Episode Summary: Welcome to the first conversation recorded in 2024 where Jenn and Leekei usher in 2024 with optimism and kick off the year with positivity and hope for the future.

In this episode, Jenn and Leekei discuss the importance of maintaining a balance between awareness of environmental challenges and a proactive, optimistic approach to solutions. 

Highlights include Portugal's success in renewable energy, the health-centric urban planning of Singapore, and the vitality of marine life seen in the birth of a new killer whale. 

Emphasis is placed on active participation and intentional, conscious choices in daily life to contribute positively to the environment, inspired by the insights of data scientist Hannah Ritchie. 

This conversation underlines the idea that acknowledging problems while focusing on constructive action can lead to meaningful environmental progress.

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 and Jenn Swanson.

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. 

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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.

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A podcast with Carbon Conversations

for every day with everyone

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from everywhere in the world.

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In our conversations, we share ideas,

perspectives, questions, and things we

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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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Hi, this is Jen.

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Hi, this is Leki.

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Happy New Year, Leki!

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We're recording our first episode.

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I mean, it's the first time we're

recording an episode this year.

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Yeah.

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That's right.

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Yeah.

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So, my suggestion was to start

with something good to start off.

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Something I've heard on the radio

yesterday, I think, that made me

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very, very happy and enforces the

impression that I have that things

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are going to the right direction

in terms of renewable energy.

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So the thing that caught my attention was

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power demand was met by renewable energy.

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That's huge, isn't it?

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61%.

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That is amazing.

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Yes.

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So when we talk about renewable

energy, we talk about wind and sun,

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and Portugal has a lot of wind and

a lot of sun, and they managed to

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get 61 percent of the power demand.

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That's incredible.

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Wow.

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That is incredible.

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Um, I have, I have two things, and one

of them that I just thought of just now.

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Was I was watching something on

Netflix about Blue Zones, um, and

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it was a very interesting show.

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It had several parts and maybe you

can explain what Blue Zones are.

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Oh, Blue Zones are areas in

the world where people have the

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longest lifespan and people live

to 100 or close to it or past 100.

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And people have been fascinated as to

why there are such a high number of

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people living this length of life in

these particular places in the world.

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And one of them is in Okinawa,

um, there's, uh, a place in Loma

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Linda, California, there, there are

different places around the world.

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There's five.

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And in Crete as well.

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Yes.

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But one of the episodes was

talking about Singapore.

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Oh, and showed how people live in

Singapore and what an amazing place.

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I know nothing about it, but

this, this really opened my

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eyes to how forward thinking.

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The planning people of that

city are, they have made it

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ridiculously expensive to own a car.

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Yes.

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And so during rush hour, you know,

you'll see 12 cars on the road and

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it's because to own a car is going

to cost you as much as maybe a house.

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Yes.

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But their public transit system

is spectacular and you can

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get anywhere and everywhere.

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Another thing they have for health

is they have these little, uh, park

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like exercise places everywhere.

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And people are encouraged to exercise and

prevent illness by getting outside and

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walking and doing all of these things.

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Another thing that has been

created in the infrastructure

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and in the policy that they make.

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Is that you get benefits and

a bonus if your parents live

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near you or you live with them.

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And that's to look after people so

that you don't have people going

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into care facilities like here in

North America, which is super common.

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And, and so there were so many things,

I can't even say them all, but I just

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thought, wow, what an amazing society.

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And how healthy people seem to

be and how happy they seem to be

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and things like the pollution is

low because of the lack of cars.

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And anyway, I just, I knew

nothing about Singapore.

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I was kind of blown away.

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And I thought those are all

things that contribute to people

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living longer, healthier lives.

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And.

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What an example.

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That's fantastic.

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Yeah.

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So you said you had, you said, you

said you have, you had two examples.

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What's the other one?

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Yeah.

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The other example is that we, I live on

the west coast of Canada and we are very

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close to the Pacific ocean and we have

a, uh, a pod of resident killer whales.

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That hang around and, and go

past and do things around here.

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They're called J pod.

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There's different letter names for

different pods and on boxing day.

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Researchers spotted a brand new baby

killer whale calf on Boxing Day in J Pod,

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and there hasn't been a new baby born in

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very positive sign because you always

want them to grow and to have some more.

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We were lucky enough to actually

see them a couple of summers ago.

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We were on a little gulf island

watching the sun go down on the beach.

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And all of a sudden we heard them

before they came around the corner

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and you could hear them, the spouts.

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And then we sat there, there were

probably 20 people sitting all along

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this beach and everyone was silent

as we watched the sun go down and

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these beautiful creatures go past.

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It was just fabulous.

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So those are my two exciting things.

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Wow.

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See, when we look for

exciting things, we find them.

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We do.

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Yes.

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And this reminds me of, of an article

I read a few days ago, um, of our past

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guest actually at the time when this

episode will be published, that will

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be our guest from last week, Hannah

Ritchie, who just published a book

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and, uh, who firmly believe that we,

I mean, she, she's obviously much

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younger than we are, I mean, not so

much, but younger than we are, has

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this very, very strong belief that is

that we might be the first generation

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to build a truly sustainable planet.

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This is an opportunity.

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The climate crisis is actually an

opportunity if we look at the bright side.

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And she is not like, you know, a

kind of guru because her position,

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her day job, is I think the lead

researcher of at, um, at a website,

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which is called a world in data.

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Uh, Hannah Richie is a data scientist and

she, she says, okay, look at the data.

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Um, and if we look at the data, actually

things are not as bad as we believe.

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And so if you haven't listened to

this episode with Hannah Richie.

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We can just pause and go back to listen

to episodes from last week, but, uh,

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what caught my attention today is one

of the articles, I think it was in the

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Guardian or something, in which she

explained that looking at the climate

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crisis as something doom and gloom

could be as bad as being climate deniers.

