Oslo, Norway 10:01 AM
It is 10:01 AM and I am sitting in a circular room at a circular table drinking espresso out of a circular cup. This massive apartment building I am in used to be a silo. I wonder what type of grain consumed the space I am in many years ago. This scarce blog has been nagging at my brain, asking it to spew out some educational words into the empty spaces of the internet. Scarcity has been on my mind a lot. How has the abundance of documentaries, books, articles, memes, Facebook posts, and more on climate change and sustainability somehow translated into more talk than it has action? How are documentaries like Before the Flood still STILL focusing on convincing climate deniers of climate change? I was excited to sit down and watch it last night, but it managed to make me feel more hopeless watching the credits than I was while watching the intro. I did appreciate the detailed showing of the impacted peoples and environments of climate change. However, other than explaining that removing beef from one’s diet is the largest direct action an individual can take to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, only the last 15 seconds or so of the film were dedicated to telling people what they could do about these problems. To learn any specifics about what other actions I could take I had to visit the website, beforetheflood.com. Will simply educating people and giving them resources actually spark action within people?
I believe that although there are still a small percentage of climate change deniers out there, it is more beneficial for you and me and your communities to take action on the innovative and exciting solutions to this massive problem. We don’t need everyone “on board” with climate change to fix this. To change behavior one does not need to change attitudes first. (to learn more about this, check out Jeni Cross's Ted Talk) I believe the movement of regenerating our soil, ecosystems, and communities starts with action and excitement about the innovate solutions. It also takes an understanding of behavior change and how to lead a movement.
The action I am taking involves hands-on learning about building ecosystems from farmers across the world. The film that Peder and I release next year will not dwell on convincing the lagging climate change deniers that climate change is happening. It will share people’s actions and show you what you can do to join this movement of change. We will be telling stories of the amazing individuals and projects in the world’s regenerative food movement. Heroes of growing food that tastes damn good. Heroes of fostering healthy communities. Heroes of building ecosystems. Heroes of our soil.
CHECK US OUT ON INSTAGRAM! @regenerate_the_earth
