Belated happy Earth Day. I wish I were actually happier about it. Instead, I have come to realize that I am a bundle of climate anxiety.
I used to love to travel and all my bucket list items included exotic locations. Now, I struggle to convince myself it’s okay to drive to the cottage property I own.
I am looking at e-bike options that have the battery power to get me there, and solar panel set-ups so I can recharge batteries to get home again. Right now I’m torn between the Tern GSD (cute and very useful in the city but shorter range) and the Tern Orox (designed for camping adventures, but still requiring a battery boost to get home, and maybe too big to fit into my storage area with all the other bikes).
I have even debated whether I could use my acoustic bike to get there. 95 km and steep hills strongly suggests “no”.
Once I arrive at the property, will I be able to cook, or will we be under a burn ban or at wildfire smoke advisory again? I have a small camp stove for emergencies, but normally I cook over an open fire, so I’m weighing the merits of various solar cookers.
If I spend a lot of time at the cottage, who will take care of my gardens? I have two small community garden plots, plus my front yard which is mostly given over to herbs, plants that attract pollinators and whatever I can grow in large planters on the walkway, and some fruit bushes and a small bed with asparagus and onions in the back yard.
Gardening and eating local is partly how I manage my anxiety. I’m forced to eat seasonal foods and almost nothing comes wrapped in plastic. I’m not quite full-on vegetarian yet, but I’m getting there because I hate buying plastic-wrapped meat in plastic trays, and because of the greenhouse gas impacts of meat vs beans.
Fortunately, almost everything survives heat and drought fairly well. Unfortunately, I’m not a very good gardener, so aside from green beans and garlic, there is no way I could feed myself for more than a few meals each year.
Other ways to cope? Buying less, buying used, plogging, using the 2Good2Go app and volunteering with Hidden Harvest Ottawa to rescue food that would otherwise go to waste. And volunteering with Bike Ottawa to advocate for safe active transit infrastructure. Somehow that has morphed into supporting denser, walkable mixed-use communities and improved public transit, as well. All those things will help reduce carbon emissions x eventually.
Will it be enough? Not on its own, but at least it keeps me busy and keeps the climate anxiety from morphing into full-on existential dread. I hope.
