Fresh Perspectives from a Social Justice Practicum with Possible by Design

Hi! 😊. I’m not new to caring about the environment and being concerned about what has been happening environmentally in the world. I’m certainly not new to recycling, having a reusable coffee cup, and doing “what I can” to bring about positive change with regard to these matters.  I have been a lifetime hiker, skier, water-sporter (if that’s a word) and from childhood until the end of my undergraduate degree, also a track athlete where much of my training and competition was outdoors. The connection I have always had to land, nature and the privilege of breathing clean air runs in my veins. And as a student in Adler University’s Master of Psychology in Health and Wellness program, where healthy systems are a focus, there is no greater or more important “system” than the whole planet.

Therefore, choosing Possible by Design for my social justice practicum with Adler felt like a natural step in my own exploration of what health and wellness means to me.  Connecting in a deeper way to the environment is also another way to connect to humanity, as there is no human being on the planet who doesn’t relate in one way or another to the physical space in which they inhabit.

What I didn’t expect was:

1. Some favourite brand names let me down, brand names which I won’t name here at this time but whose values I have appreciated via what I had gleaned from information in ads, TV and magazines. Values, however, that don’t yet seem as in-line with the “do your best, remove the rest” way that is necessary to deal with climate change.

2. People and organizations seem to be incredibly comfortable with doing “just barely enough” environmental policy-wise, and sometimes even far less than enough. Climate goals that only reach as far as 2030, for example, or including only Scope 1 and 2 emission limits (involving emissions emitted by the company and emissions emitted by company energy supplies), but not Scope 3 (for example supply chain emissions that are transportation-based emissions and the energy cost of disposal).

3. My food travels impossibly far to get to my plate (related to Scope 3 emissions), and the mental callisthenics I had to do to even begin to comprehend the energy expenditure that went into getting my food there. I’d read The 100 Mile Diet years ago and appreciated the outlook; however, I admittedly didn’t go far enough at the time to limit my diet enough to make the ideal impact I truly wanted to make. I was likely intimidated by the cost of local food at the time without realizing there are more ways than I previously thought to try to afford shopping close to home.  On that note, seasonal farmers markets are a great way to start exploring solutions. I have included a link below to Vancouver Farmer Markets; however, there are many worldwide-check one out near you 😊.

4. Climate-conscious coffee drinking is not as simple as one would think.

5. Plant-based food choices really do make a difference, environmentally. Something I had read but didn’t “get” until now.

6. There are recommended diets out there that don’t have to involve extremes. What a relief! The Planetary Health Diet has a well-researched plan to be able to feed a global population of almost 10 billion by 2050 in a healthy, balanced way. It recommends no harsh restrictions of meat or sugar for example, but only recommendations.

   
   

Any one of these topics/overall impressions may find their way into a future post to be discussed in more detail.  Stay tuned! Here are several resources that the reader may find valuable, with more to come.

Guide to Vancouver’s Farmers Markets: https://eatlocal.org

The 100 Mile Diet: https://www.jbmackinnon.ca/the-100-mile-diet

Scope 1, 2 and 3 Emissions https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/scope-1-2-and-3-emissions

Planetary Health Diet: https://eatforum.org/eat-lancet/the-planetary-health-diet/