Episode Summary: In this special holiday edition of CarbonSessions, hosts Leekei, Kristina, and Jenn dive into how the festive season can be an opportune time to spark meaningful conversations about climate change. 

As we approach year-end festivities filled with gatherings and reunions, our hosts explore ways to integrate climate change discussions into our holiday interactions without dampening the celebratory spirit. 

They emphasize the power of asking open-ended, curiosity-driven questions to create connections and start dialogues on climate issues.

As a takeaway, the hosts highlight that while we may not be experts, our collective curiosity and willingness to engage in dialogues are crucial in navigating the complex issue of climate change. They encourage listeners to use holiday gatherings as platforms for such valuable exchanges, and to remember that it's never too late to make a difference.

Resources mentioned: The Carbon Almanac website and its resources, including free downloads of the Spanish version of the book, children's version, educator's guide, and more.

For more information on the project and to order your copy of the Carbon Almanac (one of Amazon best-selling books of the year!), visit thecarbonalmanac.org

Want to join in the conversation?

Visit thecarbonalmanac.org/podcasts and send us a voice message on this episode or any other climate-related ideas and perspectives.

Don’t Take Our Word For It, Look It Up!

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Featuring Carbon Almanac Contributors Leekei Tang, Jenn Swanson and Kristina Horning.

Leekei is a fashion business founder, a business coach, an international development expert and podcaster from Paris, France. 

From Langley in British Columbia, Canada, Jenn is a Minister, Coach, Writer and community Connector, helping people help themselves. 

Kristina has a background in architecture and engineering. Currently in Prague (that it is where she is originally from) and her base is US

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The CarbonSessions Podcast is produced and edited by Leekei Tang, Steve Heatherington and Rob Slater.

Hi, I'm Christina.

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I'm from Prague.

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Hi, I'm Jen, and I'm from Canada.

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Hi, I'm Oladunji, and I'm from Nigeria.

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Hello, I'm Liki, and I live in Paris.

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Hi, I'm Brian, and I'm from New York.

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Welcome to Carbon Sessions, a podcast with

Carbon Conversations for every day, with

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everyone, from everywhere in the world.

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In our conversations, we share ideas.

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Perspectives, questions, and things we

can actually do to make a difference.

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So don't be shy and join our Carbon

Sessions because it's not too late.

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I'm Nikki.

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Hi, I'm Christina.

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Hi, I'm Jen.

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Today is December 1st, the first day

of December and year end holidays or

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the festive season is approaching.

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And we're going to meet a lot of

people, friends, family, there will be

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a lot of gatherings around and we keep

saying on this podcast and during our

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conversations is that we need to talk

about climate change and I think that

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the holiday season, the festive season

is a great opportunity to do that.

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You know, to talk about climate change,

I don't know how to start because there's

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always people that you haven't seen for

a long time, they will say, so what's up?

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I don't know about you, but

you know, I'm kind of annoying

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when people say, Oh, what's up?

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And so.

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You could say the

temperature of the earth.

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We can start with that.

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So when you meet someone you haven't

seen in a while and say, Oh, what's up?

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What's your answer?

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That's a good start.

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Sea levels?

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Blood pressure?

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Anxiety.

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Um, yeah, well, I'm not sure that it is

a good angle to approach that because,

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because we're supposed to have fun, you

know, to enjoy the company of each other.

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And so it, I don't think

it's a great way to.

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Create more anxiety,

you're supposed to relax.

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So are you saying we shouldn't talk

about it at our holiday tables, or, um?

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No, that's not what I'm saying.

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No?

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No, I'm saying that, you know, what

Christina said before about, you know,

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connection, maybe we can start with that,

you know, because, uh, what I, noticed

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around, like, you know, everywhere in

the media and in social media is that the

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world has become more and more divisive.

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And so maybe, you know, Christina

can share a little bit of wisdom.

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Yeah.

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When we connect with people we know

and our family, uh, I guess all the

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movements started with one, two people,

small group, and then it spread.

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And so, without that connection, it's

really hard to Uh, talk about any

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kind of emotional and heart issue.

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So my suggestion for, uh, the

holidays is choose your priorities

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and first connect and see people

and listen to people and be patient.

