Bonus Episode! Your actions and how you make the world a better place, this Earth Day.

Caring about the environment can be quite isolating.

The news is rarely cheerful about the state of the planet (despite plenty of good things going on) and that is leading to skyrocketing rates of eco-anxiety even in children as young as five.

There is a general sense of apathy is settling in amongst people who are beginning to feel it is too late. It certainly isn't. And I did an episode about that a few weeks ago, so I won't rehash that story.

But I want to tackle the isolating part. Because you are not alone.

Millions of people around the world are working every day to protect and rehabilitate our planet. Just listen. I put the call our on social media last week for people to send me in messages with what they do to make the world a better place.

‍Some of you sent in voice messages, some of you sent in written ones, and I am going to share them here, so you don't feel so alone.

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Transcript:

Kia ora and welcome to a special bonus edition in honour of Earth Day because yes, this is two podcasts in one day. Because Earth Day has kind of been hijacked by businesses who want to promote their usually greenwashy bullshit things they're doing to save the planet. And to be fair, I remember years ago when I worked at Ethique, we used to launch new products or have discounts on the day to celebrate Earth Day.

But the more we thought about it, we then figured out that that wasn't the thing to do and then we did better and we stopped doing that because Earth Day is not about businesses. Businesses should not be capitalising on a moment. They should be about celebrating our planet and what we can do to better protect it. So in order to cut through some of the vomit-inducing greenwashing that I have already seen today, I've put together a special bonus episode for you about all the amazing things going on around the world to protect our planet. Because caring about the environment can be really isolating. The news is very rarely cheerful about the state of the planet, despite plenty of good things going on.

And that is leading to skyrocketing rates of eco-anxiety, even in kids as young as five. And that's really sad. There is a general sense of apathy that is settling in amongst people who are beginning to feel it's too late. And that narrative is definitely funded by all companies, which makes me sound like a conspiracy theorist, but it really is. And it's really not too late.

I did an episode about this a few weeks ago, so I'm not going to rehash it, but I want to tackle the isolating part because you are not alone. Millions of people around the world are working every day to protect and rehabilitate our planet. Just listen. I put the call out on social media last week for people to send me messages with what they do to make the world a better place. Some of you sent in voice messages, some of you have sent in written ones and I'm going to share some of them now so you don't feel so alone.

Kia ora Brianne. The environmental actions that I try to take in my daily life are cycling more than I drive, not buying fast fashion, reducing my consumption of plastic, particularly within my beauty routine, and educating myself into how I can be more sustainable through things like listening to this podcast. A really small shift that we've made recently, and I'm surprised how much it's benefited both the planet but also our everyday life too, is get a shift to a veggie box subscription.

So instead of going to the supermarket, we support a small local business. Everything is grown locally, so the carbon miles are low. Everything is organic, everything is plastic-free and it feels so good. Apart from the day-to-day physical direct actions that I take, one of the main things I do is something that you do too, which is communicate. I do a lot of climate communications. I do a lot of, I guess, edutainment as a presenter and a writer and a content creator.

One of the main ways I've been doing that lately is I'm releasing a book. It's on presale now, but it's coming out soon called How to Save the Whole Blinken Planet. It is a kid's book for 7 to 12 year olds and it's all about fossil fuels and energy, where that comes from, renewables and what we want the future to look like. It's a superhero adventure. Captain Kilowatt is an electrical engineer superhero. And some people might be like, but kids, you know, they can't vote. But actually what I found with a previous book I wrote, which kind of is part of a series, which is about waste, is that a lot of parents, teachers, librarians, you know, the adults in these kids' lives came to me afterwards and were kind of sheepishly saying like, oh, I know this is for kids, but I actually learn a lot. The kids themselves have test of power. They tell their parents all about the stuff they learn when it comes to the right and wrong in the world.

That last one is from Constable, you'll see her on Instagram. Now her book, How to Save the Whole Blinking Planet, is available for pre-order now. And I really recommend if you have kids, go and pre-order a copy. Her real name is Lee Constable. I do like her use of the word pester power. Genius. Because it's been proven actually, the only one who will ever change an older bloke's mind is his daughter. Now I'm gonna read out some of the ones that I had sent in. Not all of them because there's just too many and I don't want to bore you. But the whole point is to prove to you that you are not alone.

Now Kate, she uses clothing to the end of its life and even then she gives it another week. That's fair, I know Kate, she does sometimes wear holey clothes. This isn't ethically Kate by the way. Vic, she reduces her family's waste by being more organised with her weekly shop, having a regular menu and only buying what she needs for the week. That is the key to avoiding food waste which is of course about 30% of all agriculture related emissions, about 8% of global carbon emissions in general. And it's just frankly a disgraceful waste that we do throw away about 40% of all the food produced. Sophie says this is incredibly tiny but I refute that. All actions matter. She uses loose leaf tea in op shop tea pots to keep the plastics from tea bags out of her compost heap.

Emma has gone vegan and is feeling fabulous. Vicky has got a worm farm and never thought she would say that worms are cute. I think worms are cute. I nearly got run over once because I was rescuing a worm out of a pottle. So I get it. Sarah from Splash Happy. She keeps all her fabric offcuts and uses them for smaller projects where she can, so she has a lot of offcuts. She also repurposes clothing, so for example she cuts the arms off her husband's old merino jerseys that have worn out elbows and makes them into vests for her children. She also made some old PJ pants into face masks during COVID. To quote her, she is allergic to fabric waste. A nourishing notion puts bulk foods in her kids' lunch boxes instead of the single-use packs of crisps and those sorts of things.

She's also been a plant-based eater for 7 years and gives zero thought to her protein intake because it's actually not that hard. That is a big thing for a lot of people who go plant-based, they worry about protein intake, but you eat a lot of beans and lentils and pulses, not only is that more sustainable for the planet, but they have much less impact. That's really good for you too. Another Kate is trying to make some of her own clothes, which is bold, I am not that brave.

And there's lots and lots of people talking about how they're using more public transport and cycling. Elise has a veggie garden. Lots of people have veggie gardens actually now I'm reading this through. A lot of people are composting. And I love this one from Jane. She's leaving patches of her lawn to flower thanks to the suggestions on this podcast. And trying to cook with more veggies so there's less waste like broccoli stalks. Broccoli stalks are actually delicious. They're really good in a salad or mulch it up and put them in a soup if you don't like the texture. Lots of people using cloth nappies. There's a few people who were doing what Ethically Kate did last year and are doing a wardrobe freeze. So there's no clothing for an entire year.

Love that. I did it for six months. Unfortunately I had to break it because I needed something for work. But good for you, you've given it a go for a whole year. There is lots of conversation about food waste, plant-based eating and all of these people, which is something I really like, is they're not religious about it, right? So you don't have to go all in on one thing for it to make a difference. Even if you just do meat-free Mondays or you just start incorporating more veggies, not only will you feel better, but it does lessen that impact on the planet.

Of course, there's a few comments in there about buying solid shampoo and conditioner. I have gots over these because there are so many I cannot possibly fit them in. I really wanted this to be a short 10-minute podcast just for you to listen to on the way home and think, you know what, happy Earth Day, good things are happening. If you want a little bit more evidence on that, go back and listen to the past episode called It's Not Too Late. Kia ora Kaitiaki. Hang in there. We are making progress.

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