices and how we make decisions to our values.

The more that will keep this in mind, the easier it is. If you haven't done this. When I run workshops, I take time for all of us to write down our values. Really important to understand what do you stand for? It's much to act when I know what's behind it. As an example. Here in New Zealand in Auckland, when I have to go and buy some bananas and I love bananas. I eat bananas every single day. I had to make a decision to buy one brand of bananas that is organic and for trade, but brings a little.

Plastic wrapping or I had to choose the one that comes without that little, a bit of plastic, but it's not organic and it's not for trade. Now, these are three things that I care about, the plastic that I consume. So trying to live with no plastic or zero waste. And I will get into it in a little bit. Uh, in a moment I care about organic food and I care about the ethical side of it as well.

So I need to make decisions and I need to put this values against each other because sometimes like in this situation, I cannot check off the boxes. I could do what I do with other products that is, I just don't buy them. There's certain things that I cannot find it in certain ways. And then I don't buy it. I can go without it. This again comes back to where we are. What are we ready to do? And how do we want to live? How are we aligned?

And one of the really important things with this is understanding we live in this society, fast paced, modern society, and we can get a lot of times cut up with our life circumstances. I'm going to understand that. There are certain things that are the way that they are because they're more convenient. Not everyone has the opportunity to make some of the choices that I particularly make. I can take the time to go to a refiller there's one nearby me. I can take my containers.

My glass jars and I can refill them. Not everyone has a refilling next to them. Not everyone knows about it. There's different things that are there that depend on our life circumstances. We need to do. So one of the really important things for me in the space of climate action is to introduce kindness to ourselves and to others to be compassionate. Because as I said before, we all will leave a footprint. We can't be perfect. So being kind, just with that is really important.

When we can do what we believe that is. Right. Wonderful. And in terms that we can't being kind with ourselves, knowing that we can't perhaps certain our point in our life, we will be able to so really important the way that we approach it, our mindset, our heart in it really important. For the ones that haven't heard of this before, I'm going to go a little bit fast through this, the waste hierarchy in principle. This is mostly what it's called the RS. The refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle.

The most important thing is to. Refuse, what you don't need refusing it. What do you do need trying to reduce to ask yourself, do I really need this? Sometimes dancer is yes. Reducing allow yourself to use all of the things that you already have. if you, for example, have some containers or some glass jars from peanut butter or jelly or whatever it is that you have already in your home, you don't need to go and buy the new shiny eco products use what you have sometimes.

Yes, it helps to go and to buy something reusable, knowing that it'll last, knowing that it's a good purchase. Again, keeping our values in mind when we do that from the things that we have that are not reusable recycling when possible. And now recycling is a big thing. I actually don't like recycling. I prefer to have to avoid it. In the sense of not buying anything that would be recyclable. So if it's not reusable or not, composible I choose not to buy it. I'm not perfect.

I have done a lot of things that I have purchased a lot of things before being aware of this. So I'm okay with everything that I have done in the past yet. Moving forward, I choose that. Most of the things composting. This is one of the main things that we can do. So allowing this to be part of our lives, composting as much as we can, if you have. A compost in your garden. If you have space or in your balcony, please do that.

If you don't have that used apps, like share waste that they have a map of everyone in your area that is taking on people's organics. So I love that to happen. And if everything else fails, landfill, this is your last resort. As I mentioned before, being curious. Learning watching talks like this, going to other events that are online, educating ourselves, talking with people, sharing, asking questions, taking responsibility, one of the key aspects as well.

To be able to have just this much of an impact is by living slowly. I am able to not adhere to how most people are living rush from place to place. I create boundaries. I choose how I want to live. Of course now with what's happening in the world, certain things have changed, which means that most of us are living even slower. Most of us are being able to stay home and depending of our home situation, it might be more challenging or not as challenging.

You did enables us to be able to see things differently. But when. We can actually go to work or go to engage with the community, to the activities. Can we walk, can we cycle there, if not, can we use public transport carpool with other people, find the ways to make that happen when we allow more time as well? We can make around food, which means that a lot of the impact that we have that comes from what we consume in terms of food. We can reduce our footprint a lot.

We can spend time planning ahead. Sorry. If I know that I'm going to go somewhere for a day, I know I'm going to drink water at some point. Or at different points. I know that I'm going to eat some food. Most likely, perhaps I'm going to buy some food. So if I'm going to go out playing ahead, taking my reusable water bottle, making my food, taking it with me, or if not taking a container so I can use it taking a useful bag playing ahead. Being minimalist.

This is huge for me, as well as slow living. This helps not consuming so much that waste hierarchy refusing saying no, reducing what I don't need. I try except full to be really, really taking my time to see if I'm going to buy something. So voting with your dollar, if you are going to buy something choosing well, who are you giving that dollar to? That's a vote, just like what we do when we choose politicians, when we spend our money, we're doing that.

So if you know, you're values, you can find businesses that align to your values. And again, sometimes it doesn't happen or with what's convenient, important to understand what we're buying most of my clothes as well. They have been using them for 15 years. Most of it, almost 20 years. Some of them, I do have a couple of newish things. Most of them are secondhand. So understanding as. How we can go and spend our time carrying a zero waste kit all of the time.

