Episode Summary: In this episode Leekei, Jenn and Olabanji talk about adaptation to climate change.

Topics discussed as well as lobbying, heat pumps, community initiatives and insurance.  Different parts of society have different abilities to adapt depending upon what is being done, underlining the importance of systemic change.  

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Featuring Carbon Almanac Contributors Jenn Swanson, Leekei Tang and Olabanji Stephen

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

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

Olabanji is from Lagos Nigeria, he’s a Creative Director and visual designer that helps brands gain clarity, deliver meaningful experiences and build tribes through Design & Strategy. He founded Jorney - a community designed to help people stay productive, accountable, and do their best work.

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

Hi, I'm Ima.

I live in Scotland.

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

Hi, I'm Ola Vanji and I'm from Nigeria.

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

Hey, I'm Rod.

I'm from Peru.

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Hi, I'm Aji.

Hi.

I'm.

Hi, I'm Vicky, and today we're talking about adaptation.

And this is quite interesting because most of our conversations have been

about what can we do to combat climate change, what can we do to be better

people and you know, do better and.

Have conversations, you know, around what we're currently doing, what

we should stop doing as regards climate change and sustainability,

but we've not really talked about.

It's here.

So what can we do to adapt in?

You know, as much as we talk about what we're doing to stop climate

change, we also probably wanna talk about what we can do to adapt to

the current situations that we have.

Um, for example, there's drought in, in some places there's

heavy rain in some places.

Um, it's not snowing in in usual times and there's a lot.

And there, there are lots and lots and lots.

Events and situations.

Um, the Daily Difference dropped an article the other day and they

said events that would happen in the space of a thousand years are

now happening in the space of like, some are even happening yearly.

And so how are we adapting to that?

Really interested to, you know, really interested in this.

And I'm just wondering like, have we been talking about that enough?

Like what can we do to adapt.

This is a very interesting topic.

Actually.

There's two things this adaptation, things that we know that are happening, but also

preparation because I think that none of this and none of the countries will live

in is prepared enough or has adapted or well adapted its infrastructure to cope.

Climate change.

And I think this is the biggest issue, you know, , uh, climate, um, denial

says climate has always changed, um, evolved, but not as fast is happening now.

And so this is a very big challenge.

Adaptation and preparation.

Yeah.

Adaptation and preparation.

There's an area where I live called the Sunshine Coast,

and it's a a beautiful place.

We, to get to it, we have to take a ferry and.

They have just been put under a severe water advisory and the

every non-essential business has been asked to stop using water.

So the breweries, the pubs, anything that is not an essential service has

been closed and it, and it's because their water infrastructure is such that

they're running out of water and it's.

Uh, quite an emergency, um, with the drought that we've been having here.

So I think they need to look at their infrastructure and figure out what to

do, but it's, it's quite a hardship.

And all the businesses that suddenly have had to close this past week because

they can't use, uh, water for things like making beer or , you know, washing

dogs or some of the other things that, um, are being shut down right now.

So, It's here.

. Okay, it's here.

And this apart from talking, um, to our, trying to influence the policy makers.

Apart from that, uh, is there anything we can do as an individual?

That was a question.

I was waiting to see if Ang was gonna answer . Um, for me, I think,

um, it's the awareness of it.

You know, I'm still seeing people idling their vehicles, sitting in

a car with a car running, and it's not hot here, it's not cold here.

You don't need to idle your car right now.

Um, and and so I still, I'm still noticing things that people are, are.

Are maybe uninformed.

I don't know.

And those are just little things, supporting initiatives, talking

to people, talking to officials who can make a difference.

Um, lobbying companies.

I mean, I think there's lots of things we can do, but it's, it's

having the conversations because people love to talk about the weather.

And when we're talking about such extremes as are happening all over

the place right now, it's hard to deny . Something weird is going on.

Yeah.

In Indeed.

I mean, I would agree that the first part is to talk about it, right?

Like, Hey guys, we have a situation and there's need for us to understand

what's possible, what might be happening.

You know, in the next couple of years and prepare, like leaky

said to, you know, cope with that.

Um, and also adapt.

I, I would actually just say the, the critical part is talking about it and

so that organizations that are climate focused and, you know, even people that

do organizations that get involved in corporate social responsibility and

stuff can also say, Hey, we're not just.

Making efforts to, um, to combat climate change and, you know, erase our carbon

footprint, but also providing some sort of accountability or, you know,

taking a level of responsibility with, with preparing and also adapting.

Um, in that sense it could be, yeah, I think we have to make it a systemic thing.

When it comes to adaptation, as much as we make it a systemic thing, um, you

know, in regards to, to talking about, to talking about the change that, that

we're, you know, that we're all making.

