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Hope you can attend this event at Allen Gardens on April 26th. My short street theater piece will happen around 2pm. Look for people wearing SCAN t-shirts or puppets made from yard waste bags. See you there! 
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 Image generated by AI On October 1st 2024 the world will be celebrating International Climate Change Seniors Day with thousands of projects and events to mark the occasion. Sooo, perhaps the parish church with its small groups, an abundance of elders and a traditional commitment to honor life and seek justice makes it an ideal leadership hub for climate crisis action. Someone I know said she had six more years to fight the climate crisis as her doctor estimates her longevity to be 89 years! This remark hit home to me and gives me a renewed respect for the passage of time.
Leadership rises up in every generation and, certainly, there are exemplary youth ecojustice activists around the world providing inspirational leadership. But it seems to me that, at this time, the elders are in the vanguard – David Suzuki, Jane Goodall, David Attenborough, to name just a few of the well-knowns, and all the “unknowns” who live a sustainable lifestyle and have worked for decades to share it. We oldies care deeply for our children and grandchildren as well as the many fellow species we will leave behind. Since we are no longer climbing the social and professional ladders, we can allow ourselves more time to read and reflect. Many crisis observers agree that the most important thing we can do right now is talk about this urgent topic in small community groups. To expand our awareness of the “what” and explore the “how,” these conversations need to begin with what we have in common rather than the ways we differ. The “what” is easier to imagine from walking to church to repurposing church buildings. Now we all need to look at the “how,” not only the specific and vital changes in liturgy, programs and practices, but the “how” of encouraging others to accept essential changes. This requires a shift in mind-set / world view which begins with recognizing that humans are animals among many other animals (rapidly disappearing) and it takes all of us to keep this planet in balance. Some of us believe that digging up the church parking lot to plant vegetables and worshipping out of doors all year round are excellent ideas, but picture the vestry meeting when those and other “radical” moves are proposed! There is much research being done with non-human animals in the last several years to determine their intelligence and empathy. The following scientific experiment could be a model for a well functioning church community! Virginia Morell, in her book, Animal Wise describes a research project carried out by biologist and ant specialist, Nigel Franks in Bristol, England. Franks and his team of researchers brought an entire colony of Rock Ants (200) into his laboratory where the ants settled into a glass and cardboard habitat. The team then took on the laborious task of gently dabbing each individual punctuation mark-sized ant with a unique multicolored pattern to enable them to identify each ant as they observed them. The ants were also videoed during the experiment for further observation. The research team built another ant habitat about 18 inches away from the current one. Then the team destroyed the current habitat, harming no ants, and settled in to observe the ant’s response to their disaster. These ants have a queen whose only job is to procreate, but they have no designated leader. However, a few ants sprang into action (parish council?) leaving the colony at the old site, while they looked for a new home. They found the one the team had created for them. After inspecting and okaying it they returned to the colony where they chose a few others to follow them back to the new site to learn the way. If the followers got lost or confused, the leaders stopped and waited until the followers caught up. This teaching procedure continued until a certain number had learned the route at which time these leaders pulled the rest of the congregation onto their backs and all journeyed to the new habitat and moved in. Unlike humans, ants, in a crisis, do not fret, argue or deny – they just get on with it! That said, we human beings desperately need to slow down to let our imaginations flow, but at the same time the climate situation demands that we hurry up! We can do both if enough of us, like the ants, can share the same mind-set and say, “yes” to change. We need the energy and idealism of the young and the expertise of the middle aged, but let’s turn first to the elders for their love of the life they have lived and the wisdom that comes from it. Sally Armour Wotton is a performing artist and an adjunct professor at Trinity College, School of Divinity, University of Toronto  Some of us will remember the 1970s when we cycled, pushed or pulled our recycling to the shed in the TTC lot attached to the Broadview subway. Pouring the paper, metal and glass through the openings at the top of the eight-foot structure, especially the glass, was cathartic at the end of a long day. Now, of course, we have only to push our private bins to the curb, less satisfying but more convenient. However, there is so much more to the climate crisis than recycling and I believe the best beginning action is to form a climate change support group. I advocate putting together a small group of immediate neighbors, even though my own group of six women is spread over two provinces and meets through Zoom. A dear friend of