I need to start off by stating that this piece is my opinion based on observation of what I see happening in the world around me. So please don’t get your feathers ruffled or your knickers in a knot if you disagree.

The message around climate change has been getting stronger and stronger over the last 10 years. More scientific evidence is being presented and the overwhelming majority of scientists now agree that we are the cause of the changes in weather patterns, increases in temperature and overall volatility that we are experiencing. (Unless you are either paid by one of the Oil companies or Donald Trump)

The call to act has been getting louder too.

Although the task at hand in mitigating climate change seems insurmountable and it feels as if its happening too slowly, I am sensing and witnessing an increase in the pace and rate of change. I think we can all agree that life in general is moving at a much greater speed partly due to speed at which new technologies are dreamt up, created, adopted and then surpassed by the new. Social media and the rapid dissemination of information plays a role here even if it’s fake news.

There are some radical changes taking place as you read this.

It was 3 years ago that this video was released https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MPHbpmP6_I portraying the horrors of single use plastics, straws in particular, and their effects on marine life and in this case a poor sea turtle. (Not for sensitive viewers, seriously)

Now I am witnessing big brands like IKEA, Adidas, Starbucks and even the EU Is committed to ending the use of single use plastics.

Having personally attended the Climate Reality seminar in 2014 in Johannesburg run by Al Gore I know one of their big drives is promoting divestment in fossil fuels. There are many organisations around the world protesting and lobbying for this change in investment strategy. Just the other day I saw this post announcing that Ireland will be the first country to divest fully from fossil fuels.

Thats huge, a whole country! Go Ireland!

Countries like Sweden are forging ahead at rapid speed on their path to running 100% on renewable energies well ahead of their target dates. Germany also has some impressive looking stats illustrating their commitment to renewables. In 2017 China were the global leader in the building and financing of clean energy technology at $44bn.

Lets talk trees for a moment. Latin American countries have pledged to restore 20m hectares of degraded forest and African countries more than 100m hectares. India is to plant 13m hectares, and on a single day last year 1.5 million people planted 66m trees in Madhya Pradesh alone.

China are planting millions of trees as a way to combat their own pollution issues, apparently forests the size of Ireland.

Slowly but surely everything is turning towards a more sustainable outlook. Soon the clothes we wear, food we eat, cars we drive, houses we live in, energy we use, every aspects of our lives will be redesigned to save our lives and our planet. It’s been slow. We still have a huge mountain to climb, but I feel strongly that the momentum has pushed us to a point where we might actually make it and by make it I mean not annihilate ourselves.

Photo by Connor Limbocker on Unsplash