So I carry my reusable bag with my water bottle for the people that drink coffee or tea or any other drink, take Ausable coffee cup, some container. I have one of those that you can compact them, so that then they don't take so much space. And then you. I allow them to come to become bigger. So there's more space having your own category. All of the time I take my own category. Lot of the time I have some paper bags that I have gotten from the past. I take those there.

So I know 90, 95% of whatever I would buy. I can use something of that. If you're able to buy food from your farmer's market buying locally helps a lot, but as well, understanding who you're buying from. So I choose to eat organic and I know that it can be more expensive. So again, seeing what's convenient, I choose to buy from. the farms that use Russian narrative practices.

They are not only not doing things worst in terms of our soil, in terms of the pesticides and a lot of the chemicals that are used in, in industrial industrialized ways, but also they are regenerating. So. Buying from your feminist market or from your farmers directly in stuff. The supermarket huge. If you have a near, you buy from there, buy bulk, that makes things less waste. As I mentioned before, take your own cap, take your own container, knowing that this is a journey.

There are so many topics that are really important that we can go into. One is understanding circular economy. We have a system that is mostly linear, a system that is about taking. And then creating waste, creating rubbish. When we change our understanding of our interaction with the earth, we no longer take resources. We allow ourselves to engage with what our mother earth gives us. We use that.

And then we return it as compost or with another way we allow the transformation to keep on happening nature. There is no waves. Everything is circular understanding how we can move spaces like that by choosing those type of practices. As I mentioned before, the importance of eating organic food.

Of choosing practices that are rich narrative that are not wasting our soil that are not creating the conditions for what we put into our bodies to be full of chemicals, understanding the practices, natural organizations and companies have. In terms of their ethics, are they paying well to their employees? Are they paying a living wage? Do they have any labor that is slavery, modern slavery child labor. This nowadays is easier to access to that. We can ask questions to companies.

For the ones that I'm not sure. Cause either I haven't engaged with them in the past, or I haven't found someone else that has made that research or these companies don't have any certifications and some of their certifications are really good. I ask questions most times, if people are doing the right thing, they will answer. The next topic, sometimes things a little bit charged for people, but veganism for me, I'm I'm vegan.

I choose to see life with compassion and respect towards all living beings, including animals. so I choose that perspective. And I know that because of that perspective, my diet, which is a plant based diet, which is not the same as veganism. My plant based diet is one that has a huge amount of reduction. Of the impact as some of my, the other diets have because of animal agriculture and the way that it's done around the world and the impact that it has.

So that by reducing our food consumption of animal products or completely cutting them from our diets. And from our consumption in general, we can reduce a lot of the impact as well. We need to understand how we are creating our emissions as individuals. There's ways that we can track that there's apps that we can use for tracking that as well. How are we using our energy?

Where are we getting from there's companies that use more renewal energy, renewable principles than others making our information, our knowledge base wider. So we can notice that. And what's our place within our communities. And I will come in the moment to this topic because you are not alone. There's millions of us that are doing something because we can, and as mentioned before everybody cares, but some of us care enough at this moment to be moved into action.

So knowing that you're not alone knowing that this, even though there's things that we can do as individuals, it's really important to understand that we are not isolated, the impact that we have, we have it in the, we have it when we understand that we are all. Trying to do what's best when we find those which align to our values to our world views make things easier. When we find the people that are doing things in different areas, how can we complement each?

How can we enhance what we are doing? Because we need to understand how we have been conditioned to believe that as well. We need to do everything by ourselves. Not, not true. We do this in relationship. The power is in the collective in your community, whether that is your house, your neighborhood, your local community, or bigger and bigger communities. When we understand. And the role of our communities. We can share more. We can share resources, we can share information, we can share spaces.

We can allow for much more than if we try to do everything by ourselves. And we believe that we are competing with others. Competition brought us to this place. We need to shift our way of thinking. To do things differently. We need to allow ourselves to come out of that behavior. And when we allow ourselves to understand as well and the role of our elders and not just disregarding the older people, there's a lot of amazing wisdom on elders.

It's not that far in time, where a lot of the things that we are doing now that it's creating a lot of the waste and the rubbish that we have in the pollution, they didn't exist when some of our grandparents were alive. When we were reducing a lot of things, when life was much slower pace. And as well, allowing ourselves to connect with the younger generations, the kids now, not only they know what's happening, most of them, they are being moved to act.

We can see that all of the time and all of the climate strengths. They are walking. They are acting and they need as well support. We need to understand how intergenerationally we need to connect. We need to engage with others to share. We need to listen as well. We need to be able to see the different perspectives cause different people are bringing different perspectives. In this land, what's the perspective from Maori worldview.

I love a lot of the perspectives on how the connection to ourselves. Our wellbeing is much more expanding. The physical, the mental, the spiritual to the final, our family, our expanded relatives. How we treat our mother earth. We need to be able to engage with all of this. It's really important to know that we can make the champ to dive deep in all of this. Eric can just start with one small conscious action. Really important, just one action, different conscious. Make a huge difference.

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