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Our Planet, our Health

Illustration for promotion of World Health Day 2022 featuring a woman with her arms hugging the planet.

World Health Day 2022

Cora Hallsworth, Manager, Municipal Programs, was recently interviewed by Gloria Macarenko on CBC Radio about living sustainably. Gloria invited Cora to share with listeners what her top-of-mind sustainability issues were for 2022, and her ideas about what individuals could do advance sustainable ways of living.  Here are some highlights…

Cora began by acknowledging that we are in the midst of a human health crises due to COVID-19, but at the same time, we are approaching planetary boundaries and facing ecological crises such as the loss of biodiversity, damage of ecosystems due to pollution and the impacts of a changing climate. Importantly, in 2021, the heat dome, COVID-19 and other crises we faced have illuminated how widespread systemic inequality is within our communities and across the globe.

“Without a healthy planet we can not have healthy people.”

To live sustainably on this planet we need to address equity and make sure our demands don’t exceed nature’s capacity.

In BC, and Canada, our high consumption lifestyles, dependence on fossil fuels for heating and transportation, and resource extraction and export have ranked us in the top ten of global emitters. On a per capita basis, we are number 1. In fact, based on ecological footprint estimates, if everyone around the planet consumed like we do, we’d need 5 planets to sustain us all.

Globally, the top 10% of income earners cause half of global emissions, while the bottom half of earners are responsible for less than 10%. This is a huge equity challenge – many people around the world are not meeting their basic needs while others are taking well more than our fair share.

Take action

Cora then provided suggestions about we can each do as individuals:

  1. Figure out your key impact areas (transportation, home heating, and food). A carbon or ecological footprint calculator like the Centre’s Lighter Footprint App, can help. In a typical British Columbia (BC) community, these are the areas our greenhouse gas emissions come from:
    • Transportation – 50% of BC’s carbon footprint comes from the use of gasoline and diesel powered vehicles – the solutions are to shift away from private vehicle transportation and to electrify our vehicles.
    • Buildings – 20% is from heating and powering our buildings – the solutions are shifting away from fossil fuels, retrofits and living and working in more efficient and smaller spaces.
    • Food – 20% is from food production and waste. We are dependent on animal products which are very energy and land use intensive. Nearly 2/3 of the food Canadians throw away could have been eaten – the solutions are to shift to a more plant based diet and reduce food waste.
    • Consumable items – 10% of emissions come from other consumable items such as clothing and other items we purchase – the solutions are to increase sharing, reusing, and repairing, and minimizing the overall consumption of ‘stuff’.
  1. Look at where your money is invested and make sure you are supporting a sustainable future.
  2. Encourage senior governments to divest from fossil fuel industries and shift their support towards helping others adopt sustainable alternatives.
  3. Support your local government in their efforts to enact progressive change – too often these changes are blocked by public opposition.
  4. Be the change – inspire others to act.
  5. Have fewer children – this is a hard one to hear, but a one child family can be one of the biggest ways to reduce your long-term carbon and ecological footprints.

We can bounce forward better

Without action we can anticipate more crises, all of which will be amplified by climate and ecological changes. I’m hopeful we can ‘bounce forward better’. We can forge a new path to communities that achieve health and equity for all within the limits of our one planet. Living sustainably and staying within 1.5 degrees of warming will give us the best chance of avoiding the most severe predicted impacts of climate change to ensure that the planet is habitable for humans and other species that we depend upon.

People often get frustrated that the scale of the challenge is so large, and that we are limited by the systems that surround us. One of the biggest factors is the physical layout of our communities that are heavily car-centric and the types of products that are available in our stores.

The sheer magnitude of change required for a shift towards sustainable lifestyles can only be achieved through a combination of system-wide changes and actions from individuals and households. We as individuals are part of these systems – we have lots of levers available to us: as a consumer, voter, neighbour, parent, teacher, worker, and community member.

We can demonstrate support for bold policy choices; for different types of consumer products; and contribute towards shifting culture and social norms. Individual action does matter and it can stimulate systems wide change.  We need both to achieve sustainable communities.

Return to the Centre for EcocitiesMore Centre News

April 5, 2022
by Cora Hallsworth