mine and I were chatting on Zoom in the early pandemic days and our conversation naturally worked its way into the topic of the climate crisis. We began to reflect on the climate change thoughts and attitudes of our own and that of friends, acquaintances and strangers we encounter. They ranged from at one end denial, which existed then and perhaps still does, to the other end total panic with the frustration of not knowing what “I” can do, racing through the middle. However, we agreed that human beings need each other for emotional support, education, creative ideas and help. Sooo, we set up a Zoom meeting with four other like-minded climate change women, all of us with enough life experience to recognize anxiety but believe in hope. We all were enthusiastic about meeting regularly and set up two-hour meetings every other week on Zoom and Earth Care was born. We have continued for over two years and share books, videos, articles, and our own thoughts and feelings on the topic. An extra benefit to any support group is developing closer relationships as individuals and a stronger sense of community. To start your own climate support group, simply invite some neighbors on your block or in your apartment building to join you in getting together regularly to share hopes, concerns, and climate change resources. Provide refreshments - think Tupperware party without plastic! Include a diversity of people but with a preference for those with an interest in the topic. Form a small enough group for easy discussion; six to ten works well. Some topics might be plant-based eating, pollinator gardens, commuting by foot, cycle and transit, and homemade cleaning solutions and use of clotheslines. Most important is the kindness factor, recognizing that we all need each other. For example, you might talk about who in your neighborhood would need help in a disaster - the elderly, those with disabilities, people with multiple pets and small children, and those who have no vehicle… It's useful to have several recent climate change books available from the library on hand and a list of reliable website references. Take time for everyone to get to know one another before delving into the topic and the group's particular concerns. The group should be willing to meet regularly so as not to lose momentum. After a year and a half of our group meeting on Zoom, some of us had never met everyone else in the flesh, so to speak. So, last June we gathered for the day in my backyard in the Pocket. We began with morning coffee, moving on to a potluck lunch when some of our spouses and partners joined us. With smoke pouring down into Toronto from the North that month, climate change had become a frequent topic of conversation even among strangers, and the comments I most often heard whenever I spoke to anyone about it was “I’m scared, I feel unprepared, and I don’t know what do to!” As we reflected on this, our group decided to create a tiny eight-page zine (a simple, handmade magazine) that we could pull out of our pocket and give to anyone interested in how to prepare for a climate crisis. And that’s just what we did. The result was fully illustrated, and as two of our members are in Montreal, produced in both English and French. It is called Storm Signals: A Climate EmergenZine. The front page warns “Before the Knock on the Door.” These topics follow on the next six illustrated pages:
If you’d like to make use of the zine too, it’s freely available. Please download Storm Signals: A Climate EmergenZine, follow the folding instructions, and help us distribute it by sharing it with your friends and contacts. The Pocket Change Project has taken the lead in environmental issues such as native trees and gardens, sustainable transportation, solar panels and heat pumps. My heat pump is experiencing its first winter and warming me nicely thanks to Wonder Women Sarah Grant and Anne Hogarth (Goldfinch Energy) whom I learned of thanks to Pocket Change’s Retrofit Coach, Paul Dowsett. My background is theatre and storytelling and when I think of our human condition the story that comes to mind and describes us best in terms of climate change is the Three Little Pigs. Obviously, the big bad wolf is greenhouse gases, especially methane, produced by the fossil fuel industry. Through exercising our voices and taking action in favor of alternative energy sources as well as a wider and wider choice of sustainable building materials, way beyond sticks, straw and bricks, we as individuals and communities can make a difference. Sally Armour Wotton Adjunct Professor - University of Toronto This article was originally published on the Pocket Change Project website  As you all know, my climate change support group and I have created a a zine entitled Storm Signals that outlines ways to prepare for a climate crisis. This is an 8-page pocket-sized paper zine with a QR code on the back page that links to the Storm Signals website with continually added further information. CBC radio highlighted our initiative in their program, What on Earth - link attached [starting at 18:00] https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-429-what-on-earth/clip/16030394-yes-chat-climate-change-buzzkill
For the next six weeks my blog will share this zine page by page, communicating by word and picture and each page includes a resource. The cover of the zine is "Before the Knock on the Door" and here is page one, "Support Groups". As you become more and more involved in preparing for and fighting the climate crisis, find some time to enjoy 2024.  On this Thanksgiving, I share the beliefs of one of my favourite theologians, Thomas Berry.