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And uh, And maybe ask questions about

what they enjoyed last year or how was it

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different compared to a year before that.

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And there's a lot of changes in 2023.

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So, uh, I would suggest, yeah, I think

that's what I'm going to try to connect.

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And, uh, even though people,

different ages, maybe older people

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asking them, Hey, how was it?

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When you were growing up and what

was different with your grandparents?

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So some kind of questions that are

not that divisive and more be curious.

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So that would be my suggestion.

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And by the way, it's really

interesting, and there is a climate

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change conference going on right now.

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Hopefully everybody starts talking

about it, and hopefully they'll

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connect and start making some.

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Changes.

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What do you guys think?

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I love your, your curiosity.

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That's such a good tool.

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That's such a good communication

tool in general, but it's a really

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good way to invite conversation

without sounding judgmental, you

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know, like, tell me more about that.

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I'm interested in that.

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You know, that kind of thing.

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Yeah.

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Go into the joys, not into

the fears and frustrations.

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Even though it's hard, but, uh,

hopefully we're just all people.

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We want to connect and be

together and make things better.

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Yeah.

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And I think it's important to remember

that the goal is not to try to win

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the argument, to win the conversation,

and to prove that we're right.

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Because I think that we all come from

different places, uh, with a different set

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of values and have different priorities in

life, and we cannot agree on everything.

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But there are some things we can agree on.

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And so we can build our conversation

upon that, upon things that we agree.

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I think this is the power

of doing things together.

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Like, you know, it could be a game,

that could be Preparing food, making

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drinks, and uh, when we're a little bit

relaxed and do things together and then

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um, and then start the conversation.

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Oh!

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That is We have a, actually we have a,

we can listen to podcasts as well because

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we have, now we have a, um, library of

over 150 episodes of Carbon Sessions.

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And I'm sure that there is one

episode for everybody, you know,

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there's conversation for everybody.

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So I think, yeah, one thing with

that, uh, if you, you know, if you

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have someone say, Oh, yo, what's up?

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Oh, um, I'm a host on the

podcast on climate change.

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Um, so what you're interested and then

you can promote the podcast and say, okay,

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well, we can listen to this together and

then, uh, and then start a conversation.

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Well, and, you know, we always welcome

guests and people to ask questions, so

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people listening to this could also reach

out to us and let us know that, you know,

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you have a question or you have an idea

or you have some expertise in an area.

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And then that's another way to say,

Hey, I was on this podcast recently.

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Yeah.

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Or the question I had was

featured on this podcast recently.

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And, uh, we always welcome

that kind of thing.

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Yeah.

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I think, I think the key is to meet

people where they are and be curious,

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be open and ask questions, uh,

because we're not experts and even

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experts, they ask a lot of questions.

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That's what makes them experts.

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Yeah, because they ask the right

questions, because I was listening to a

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podcast on, um, a science communicator who

was explaining the scientific approach.

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And what he said is that science

is the best knowledge that

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we get at this point of time.

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But as soon as we get something, a

scientist gets a proof of something,

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that would trigger 10 other questions,

because It's not like the end of

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the world that we prove something.

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What makes science progress is

to constantly asking questions.

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So that's why I think, you know, asking

questions as, um, and be curious.

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It's a very, very, very strong way to,

uh, to make the conversation progress.

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Yeah.

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And to learn.

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And maybe also be in that between space.

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Where we didn't solve it, there is

a question hanging above the table.

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And see what everybody's

idea of a certain thing is.

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Ooh, that would be interesting

and ask everybody how they

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understand the climate change.

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What is it for them?

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For me, the big aha was when, uh, I

listened to scientists doing some research

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in North Pole and they said, well, before

the weather was steady, now, uh, the

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extremes go, you have quick, really cold.

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Few weeks and then hot few weeks in

places where it should be cold and

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cold where it should be hot or warm.

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And so it gets, uh, kind of messed up.

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So that's one of my explanation, but it

would be interesting even though it's

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not correct and it's not, uh, proper.

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It would be interesting what other

people really think about this thing

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that's One of the things I did this

week is I It was on the news that a

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year ago this past Wednesday, we had a

flash snowstorm that shut down bridges

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and there were, there were videos of

buses sliding backwards, downhills.