And there is a lot of flooding going on in Nigeria right now, apparently

weather related flooding all over the, all over the place, all over the country.

So leaky, what do you think?

And I think that it's probably because of the flooding that his

internet has become so funny.

What can you do?

Because he didn't have, yeah, it might be because of this.

We can talk about it.

Uh, we can educate ourselves and educate people around us.

What can we do?

That's the while you're thinking.

We've got initiatives going on right now for people to switch over to heat pumps

to get away from gas, and, and so the, the governments are offering rebates to have

people homeowners switch their heating.

Uh, that's one thing, but this is not adaptation.

Um, not really adapt well.

I mean, it, it is because you can cool your house that way.

Um, because the temperatures are getting hotter and hotter.

Yeah.

Okay.

Every, every summer.

Okay.

And a heat pump is less environmentally.

Impactful and can cool and heat your house more sustainably and

keep people comfortable and safe, uh, in the hot and the cold, um,

because things are getting hotter.

So we've never had buildings fully air conditioned.

You know, we've never had to have, uh, a lot of air conditioning

in this part of the world.

And now everybody's putting in air conditioning, um, because

it's getting hotter and hotter and we're having to adapt and.

In, in many spheres, people are talking about it being a safety

issue because a lot of people can't afford air conditioning.

Um, and so they're talking about it becoming a right to be in a place

that is, uh, Not sweltering hot.

We had, we had hundreds of people die a couple of summers

ago because of a heat dome.

And so now there's a lot of conversation about finding those vulnerable people who

live alone in a little, you know, third or fourth story apartment where there's

barely a breeze and getting them some cooling because we need to adapt to that.

This isn't going to change or it's not gonna go away at any way at any.

Oh, I, I was also wondering if there's some sort of insurance for,

um, for, to cover stuff like this.

Um, and, and I don't know, but does, does, is there, do insurance company offer, uh,

like coverage for maybe loss of homes or cars or environment or stuff that, that.

You know, that are related for things related to, to like harsh

weather conditions or climate change or any of that stuff?

Yeah, well it might be, but I think that, um, you know, when you use

insurance, a there couple things, when you use insurance is already too

late, you've already lost your home.

And, uh, and also.

Insurance.

I don't know.

It's something I saying that I've heard some, uh, a long time ago.

But, um, , uh, it's insurance is something for the, for the rich.

Uh, when you are poor, you don't have insurance because you cannot afford to

cover, um, the in the future and um, One of the biggest and satisfying of

climate change is that it enforces the divide between the rich and the poor.

And then, yeah, so the richest, they have the means to adapt,

to have, um, hit pumps.

Yeah.

To adapt to better conditions.

To have the, the, um, to use hit pumps to hold your house.

But the poor.

More difficult because there's investments.

So to answer to your question, Jen, what can we do?

Or what I was thinking about is that, you know, this, um, climate change issue,

it's really enforcing them and widening the gap between the rich and the poor.

So maybe, you know, one of the things that could be done is to look at.

How we can help those that are less fortunate than us and how we

could, um, you know, direct some policies or things to help those

people that are more vulnerable.

And, uh, I'm not even talking about that at the world scale,

but even in the, in your country, or even in your neighborhood.

One of the things our church is considering doing is opening a cooling

station, um, during heat waves because we have an air conditioned, we have a

heat pump in the church and we have a, a big space so that we could welcome

people in for a few hours to cool down, um, when it's really, really hot.

So we're looking at putting that into place for next.

um, so that people can just drop in and sit and read a book

or do whatever they want in a cooler space just to get a break.

And I know that different organizations across, um, the province are doing

that, um, opening cooling stations.

And they also, I mean, for years we've had wet weather shelter.

. Um, when it's raining and there are people who are, uh, experiencing

homelessness, then um, we have places for people to come in out of the wet

and the cold, um, to get some food and some dry, dry place to lie down.

I, I'm also looking to volunteer to, to help in the flood victims around

here, uh, to see, to see what's possible in that space as well.

Anyway, I'm, I'm glad that we're having the conversation.

Right.

I think it's important that we mm-hmm.

, we also think towards adaptation and perhaps we should have more

conversations about this and, and have people understand that, that, you know,

I mean, it's great to.

To combat climate change and say, Hey, don't compost your waste this way.

Or, um, don't, don't throw your trash here, or, you know, clean up the ocean.

But there are also situations that are at hand right now and we have to

find ways to cope or deal with them.

So it's been an interesting conversation.

Thank you, Jen.

Thank you Leak.

Thank you, Olivan.

Thank you.

Bye bye.

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