He, a renowned priest, theologian and ecologist, urged us, throughout his lifetime, to recognize humanity and all living beings as of the Earth, not on the Earth—that all life is subject, not object. Only when we fully grasp these truths might we be able to regard our body, the Earth, to be as precious as our own individual bodies. Perhaps such deep understanding begins with stories. If God is working in us and through us, and I believe God is, it seems to me that we are obliged to blend our own sacred stories with those that have come before ours, keeping the Gospel living and growing. I have taken the liberty of rewriting the Apostle Paul’s beautiful letter to the Corinthians to give it a slightly different interpretation. An ecological version of St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians 12: 12-26 For just as the Earth is one and has many members, and all the members of the Earth, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit, we were all baptized in the one body – sun, water or air – soil, plants or creatures, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Indeed, the Earth does not consist of one member but of many. If the rock would say, “Because I am not a frog, I do not belong to the Earth,” that would not make her any less a part of the Earth. And if the man would say, “Because I am not vegetation, I do not belong to the Earth,” that would not make him any less a part of the Earth. And if the lake said, “Because I am not the sun’s rays, I am not a part of the Earth,” that would not make her any less a part of the Earth. If the whole Earth were a lake, where would we stand? If the whole Earth were soil, how would we drink? But as it is, God arranged the members of the Earth, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the Earth be? As it is, there are many members, yet one Earth. The person cannot say to the polar bear, “I have no need of you,” nor, again, the tree to the bird, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the members of the Earth that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the Earth that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honour. Our less respectable members are treated with greater respect, whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the Earth, giving the greater honour to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the Earth, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with him. If one member is honoured, all rejoice together with her. And I offer this prayer for all living beings of the Earth: Be still and know Creation aches Be still and know Creation mourns Be still and know Creation . . . heals Be still and know Creation Be still and know Be still  I am a snob. I don’t consider a cramped space surrounded by noxious fumes, rolling along a river of potholes a luxury. I resent parting with my life savings in order to park, license, fuel and insure my transportation. I eschew those folk wrapped in their second skin of glimmering steel. In short, the mere mention of the automobile, whether magnificent Mercedes or second-hand Cessna, is my cue to depart - on foot.
Being in-car-cerated robs me of the experience of weather, the intimacy of my environment and regular casual encounters with neighbours – two-legged and four-legged. It encourages isolation and a belief that getting there is more important than the journey. When time is a factor, I ride my bicycle, enjoying the breeze and the heady sense of freedom – the closest a mortal comes to flying. If the distance to my destination is great, I take the subway. For grocery shopping, there is the convenience of delivery; just shop and walk away, and when there’s too much snow and ice, I call a taxi. They know me by name. All in all, I have a chosen, preferred lifestyle that does not include owning an automobile. It began many years ago out of concern for the environment but has become, quite simply, a more pleasant and comfortable way to travel. As side benefits, not owning a car promotes a healthier, active lifestyle and probably saves me thousands of dollars a year. So, when people offer to pick me up in their car for some social occasion or to give me a lift home after a meeting when they live nowhere near me, I despair. I’ve tried to explain that I have transport of a different kind and have no need of a ride, but it’s, “No, no, no, we won’t hear of it. In you go, here let me move those papers and things; hope you’re not too cramped with your long legs, don’t mind the pop bottles - Trixie down! Get into the back seat; the nice lady is going to ride with us.” I am faced with the dilemma of thanking them for including me in their beloved rolling homestead or I can say, “No thank you, I choose to be transported in comfort.” I often do the latter. I have fewer friends than most people. Don’t get me wrong, if a person is a neighbour or even lives in the same part of town, I’m delighted to ride with that person either in his/her car or my taxi, or we could both cycle. It’s the one-car, one-driver syndrome and the utter dependency on that car that drives me to rant – the assumption that if you are not travelling in a privately owned automobile, you are deprived, extravagant or mad. I do realize that some people’s professions require the use of a car, especially when public transit is limited. However, it seems to me that many people just have not considered the classier non-car way. Picture a city where the sidewalks are well-lit for pedestrians instead of lit by the spill from streetlights