"Persevering as art" plus carbon-neutral v net-zero v renewable energy
a climate conundrum covered in enough detail to settle your nerves
Hello again…still here substacking. I think I like it.
I’ve been asked by a bunch of you to cover a tricky climate issue from time to time. So I have. But tell me brutally below if you like it, find it boring, whatever.
At a granular, personal level I’ve been experimenting with using some bad fatigue (from a horrible Hashimotos flare that has lasted two months) and a cringy resistance that I’ve been feeling towards almost everything from the moment I wake, as signals to immediately do “effortlessness”.
Rigidity (and, yes, both psychic resistance and fatigue are rigidnesses) makes me miserable and I’ve slipped into it of late. We all do. We fear, we tire, we get overwhelmed, so we grip and resent. But there is noble art in spotting it, standing back and getting a meta-view and remembering there is zero point to it. And then choosing to switch to effortless. As a mindset. As a vibe.
I mean, you could try hacks and do complex online courses …but it all boils down to:
just choose to do effortless.
The themes in this ‘letter reflect this. There’s also been a change of season, my home state is crawling to the end of a 100 day-plus lockdown, politics is a shamozzle and new ways are required…
Be perseverance
i like this as a way, for right now
I enjoyed reading this very still and rather religious New York Times essay on practicing perseverance to find meaning amid the fatigue and anger that abounds.
“So what must we do? We grieve. We admit we are worn out. We do what we can to help... And we take up the practices of patience and perseverance amid uncertainty. Perseverance isn’t simply a ‘grin and bear it’ stoicism, much less a call to deny our frustration, disappointment or anxiety about what lies ahead…
“The Book of James presents perseverance as an artist, with our own souls as its medium. Perseverance, James writes, must ‘finish its work in us’ that we might become ‘mature and complete’. It forms and shapes a kind of wholeness in us that comes as a gift.”
Perseverance as a force almost bigger than ourselves, a role that we step into so that we can shape ourselves to completion…it all makes a lot of solid sense to me. It feels noble and upright and energising. Know what I mean?
Carbon neutral flights? Petrol? Greenwashing?
often. But shall I explain?
As per above, I’ll try out these quick explainers. I might do some as a video. This edition, I’ll quickly explain carbon offsetting and net-zero. With links for further reading smattered.
Perhaps flag a topic you’d like covered down the track in the comments, or flag if these explainers aren’t so fun.
Explain the jargon for me?
When a company trumpets they are going carbon-neutral or net-zero emissions (= same thing) by 2025 (or whatever) it means they will cut their greenhouse emissions (presumably as much as possible; I am a wishful person), and anything they don’t manage to cut, they will offset such that the net effect (on their company ledger and your conscience) is zero.
Companies offset by paying others to cut their emissions on their behalf or to store a stack of carbon, most commonly by planting trees, which sees carbon units stored in the ground.
Got it?
What is legit, then?
The slogan and catchcry to look for from companies is…
100% renewable electricity!
Here in Australia Telstra, Woolworths, Bunnings, Coles, ALDI and a bunch more of the biggest energy users have pledged to switch to 100% renewable electricity by 2025. Legit and hopeful! Reenergise.org has been doing the most awesome job converting all these companies and they make it REALLY easy to lobby the companies who are not joining the march. Go here to click your bit!
All this said, some things simply can’t be powered with renewable energy yet, like flying and shipping. And so offsetting is the best option in such cases. But if you’re prepared to drill down, you want to go for offsets that create (fund) extra emissions reductions, like renewable energy projects (wind and solar farms).
You can also look to see whether the company is investing in research into zero-emissions technology for their industry, like electric planes, as Air New Zealand is.
If you’re a company wanting to offset, there are some good tips here.
If you want to nerd out a bit more on flight offsetting, the Guardian did an investigation this year.
Feel free to post some additional questions below and I will get an expert in to answer next week.
Zoom camera self-performing
is anyone stopping to talk about this?
Hey, we now watch ourselves when we talk, instead of others. Right?
Talking into reverse cameras – on Zoom and IG lives etc - means it’s our own reactions and facial inflections we are conscious of as we endeavour to connect.
I now have an opinion on whether I smile enough with my eyes while sharing an idea. I perform as I speak with cute nods and side glances. It’s ghastly.
Which can’t be good as a long-term thing on our brains and egos. At a bare minimum, it sees us all over-identify as “objects”. (Botox and plastic surgery enquiries from new customers went up during Covid due to the “zoom boom”.)
I refer to something similar in my book - Temple and Harvard university studies found parents on devices led to significant developmental “injuries” in their kids’ brains. The lack of eye contact interrupts ancient emotional cueing and can affect moral framing.
If we talk to our own faces, are we causing developmental injuries? Moral retardation? In others, in ourselves, in our culture?
A thing to leave to you to ponder…
Me, I now dodge Zoom and talk on the phone. Or click gallery view when I’m speaking and put my noggin at the bottom of the screen (with a notebook over my face). I try to do IG Live’s with other people. And watch the comments scroll, not my smugly performative mug.
Listen to this:
I listened to this Huberman Lab podcast episode this week about dopamine and how to control it for focus and motivation. It made me smile – penny-drop-slash-the-world-makes-sense smiles.
The chunky bit, Andrew delivers with incisors:
Avoid spiking dopamine before effort and don’t spike it after (examples might include an energy drink before a workout or dangling a reward for yourself, like chocolate, to get through a work task). Train your brain and endocrinal system to find the effort pleasurable itself.
Which is just a bit spiritual and Stoic and the rest.
CSA: My beautiful bike has been stolen…
But I thought you’d like to know a lovely story. It’s still missing but I’ve offered a reward. Which saw my local café BruCoffee add an extra $100 to the reward to get it found.
Then Brad, a former homicide detective who founded BikeVault, reached out and offered to help me find my wheels, throwing in a $200 bike lock to the reward offering and then posted this.
This damn bike has attracted much love in its life…you might like to read this story about it.
I have put up two more Wild with Sarah Wilson podcast chats since we last spoke. The first is with neuroscientist Dr. Jud Brewer and we cover off how curiosity can crowd out anxiety in our brains. The second, landed today, is with Miles Franklin winner and Wiradjuri woman Tara June Winch and we talk about how “being Aussie is a mental health crisis”, which I agree with.
Australian identity is in tatters. A topic for next time…
Sarah x
"Persevering as art" plus carbon-neutral v net-zero v renewable energy
Hello. Thanks very much for this Sarah. I'd love to know what we can do to put pressure on our government / anything else we can do in the leadup to COP26. Is there any chance of in person protests? etc. Thanks again.