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February 21, 2024 20 mins

Are personal changes relevant in the face of the global climate change crisis? This episode of Climate of Joy asks the question "does it matter if I reuse my grocery bags and reduce my carbon footprint when celebrities like Taylor Swift travel around the world in a private jet?"

Inspired by a recent conversation, Christine encourages listeners to resist the temptation to judge others' practices and focus on individual authenticity instead. She highlights the importance of respecting each other's efforts and provides inspirational examples of citizens who made a huge difference despite seemingly insurmountable odds.

But what about the controversial issue of Taylor Swift's personal flying habits? Christine reminds listeners that the onus on climate change doesn't fall onto one individual but is a societal issue deeply rooted in the global economy. Understanding this, there are local governing bodies that are taking actions to hold fossil fuel companies accountable, providing a ray of hope in these times.

In closing, Christine encourages listeners to embrace joy in their lives, claiming gratitude and hope despite the Climate Emergency. In times of uncertainty, we still hold the power to trigger change, both personal and collective.

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Episode Transcript

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(00:00):
What's the point of all of the personal changes that we make when Taylor Swift
is flying her private jet around the world?
You are listening to Climate of Joy, the
podcast where we talk about climate change and consciousness in light of what
quantum science is telling us about reality and the dramatic opportunity for

(00:25):
healing that the climate emergency offers.
I'm Christine Panerpoli, a self-described climate crone who is Canadian,
mom of two, three if you count Jemmy, my little Frenchy Spaniel cross.
I'm an author, a speaker, and an energy intuitive specializing in loosening

(00:46):
the invisible knots that keep
us stuck in unhealthy patterns at both the personal and collective level.
This podcast is being recorded on the traditional and unceded territory of the
Lekwungen peoples and the Esquimalt, Songhees, and Waisenich First Nations.

(01:08):
Recognition and respect for these peoples' past, present, and future presence
and caretaking of this land is essential to reconciliation.
As a settler, I want to honor and thank the original peoples of this territory
and also recognize that my presence here is the result of European colonization,

(01:29):
which has had devastating impacts for the original people of this territory
and right across Turtle Island.
Hello, hello, Climate of Joy listeners. Listeners, I am so excited to be sitting
down and recording the first episode of Climate of Joy for 2024.

(01:54):
And I have been busy the last couple of months.
I'm now a grandmother, a beautiful little boy.
And I've been also busy watching the climate news, which isn't as happy as the personal news for me.
And I've been wondering, is there a point in continuing the Climate of Joy conversation?

(02:19):
Conversation I've been considering the options.
And I want to shout out to Pat and Leslie, who were my companions on a brisk
walk yesterday, a brisk walkers group that I'm part of on Friday mornings.
And I have to say, I confess that yesterday morning, because I'm recording this

(02:41):
on the Saturday, I didn't feel like going on the brisk walk.
The weather was okay, the sun was shiny, it was a little windy,
but I'd had a busy week and I felt like it was going to be hard to carry on
a superficial conversation,
which sometimes happens on these walks, which is just fine most of the time,

(03:02):
but yesterday didn't feel like it.
And I got given the gift of walking with these two wonderful women who Pat started
off the conversation asking me, first of all, about my my writing.
Some of you may know that I'm an author of two books, one about Norval Morisot,

(03:25):
who's a very well-known Indigenous Canadian artist who happened to have the
start of his very significant career in the community of Red Lake, Ontario.
Where I lived for over 20 years.
And so the local heritage center invited me, contracted me to write a book about

(03:45):
his roots, how he got started, the early years of his painting career.
And then I self-published a book called Unfreezing Ourselves,
all about reasons to take action on climate change for the sake of our health,
our children and the planet. it.

(04:06):
So Pat asked me about my writing, and that got us talking about climate change in general.
And I really appreciated the points of view that Pat and Leslie expressed,
and they got me inspired to do another podcast episode.
And so the question is, that Pat posed is, what's the point of all of the personal

(04:32):
changes that we make and that are kind of encouraged around climate change and specifically,
but environmentalism in general, when Taylor Swift is flying her private jet around the world.
So I may be taking my reusable shopping bag when I go grocery shopping,
but Taylor Swift is flying from Tokyo to the Super Bowl and back again.

(04:58):
And that's only only one trip.
And I just thought that was such a good question and discussion topic.
But I want to talk about that now. So what is the point of making personal changes?
And is that should that be our focus as we are in a climate emergency?