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And it was just, it was, I remember people

being stuck in their cars for five, six

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hours because they couldn't go anywhere.

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And I forgot that it was.

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It was a year ago and you know,

today it's three degrees and

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it's raining, um, which is very

different than how it was last year.

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But even that, you know, if you

had a significant situation, you

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could say, remember when, remember

when that happened, you know?

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I think also Christina, your work

with ConnectedDot is very important.

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Uh, because sometimes we

tend to feel disconnected, so

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disconnected with climate change.

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You know, it's, it's happening there,

you know, it's, it's not me, it's them.

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But actually A lot of things

are connected, so maybe you can

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explain a little bit, you know, the

concept of connected dots and how

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the whole thing ties in together.

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Yeah, in the, in our

website, the CarbonAlmanac.

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com, we have a piece that calls

Connect the Dots, and we put together

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many pieces from the book, many

ideas, which looked very separate.

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But they were all connected.

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So for example, the connection

between the soil and, uh, between,

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uh, clothing industry and, uh, between

the food, how far it comes from.

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Also, there is a beautiful map that

you can push on one thing you might

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be familiar and it will show you many,

many connections to everything else.

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So it's, uh, yeah, it's to seeing

that we're not separate, whatever

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we do, whatever decisions we make.

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Let, let's say if we, if I go shopping

and decide to go to a certain store or

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buy a certain thing, that thing came

on a truck from certain country or it

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came, it was walked in from the farm.

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into the square.

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So there are all these connections,

how it kind of multiplies.

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It's not only the using the

gas, but it's also using, uh,

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people that working over time.

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So the connection is not only

to CO2, to oil, but also how we,

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uh, how we are towards earth.

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The renewables, and how we

act towards other people.

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Do we really want them to be in the

stores working for us on Sundays?

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Or at 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock at night?

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And I think all these connections are

in a way connected to climate change.

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Because we stopped caring.

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Or we started caring

about different things.

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Yeah.

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I think that very often we do

not necessarily do the right

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thing because we just don't know.

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We don't know how to connect the dots.

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We don't know where the dots connect.

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And so that's why we don't

necessarily have the good behavior.

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Yeah, and that's one thing.

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really passionate about, about the

information and sharing information.

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And one thing that really started me

was when I was in Montana, I was really

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frustrated with some government decisions.

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So I went to the Capitol.

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And ask the secretary of the governor

and said, look, people in my neighborhood

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have problems and it's not working.

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How come these decisions are not made?

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And he said, do you know that you need

only a hundred people to get together

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a hundred people, and that's when we'll

start listening and that's so easy.

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Or writing letters to, uh.

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Congressmen and all this thing, but

just a hundred people is not that

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hard and that's starting changing

things on the government level.

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I think it's possible, but I think

people start have to talking to

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other people, not only looking at the

internet, but just go walking into

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the office and ask people around.

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What are you using?

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That's a really, really good point.

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I recently heard that writing a

letter, like a proper letter, not

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an email, uh, but a proper letter to

government, they have to deal with it.

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They have to then do something with it.

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They can't just delete it or

set it aside or ignore it.

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It has to then be dealt with and

there's so much more power in a

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written letter, even from one person.

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Than we, we probably even think.

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Wow.

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Yeah.

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How is it in France, Leakey?

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Oh, yeah, um, it's the same thing.

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I write a lot.

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When I'm not happy about something,

I write to my municipality,

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to my local government.

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Yeah.

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Real, real snail mail.

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And, um, and, you know, we don't get

so many snail mails these days, so

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it's, uh, it's on the top of the pile.

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Yeah.

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Cool.

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Yeah, but going back to, you know,

um, not knowing things, I think it's

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very, very important also to freeze our

knowledge, our level of understanding

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of how things interact with each other,

what the mechanism behind climate change,

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otherwise it will be very easy for us

to be manipulated, to be greenwashed.

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So that is, um, something

that is important.

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So I think these conversations help,

our podcasts help, because that shows

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in our podcast we acknowledge the fact

that we don't know a lot of things,

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but we're still trying to figure out.

