Day Four of Womankind's Combat Global Warming Challenge: Leanne

Ok, Imagine you have this massive lake that you need to empty (I don't know why. That's not relevant. Stay with me.) If you take a cup full of water out of this massive lake, the volume of water in the lake decreases, even though the decrease is almost negligible, yes? And if you continue taking cups of water for long enough, or if you get enough people taking cups at the same time, eventually the lake will become empty. Correct? Things get a little more complicated when there's inflow as well, but you get the idea.

I'll leave you with that thought for a moment.

Today (4/3/17) I traveled to Melbourne for a 1st birthday party, which was an absolute joy. I left early and returned late and did very little in between to 'combat' global warming. 'Combat' conjures images of fighting and striving and opposing with mighty vigour. I took the train, walked all over the city, stayed vegetarian and refused a bottle of water that was offered to me, but that is literally it. Hardly a fighting spirit, is it?

In the city today I realised that there are lots of people in the world. LOTS.  And many, many, many of them are driving cars, flying in planes, buying things, drinking bottled water, living in huge houses, wearing almost disposable clothes, chucking recyclable and compostable things in the rubbish, getting their shopping in plastic bags, eating highly processed foods...the list goes on.

But you know what? Many, many, many of them are occupying only a small piece of land, riding their bikes, walking, eating local and seasonal food, recycling, making do with what they already have, mending their clothes and drinking tap water. They compost, they grow food, they turn off the lights and they avoid single use plastic.

My point is this. The water in the lake analogy can feel like a hopeless situation when you consider the tiny insignificant difference a cup or water makes, and when you think about the sheer number of cups you'd have to remove to make any noticeable difference. But it can work in the positive too: the only way to empty the lake is by removing water. And a large volume of water is comprised of smaller volumes of water; you can't remove a huge volume without removing many, many smaller volumes.

This is not new or interesting, but it is vital in this fight against global warming. We must believe that our small contributions combine with other small contributions to make a worthwhile collective. As individuals, we are only ultimately able to control our own actions. But just because we can't control the actions of others (ie. make them care about this issue and actually do something about it), doesn't mean we should get all huffy about the insignificance of our own small actions and abandon them altogether.