Walk Softly – Climate – How are we doing?

by Geoffrey Carpentier

I had the good fortune to tour Italy and several eastern European countries recently, on an actual holiday, not a guiding trip. So, I was more relaxed, sort of, and was able to observe what others were doing and how they lived their lives, in these times of climate confusion and turmoil. I started to notice things which are related to our frequent discussions about climate change here in Canada.

Here are a few of my insights which might offer perspective on the reality of how most folks deal with climate change and its impacts on their daily lives. Before I jump into this, please realize, I am not a climate denier, nor is the column meant to indicate I support those who are, nor do I dislike Europeans – we had an amazing journey and met so many wonderful people on our travels.

Let’s start off with some observations which are not paralleled very well here in Canada. There are e-bikes, e-scooters, bicycles, e-cars and hybrid cars everywhere in Europe! It is shocking how many we saw in our travels. Car charging stations were also frequently encountered. Now that said, people, in Italy at least, drive very aggressively. I am a very confident and experienced driver and I found them to be reckless and often dangerous. That alone is one issue, but the one which goes in the face of climate mitigation is how fast they drove. 130 km/hr is the posted speed on most big highways,  yet, many folks were driving much faster. People accelerate towards round-abouts, and once they’ve cleared ‘the obstacle,’ off they go again at high speed – pedal to the metal. I would think with the positive benefits, of round-abouts and hybrid and e-vehicles, things would be better, but frankly, the speed and sudden stops and starts offset any benefit from these climate-friendly vehicles. When considering the life expectancy of human beings.

We saw many open fires in rural yards (some clearly burning nasty stuff they shouldn’t have), and fireplaces and wood burning stoves were frequently encountered. These are a necessity but not a climate friendly source of heat. We were shocked at how much air pollution was visible in the daytime skies. We started to look at the Air Quality Index (AQI) and had one day where it was over 380! In Toronto, on that same day, it was about 22. On many days, it rose to the mid-150s, virtually everywhere we went. These are the kinds of levels we used to encounter here in the 1970s, before regulations started to control air pollution. As a point of reference, AQIs which exceed 100 are dangerous to most people.

So what does this all actually mean? For me, it means people everywhere have continued to live their lives, relatively unchanged, despite their personal impact on climate. They have either, consciously or unconsciously, decided to accept the risk they can still have an enjoyable life despite the threat of climate change. People have not stopped driving or going to sporting events, flying to vacation spots, or taking cruises, regardless of the known negative impacts to the earth, from a climate perspective. Even our own politicians fly all over the world to discuss climate, taking huge entourages with them, generating millions of tonnes of greenhouse gases, all while telling us plebes we need to do more. Couldn’t they meet virtually, like the rest of us are trying to?

People are tired of the doomsday rhetoric, where billions of dollars are collected and spent, and the outcome is dubious at best, at least here in Canada, where our emissions have gone up instead of down! So for me at least, I see the positive side of my European trip and hope we learn to adopt some of the positive influences they have. Yet, at the same time, I wish more people would look closely at how they are personally impacting climate change, as many of them continue to live their lives in the fast lane. Finally, I wish our government would initiate actions which can actually reduce our impacts, instead of offering ‘solutions’ they know won’t work.

Geoff Carpentier is a published author, expedition guide and environmental consultant. Visit Geoff on-line on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.