By Mike McQuaide, Sustainable Newton Board Member

We celebrate Arbor Day in Georgia in February (on the 3rd Friday), when weather conditions are best for planting trees.  This year, many communities are scaling back or canceling celebrations dues to COVID-19.  So, we asked board member Mike McQuaide to reflect on his love of trees.

One year into the COVID-19 pandemic, many people have had occasion to focus more clearly on the features of life they value the most.  The adage “you don’t miss your water until your well runs dry” is certainly applicable at this moment in American history.  Being with friends and family indoors, going into restaurants and stores, freely traveling to distant places, and the many dimensions of life are suspended to some extent right now.  Many of us find it insightful to step back and consider more deeply the features of life that we have taken for granted --but now seem out of reach-- at least for the time being.
 
Broadening our appreciation of the world we take for granted can bring a renewed appreciation and desire to protect the natural world.  The natural environment is complex and diverse; one visible aspect of the natural world are the trees around us.  Arbor Day provides an opportunity to step back and consider the many benefits of trees in our shared communities.  The most visibly obvious benefits being the aesthetic advantages of trees.  On a subconscious level, trees can evoke our sense of beauty.  Office workers with a view of trees are more productive than those  in windowless workplaces.  Seeing trees can reduce our blood pressure and help our muscles to relax.

For our 2021 virtual kickoff Friday morning, we visited with Ray C. Anderson Foundation Executive Director John A. Lanier to discuss the Drawdown Georgia initiative.  John gave us a hope-filled, inspiring look at the country's only state-centered climate action program.  If you missed it, please take time to view the replay.

Sustainable Newton is committed to doing all we can to promote the Drawdown Georgia effort and bring its 20 carbon-reduction solutions to households, businesses, and local governments in Newton County. 

Starting a new year is the perfect time to assess what personal changes I can make towards "bringing climate solutions home," as they say at Drawdown Georgia.  Across the five key solution sectors (Electricity, Buildings and Materials, Food and Agriculture, Land Sinks, and Transportation), there are feasible actions we can each take to contribute to the overall 46 megaton carbon-reduction goal for the program.  (Each megaton is one million tons.)

It wasn't always human nature.  But, for those of us born since the middle of the 20th Century, technology is our go-to answer to every problem.  When you think you can invent your way out of any mess, you kick the can down the road.  We tell ourselves we'll deal with it later.

Then, when we finally decide a situation like Climate Change must be addressed, it’s natural we gravitate to technical innovation to save us.  There’s something sexy about gleaming solar panels, sleek wind turbines, smart buildings, and shiny, new Tesla automobiles. 

In our 24 Hours of Reality:  Countdown to the Future presentation on October 10, we asked and answered three key questions about humanity's response to the current climate crisis:

1. Must we change?
2. Can we change?
3. Will we change?

Our resounding "Yes!" to all three questions begs a fourth:  "How will we change?" 

That's where Drawdown Georgia comes in.  With their official launch on October 17, they identified 20 top climate solutions researchers have tagged as critical for Georgia to achieve a 35% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.

Using Paul Hawken's 2018 book Drawdown as a starting point, scientists from Georgia Tech, the University of Georgia, Emory, and Georgia State University studied the 100 solutions originally identified by Hawken and his colleagues to determine the highest potential actions for our state.  The resulting blueprint for action features 20 solutions across five sectors (Buildings & Materials, Electricity, Transportation, Land Sinks, and Food & Agriculture) that collectively can cut carbon emissions in Georgia from 125 megaton to 79 megatons by 2030.

Even as a climate activist and leader of a sustainability organization, I'm still conflicted over President-Elect Joe Biden's commitment to sign an executive order on his first day in office to rejoin the US in the Paris Climate Agreement.  I'm convinced we have years -- not decades -- to reverse climate change or face dire consequences, and I accept the urgent need for coordinated global action.  The crisis is real.  But, as a political pragmatist, I also know this back-and-forth reliance on executive action without congressional approval is ultimately getting us nowhere.

For anyone paying even the slightest attention to climate news, these are difficult days not to run screaming from the building.  Then again, this summer, outside is no place to be.

From unprecedented dual hurricanes Laura and Marco striking the US gulf coast last month to the scorching heat and raging wildfires now impacting California and Oregon,  we're inundated with news about extreme weather caused by Climate Change.

Throw in Siberian temperatures topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit and collapsing arctic ice shelves in Canada, and it's a little hard to remain hopeful.

OK, nearly impossible.  But, still, hope is not lost.

By Maurice Carter, Sustainable Newton President

"Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone."

As I struggle to express my emotions in these socially-distanced, mostly virtual times, Joni Mitchell's lyrics jump to mind.  Though now it's less about paving paradise than putting it under glass.  Or, perhaps, it's we who are under glass.

Has anyone else watched a television show or a movie recently and felt alarmed by scenes of people standing close together -- perhaps even <gasp!> shaking hands or putting a hand on a shoulder?  Now, it's The Police I hear singing "Don't stand.  Don't stand.  Don't stand so close to me."  It's the same way when I look back at photos of past Sustainable Newton events.

It's taken longer than I hoped -- weeks in fact -- to get to where I could organize my thoughts to share a few words about how we persevere with sustainability efforts in these troubling times.  But, I suspect you all understand.

It's a striking reminder how much life changed so quickly to reread my last post about Arbor Day written 43 days ago, on February 20.  It was easy then to imagine young seedlings and saplings growing into mighty shade trees to shelter generations to come.  But, thinking about that future is a more difficult task today.

I find myself spending spare moments on days not occupied by the present to reflect on my past.  Or, more accurately, the past of those who gifted life to me long ago.

With January safely in the rear-view mirror, perhaps it's not too risky to mention how those New Year's resolutions are going.  I'm referring to the sustainability actions I committed to at the end of last year, along with my fellow Sustainable Newton board members.

For me, the focus was reducing my carbon footprint by driving more fuel-efficiently and adopting a plant-based diet one day a week.  Overall, I'm happy with results so far, but neither resolution has been without challenges.  (As it should be for any changes worth making.)

Today is my fifth "Meatless Monday."  I was traveling in early January, so I elected to start my new regimen on Monday, January 13.  But, since then, I've opened every week with a vegetarian (but not always vegan) diet.  I'm allowing myself eggs and dairy products, but no beef, poultry, seafood, or other meats.