(05:19):
And, you know, we really the time for taking action to to alleviate the very
worst consequences of climate destabilization and ocean acidification are still within our grasp.
So don't listen to the naysayers that say otherwise.
But what's the point? So what is the point?

(05:39):
From my perspective, the reason we take personal action on climate change, on plastic pollution,
on, you know, you name it, there is a plethora of environmental issues that
are inviting our personal response.
The reason we do it is so that we can live authentically.

(06:05):
All right. So if I am concerned about climate change, but I drive my gas guzzler
to the store that's five blocks away almost every day,
then is that living in congruence with my values? No, absolutely not.

(06:26):
Now, the Taylor Swift jet produces much more carbon pollution,
climate change pollution, than my driving five blocks to the store.
Absolutely, it does. Plus Taylor and her jet.
And we'll take on the jet, personal jetting around in a few minutes.

(06:50):
But is it authentic for me? Absolutely not.
No. To drive a gas guzzler. And for another thing, like I underscore in Unfreeze
Yourself, it's better for our health to be taking more climate-friendly action.
Because we walk to the store, we get more exercise, we get fresh air,

(07:11):
and we put out fewer carbon emissions. missions.
So my bone to pick with some of my fellow climate activists, again, bless them.
Is that it's really easy to slip into judgment of other people who are not doing

(07:32):
as much as we are, including Ms. Swift.
But that is a trap, okay?
We need to mind our own business, We need to be authentic to our own values.
And that, I truly believe, inspires other people to live with congruency and thoughtfulness.

(07:57):
A lot of what is going on with pollution is just carelessness.
People who haven't thought about it, who haven't been invited to think about it.
Now, a week ago on another walk, somebody mentioned that she and her husband
had recently gone away on a trip to Europe and their neighbor had kindly driven

(08:21):
them to the ferry terminal in his electric car.
And on the way, he challenged them a bit by asking them how they could justify
flying in a time of climate emergency.
And so she said that was a bit challenging for her, understandably.

(08:44):
And I'm curious, I'd really like to hear response from you folks,
what you think about doing that sort of thing.
On one hand, it's very kind to drive your neighbor to catch their flight,
or in this case, ferry that was taking them to their transatlantic flights.

(09:06):
But is it also kind to say, and why are you traveling and maybe you should feel guilty about it?
I'm not sure. That's not my approach because guilt never inspired anybody to change anything.
Guilt and shame, we all have listened to Brene Brown, not helpful emotions.

(09:28):
So, as a climate-aware person, I do try, these days I haven't always been this careful,
I do try to minimize the guilt that I put on other people and myself.
Myself, we are all doing the best we can.

(09:52):
And when we know better, we can do better. So consider that the invitation,
invite people to know better.
And on this conversation that I had with Pat and Leslie, it really was just
kind of an exchange of information.
And they gave me their point of view, to Pat in particular the one who says

(10:15):
what's the point of personal change when this is going on and I really appreciated
that and I shared my perspective.
I also really appreciated what Leslie threw into the conversation which was
the fact that she was involved in a very significant.
Citizen action in Ontario probably
over a decade ago having to do with the provincial government government insisting

(10:41):
on putting gas plants in a place where there wasn't an adequate environmental
assessment. And it seemed just...
It didn't really pass the smell test, but the provincial government had made
that decision and was implementing it.

(11:01):
And a group of citizens got together in the community around that,
and Leslie was one of them, and had a conversation about, can we oppose these
gas plants or this gas plant?
And the conversation as she related it was, some people had given up,
basically said, it's a done deal. the provincial government has decided there's no point.

(11:23):
Sound familiar? It's a climate activist.
And others said, well, it may go ahead, but I want to do whatever I can to make a difference.
And in fact, this group of citizens made a huge difference and the gas plant
was cancelled and it became quite a big scandal for the provincial government.

