Where do we start? (174-223)

The big question of this section is “Where do we start?” How do we even begin to change aspects of our lives when it seems that every action we do emits carbon? The food we eat, the train we take to school, the decision to take the elevator instead of the stairs, all increase our carbon footprint substantially. The American lifestyle is one that has a huge carbon footprint, demanding a 92% reduction just to meet the quota for carbon emission reduction over the next few decades. Making the issue worse is the fact that people in the developing countries in Asia are pursuing the same lifestyle Americans have, meaning more and more people consuming and creating at the cost of the environment. Worse still is that children born in this generation are coming to see this lifestyle as normal. Factoring in a population increase and the limit of carbon emissions needed to “maintain our planet”, and we’re facing a situation like that the people in Memory of Water must face: an impoverished and anemic form of life.

It’s staggering to think that the everyday actions we do coalesce into a huge carbon footprint that can affect the geology of the artic and the lives of the animals and people who live there. I think there was a clever image on page 203 which showed a gap in the ice of Antarctica in the shape of the United States. This isn’t far from what is actually happening , our actions are having physical imprints on the ice and topography of various regions. Squarzoni decided that he would start by not taking the flight to Asia, if everyone took that first step and continued to follow a path of reduction rather than multiplication perhaps the climate crisis can be addressed.