designed for cars. Imagine secure bicycle paths on main thoroughfares with well-placed guard blocks that cars and trucks couldn’t cross and envisage four-wheeled traffic in the city core limited to taxis, streetcars, buses, delivery and emergency vehicles. Heaven! Of course, there are models of improved transport all over the world – carpooling, car-free days, minimum passenger lanes and fuel-cell cars come to mind. Statistics Canada tells us there are more than a billion bicycles in the world, and electric car sales are increasing in Canada. Though these cars will not exercise our bodies or connect us to our neighbours, they will improve the environment, so there’s a glimmer of hope. But while we wait in hope for others to fall out of love with the automobile, we snobs will continue to meet each other on the sidewalks, cycle paths and subways.  First, share the hopes, concerns and resources in your community. Invite some neighbours on your block, in your immediate area or your apartment building to a climate change / social gathering. Provide refreshments and a timeline. Think Tupperware party without the plastic! Include a diversity of people but with a preference for those with an interest in the topic. Form a small enough group for easy discussion; 6 to 10 works well. Some topics might be: plant-based eating, pollinator gardens, commuting by foot, cycle and transit, and home-made cleaning solutions and clotheslines. Most important is the kindness factor, recognizing that we all need each other. Who in your neighbourhood would need help in a disaster? The elderly, those with disabilities, people with multiple pets and small children, and those who have no vehicle, etc.
It's useful to have several recent climate change books, available from the library, on hand and a list of reliable website references. Take time for everyone to get to know one another before delving into the topic and the group's particular concerns. The group should be willing to meet regularly (mine meets for two hours every other week) so as not to lose momentum. Though I advocate a local neighborhood climate change support group, the six of us in mine span across two provinces! So, of course, we meet on Zoom. After a year and a half some of us had never met everyone in the flesh, so to speak, so last June we gathered for the day in my back garden in Toronto. We began with morning coffee moving on to a potluck lunch when partners joined us. Since then, we have created an 8-page tiny zine with a QR code that links to our website. Coming soon to Story Soup Enterprises.ca  My climate change support group has taken on a project. We have begun to design a series of climate change, pocket-sized zines. Google the 8-page zine to see what it will look like. Our first one is aimed at relieving stress and anxieties and will suggest ways to prepare for individual climate catastrophes - BEFORE the knock on the door. It will include self-care, reaching out to others, hurricane and flood safety aids, a go-bag and much more. Other zines will deal with a variety of advocacy participation. Each little page will include a universal language illustration and the back page will connect to our website created to give detailed information. All this is in its infant stage and as discussions continue may change radically! So, the story of climate change zines will continue as it develops.
As you know, I am part of a six-woman Earth care support group who have met every other week for the past year and a half on Zoom to discuss climate crisis issues. So on a glorious non-smoke day in late June, we gathered at 10 am in my back garden live and in the flesh! As individuals, we live in or around Toronto or in or near Montreal. Some of us are old friends who had not seen each other since before the pandemic and some knew only one or two others before our Zoom encounters. “Oh, I thought you would be taller” The Montrealers were house guests of Torontonians, of course, and as our coffee meeting moved into mid-day, partners joined us for a potluck luncheon feast until 4 pm. We have a climate change project brewing which we will discuss tomorrow on Zoom that I will share with you next week. Do form a climate change support/discussion group, if you haven’t already. I find that, in addition to generating creative ideas through common concern, it sustains and deepens friendships.  Story Soup Enterprises would love to hear/read your climate change stories, large or small. Please share the climate change projects, events or small actions that you are involved in or have personally heard about. Good news stories are inspirational and horrid examples help us to understand one another better. These short anecdotal stories could be about a switch to plant-based diet, an example of repairing instead of buying new, a clever way to recycle, an observation of a nonhuman animal’s intelligence or empathy, a transportation switch from car to non-fossil fuel wheels or from plane to train, a pollinator or vegetable garden project, and on and on.
Pretend you are having a coffee with me or your climate change support group, and just tell your story! Then send it as an attached recording or a print piece to [email protected] with the subject line SSE CLIMATE CHANGE STORY. Story Soup Enterprises will put as many stories as possible on the podcast or blog, so please include your name and the names of any principal players in your story as well as the where and when for context. Stories give us hope, knowledge and a boost to our creative imaginations! |
