To fight climate change, we need cultural change

Sometimes, unsustainable status quo just needs a little poke

This past week, my wife dared to challenge conventional thinking – and in the process, she may have created lasting positive change.

Here’s the situation: a group of foreign exchange students have been hosted in our area for the past month, including one here with us.  But they’re all departing for home soon, leaving from an airport a two hour drive away.  So the conversation on the online host parent chat forum has turned to how we’ll get them there.

First postings in the conversation suggested we ought to each drive our student.  Perhaps you could call it our ‘cultural default approach’, completely consistent with that other habit of driving kids to school.  No doubt well intentioned, but is it wise?  It will mean a caravan of vehicles heading down the highway, with a considerable carbon footprint.  There’s a good chance those precious extra two hours together will be characterized by someone napping in the back seat.

Why not, my wife dared to suggest on the forum, see if we can charter a bus instead?  It would mean a way lower carbon footprint.  Plus a sendoff in a local parking lot can be made way more fun than a sendoff at an airport (because you don’t want to startle security).  Plus the students might love a bus ride together to the airport.  Plus hosts suddenly have a free half day.

Truth be told, my wife was a bit concerned about what kind of reaction she’d get – but she was pleasantly surprised when one host parent after another chimed in to agree, yes, that made a lot of sense.  So program coordinators are now looking into chartering a bus.  And maybe, just maybe, the seeds of a new approach have been sown for when the next group of students comes.

Our world is filled with unsustainable status quo (IE drive throughs, bottled water, idling, huge vehicles carrying only a driver, etc.); it’s a good part of the reason why we’re having such a hard time getting emissions down, even in the face of devastating climate change happening right before our eyes.

So here’s my challenge for you: the next time you see unsustainable status quo, why not dare to challenge it?  Nicely, of course, because kindness is key to being heard.  But maybe you’ll discover that, once you overcome your hesitation, you – like my wife – can create more positive change than you might have dared imagine, and we’ll all be the better for it.