Yesterday we participated in a People’s climate “sister march” in Santa Elena. It was small compared with the march in Washington D.C., with about 100 people in attendance, but it was impressive that we mobilized a group all the way up here in the cloud forest to march in solidarity with others all over the world.
I played a small part in helping to organize the march, coordinating the donation of native trees from local reforestation nurseries, which were given away to people living, walking and driving along the route of our march. All 120 trees were carried on an electric golf-cart to keep the march free of fossil fuel vehicles. People were really excited to take trees home and plant them on their own land! It felt good to get engaged with local climate change advocacy efforts and play a role in getting trees to people that may not have otherwise had the opportunity to plant trees on their land.
What our march lacked in size, we made up for in creativity. Probably the highlight of our march was the sculpture of a three-wattled bellbird family that was made exclusively from recycled materials by some local artists. Even more impressive is that we pulled the sculpture using only people-power through the hilly town of Santa Elena for the entire 1 km march. It was a great demonstration of what can be achieved without fossil fuels and a little teamwork!
Reed was born into some crazy times, so it’s a good thing he’s getting started being an activist early 🙂 This was actually his second political march (we also had a sister women’s march back in January when we first arrived in Costa Rica) and he seems to be getting the hang of things. He just figured out how to wave at people for the first time yesterday, so he enjoyed hamming it up along the route.
In all seriousness though, even though it has been great to see all of the people that have mobilized to advocate for climate change action and science more generally, I am seriously disturbed by the recent actions of the Trump administration. While the environment is often painted as something that only liberals care about, this should be a non-partisan issue. We all need clean water and air to survive. Furthermore, if we want our planet to be habitable for our children and grandchildren, we need to end the ridiculous climate change denialism rhetoric in our country. It has been refreshing to live in a country (at least for a short time) where “climate change” isn’t a dirty word. People see the climate changing here and are actively discussing ways to both mitigate and adapt to its impacts. I actually agree with our new EPA administrator Scott Pruitt that we can promote both the economy and the environment at the same time; HOWEVER, the way to do this is not by pretending that climate change isn’t happening and promoting coal production. Ignoring climate change won’t prevent it from having real costs and there is nothing about coal production that is good for the environment.
If I can get up on a soapbox for just a minute, I think ways to minimize trade-offs between the economy and the environment include promoting the alternative energy sector (which will arguably provide higher-quality jobs than coal ever did or ever will); promoting agroecological practices that can improve agricultural productivity while not degrading local ecosystems and waterways; and supporting climate change research that will help us adapt to our warming planet and minimize the costs climate change will have on our communities and food production systems. I sincerely hope we can pull our heads out of the sand before its too late and recognize that it is in everyone’s best interest to address this crucial, non-partisan issue.