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But also there's um, there's our book,

The Carbon Almanac, which has a lot

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of resources to get a very good layer

of understanding of the mechanism

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of the climate change behind the

underlying, uh, the climate change.

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How we got here and how we can solve this

mess we're in because there are solutions.

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That would be such a good Christmas gift.

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Oh, yes

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And Because you can pick it up and open it

to any page and find a complete thought a

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complete you know, topic, you could have

it lying around when you have gatherings.

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Yes.

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And you could have it on.

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I'm going to do that.

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I'm going to pull mine out and

put it out on the coffee table.

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And then, yeah, people might get curious

and pick it up and start looking at it.

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And Hey, did you know this?

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You can look smart in the book.

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And then of course I didn't like

it and said, Oh, did you know this?

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And there are funny cartoons in

it too, so it's not just serious.

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Oh, and there's pictures

and, and statistics and

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other people can pick it up.

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It doesn't always have to be us or you, it

could be your friends or your family could

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pick it up and say, Hey, look at this.

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You could plant it, plant it in your

living room or your dining room.

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And it would make a good gift.

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It would make a good gift and

a good conversation starter.

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As well.

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And there's also the kids,

the kids' resource, the kids'

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book, which is all, yeah.

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Yeah.

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That's fantastic.

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Actually, I think I'm gonna order

some kids one and, uh, if we, if the

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people that, um, that don't agree,

well, we can all always check the

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resources because there's, everything

is noted and, uh, that's right.

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We can look it up straight away.

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And don't forget, the

kids' book is for free.

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You don't have to buy the kid's

book, Carbon Almanac kid's book.

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You can just print it or go to somewhere

where they get, well, print it and bind

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it for you and you get a free gift.

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That's true.

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That's true.

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There you go.

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We just made a plug.

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And one thing to know about the Carbon

Almanac is it's not a profit organization.

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So all of the money that's made from

the sale of all of the books goes

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back into spreading the message.

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So, um, You know, we're all volunteers.

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Yeah.

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We, you know, we do pay for, for platforms

and that kind of thing, but above all the

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proceeds from everything that we do at

the Carbon Almanac goes back into sharing

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the message and getting it out there.

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So we've given books away to libraries

and to government officials and

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to schools and all over the place.

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And there are hundreds.

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literally hundreds of people

volunteering their time and their

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expertise working on this project.

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So you can always jump in.

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Yeah.

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And there is a Spanish book for

free, Spanish carbon almanac.

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You can download it for

free on this from the site.

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So I think, yeah, if you

go to the carbonalmanac.

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org, there's a lot of stuff.

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There's the, you know, you can download

books for free, the Spanish version,

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the, uh, the kids version in, I

don't even, I didn't, I stopped , uh,

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keeping count of the numbers of

translations that there are on the

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kids book that you can just print out.

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There's the, um, the connected dot.

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There's.

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All these podcasts and, um, wow.

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There's a teacher guide, isn't there?

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There's an educator's guide that's free.

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So if you download the children's

book, you can download the

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teacher guide for your classroom

that was created by teachers.

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And the.

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And the photo book as well.

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Wow.

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We nearly forgot that one.

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Lots going on.

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Lots of goodies.

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Lots of goodies.

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So I think, yeah, the main

message is go to thecommonalmanet.

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org and then you got a lot of stuff.

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Um, I don't know that our

conversation will lead us there.

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It's all about connecting.

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Yes.

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Connecting things.

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So That's Karen.

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Sounds good.

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It's not too late.

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Not too late.

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Yeah.

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Bye.

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Be caring.

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Bye.

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You've been listening to Carbon

Sessions, a podcast with carbon

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conversations for every day with

everyone from everywhere in the world.

327

We'd love you to join the Carbon

Sessions so you too can share your

328

perspectives from wherever you are.

329

This is a great way for our community

to learn from your ideas and

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experiences, connect and take action.

331

If you want to add your voice to the

conversation, go to the Carbon Almanac.

332

Org slash podcast and sign up

to be part of a future episode.

333

This podcast is also part of

the Carbon Almanac Network.

334

For more information to sign up for

the emails, to join the movement,

335

and to order your copy of the Carbon

Almanac, go to the carbon almanac.org.

336

Be sure to subscribe and join

us here again, as together

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we can change the world.