(11:45):
So inspiring to hear that story and be reminded, we all have agency,
we all can make a difference.
We don't know until we try how much of a difference that we can make.
And when we go in with that attitude, that it may not make a difference,

(12:07):
but I'm going to show up and do what I can.
That is a real gift, A gift you give yourself, a gift you give other people
who are working on this, and also that, you know, a gift to the world,
because again, in this case, it made a huge difference.
And the Ontario provincial government ended up not only cancelling that gas plant,

(12:32):
but in fact, committing to phasing out gas in general, in the very large province of Ontario.
So, my words to you are just words of encouragement.
If it feels like things are just,

(12:54):
you know, too much to even begin to tackle one thing, I would encourage you
to shrink it down and actually focus on the one thing that you can do.
And let me tell you, it is not changing Taylor Swift's personal flying habits.
But you could have a conversation with your next door neighbor about how concerned

(13:17):
about climate change you are or with your family or with your friends.
Political representative here where I am in BC. It's a member,
the member of the provincial legislature is my provincial representative and
my member of parliament is my federal representative.
So there's always things you can do. You can write a letter to the editor if

(13:40):
those are even published.
These days, I know fewer and fewer local newspapers are out there,
but there are opportunities out there. So you can think of that.
And before I close, what about Taylor Swift and her habits?
I'm curious to know what you listeners think.
But my response is, it really is none of my beeswax, none of my business.

(14:08):
I don't have anything, any sway over Taylor Swift.
Although I have to say I did just watch the Netflix documentary
on Taylor Swift and was kind of impressed with the way she decided to take action
and use her voice when almost everybody around her back in 2018 was telling

(14:33):
her to keep her mouth shut,
that she was a performer and she had no business speaking out.
And at that point, It was against Trump and the local Republican that was a
Trump Republican that was running in Tennessee, which I guess is her home state.
So if you haven't watched the documentary and you want to inform yourself a

(14:56):
little bit more about her, I have to confess, I am so out of the loop. I didn't even...
Couldn't even name even one of her songs before.
Although having watched the documentary, I realized I have heard them.
I just didn't know that they were Taylor Swift songs.
So that was a very long and rambling way of saying, if you have influence with Ms.

(15:19):
Swift, if you are a follower of hers on Instagram or on Twitter,
slash X, you know, if you know somebody who works for her, absolutely have that
conversation about climate change. But let me tell you, Ms.
Swift's emissions are not the cause of the climate emergency.

(15:39):
And if she stopped right now flying, that would not be the end of the climate
emergency because it's baked into the way we do things in our society, in our economy.
And the fact that oil and gas is the backbone of the world economy,

(16:01):
although that is changing but with that
industry kicking and screaming all the way we still
subsidize them to the i think it's
trillions of dollars a year if it were
for sure billions globally they get our hard-earned money which is kind of galling
isn't it because they're they're causing we we pay them if we have a gas guzzling

(16:26):
car we pay them to fuel up and then we pay them with our tax dollars because
our government subsidizes them.
So luckily I heard, and this is a bit of good news, the...
Just a minute. Under the heading of great news and local to me,
the district of Saanich, which is very close to where I live,

(16:48):
has taken a step to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for the effects of
climate change and to make them pay for their part of it.
Just this last week, the Saanich City Council unanimously accepted a staff recommendation
to begin the process of exploring a potential class action lawsuit with other municipalities.

(17:13):
Isn't that awesome? I will post a link to the Capital Daily News article that that's from.
So things are changing. This is a really incredible time to be alive and to be part of this change.
Change don't lose hope we just
can't predict what's going to happen and i

(17:34):
just want to say hang in there thanks
for listening and the next episode was
which is going to be dropped in two weeks i'm
going to explore the crazy idea
that's climate friendly cities
that kind of another word for it is 15 minute cities where everything is walkable

(17:58):
and really easy to reach for people has been blown into up into a crazy conspiracy
that governments are out to.
Block us in, and keep us prisoner.
So the next Climate of Joy podcast episode, that's what we're going to chat about today.

(18:23):
What brings you joy?
We're going to conclude with that. What brings you joy today?
I have to say, all week we've been dog sitting for our doggy nephew and niece,
And it's been so much fun to have all of that very joyful,

(18:46):
energetic and playful energy around in our house.
And also, I'm thankful that we're back down to our one little Frenchy Spaniel cross Jemmy.
So I'm wishing you tons of joy as well. Think about one thing you're grateful
for and say thank you to the universe for that.

(19:09):
And we'll catch you in two weeks.
That's a wrap for this episode. Thank you so much for listening.
If you are ready for more peace in your life, even in the climate emergency,
head over to climateofjoy.com and under the dropdown menu, work with me,
sign up to join the free healing circle that I offer online on the first Saturday of every month.

(19:36):
Or even easier, click on the link in the show notes below for Healing Circle reminders and emails.
That's the first Saturday of every month in the morning if you're in North America.
Until next time, remember to be kind to each other because we are all just walking each other home.
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