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And I thought, oh, that's a very

interesting idea, because And if we

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look at the doom and gloom, I think it's

somehow paralyzing, you know, you can

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think, oh, there's nothing we can do.

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So we just don't do anything, right?

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I mean, it could be the same result

as being a climate denier, if you say,

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okay, climate change doesn't exist.

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The result is that you

don't do anything as well.

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So what do you think of that?

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Well, it's an interesting idea.

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I mean, I tend to be an optimist.

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I am.

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I'm, I'm not a Pollyanna.

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I'm not.

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You know, everything

is peachy all the time.

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La la la.

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If you just think it, it'll be wonderful.

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You know, I'm not like that.

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I do believe in the need to know what's

happening and you know, there's a certain

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amount of of need in our lives to walk

through grief, to walk through sadness, to

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walk through hard stuff instead of shoving

it away or denying it or ignoring it.

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You can get stuck there and you can really

go into a downward spiral and you, you

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know, it's kind of like the algorithms

you can end up where that's all, you know,

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all you think about all you talk about.

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And that's because that's what gets fed

to you and that's what you're attuned to.

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But if we start to look for some

of the positive signs as well,

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we realize that there's an awful

lot of good stuff also happening.

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And it's often the bad stuff that's

getting, that's the scariest,

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that's the most dramatic and that's

getting highlighted, but there's

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all sorts of other things going on.

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People working their whole, you know,

their whole drive and existence is

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to help, and they're quiet about it.

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So they're not getting the press,

they're not getting, you know, we're

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not hearing about it as, as much.

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It's kind of like the news.

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We hear all the horrible, bad stuff.

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And we don't often, you know, see

that person who has been spending

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a huge chunk of their paycheck

putting together care packages

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for people who live on the street.

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You know, you don't hear about that.

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Yeah.

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It's happening.

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It's wonderful.

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There's somebody helping, but you

don't hear about it because it's

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not, you know, a sexy headline.

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Sensational.

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I've read somewhere, I think a long

time ago, I think I've read somewhere,

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uh, when I was at university, I

think it was Noam Chomsky or someone

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like, , you know, a researcher.

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Like him, , who say that, um, that the

news want us to, I mean, news tend to

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push the bad, the horrible, very scary

things because the media, uh, lives on

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ads and companies want us to be scared,

to stay at home, watch television.

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And buy stuff, buy stuff to equip

our house to make it more safe.

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Therefore, they have the television,

the media has to show you all the

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horrible things, the doom and gloom,

that it's very scary out there.

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Yeah.

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That's something I,

that I remember I read.

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Yeah.

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Well, it makes, it makes sense.

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It's what, what is the color of

the lens you're putting on today?

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Are you looking for things that

are, are good and that are positive

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and that are making progress?

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Are you putting on the lens of

everything's awful and I can't do this.

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And, and maybe some days you have one

on and some days you have another on.

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Right.

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And I think I don't know if I agree with

somebody who focuses on the doom and

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gloom is the same as a climate denier.

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I kind of don't think I would make that.

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I think it's more on the

result, the result, you know,

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the outcome of disbelief.

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So if, if you're in the mindset of,

it doesn't matter what I do, we're

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all going in the toilet anyway.

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So whatever.

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Yeah.

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Then, okay.

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I can see that.

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Then you wouldn't take

care and you wouldn't.

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Recycle and you wouldn't . Yeah.

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It's like, I don't dunno if you, you've

seen this movie and it was quite scary.

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The, the mini, the beginning

of this movie was quite scary.

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It was, uh, ready Player One.

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I don't know if you remember.

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I remember hearing about

it, but I didn't see it.

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Okay.

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You should watch it.

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It's Ready Player One.

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Okay.

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Yeah, it's um, the movie Thought in.

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in 2040 or 2050 something, or

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okay, it's, I can't remember

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And it's saying, okay, we are in 2050,

10 years after the world has given

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up on solving the climate crisis.

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Ooh.

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That is scary.

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And I mean, the movie is basically, you

know, kids don't live in the real world

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because the physical world is horrible.

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And they, they live and they play and

the whole plot is in the virtual world.

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So.

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I mean, you should, you

should really watch it.

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As an optimist, that

would give me nightmares.

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Yes, yes, it, it was really scary.

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So, you know, because, um, so when you

think of, oh, wow, when you believe that

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there's nothing we can do, just stop doing

things and, you know, it's horrible.

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One of the other things that kind of,

going back to this whole blue zone thing,

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and when you say people are living in the

virtual world, Um, one of the things that

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was very striking to me was the idea that

we used to do things manually physically.

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We used to do a lot more movement and

a lot of lifting and a lot of digging

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and a lot of walking and a lot of even

getting up to turn on a TV before remote

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controls, which is a long time ago.

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You know, you used to always have

to go get food if you wanted it.

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Now it can come right to you.

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And we're automating ourselves out of.

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Uh, health and into problems in many ways.

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Yeah.

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It's convenient.

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It's great.

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If you're not able to do certain

things, but it's interesting.

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It just kind of the visual that they

had on this, it was a diagram, a

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cartoon diagram of what people used

to do and then what they're doing now.

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And it was a lot of sitting around and

it just sort of hit me that diagram.

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And I thought, Oh my goodness.

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Um, there are still things we

can physically actually do.

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Yes.

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Instead of scrolling and

writing comments about it, we

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can actually do stuff about it.

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And, uh, but you agree that you, if you

believe that there's nothing we can do,

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the result is that we don't do anything.

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Thoughts and prayers.

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Don't you know, it's not enough . No, no.

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It's not enough people.

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Yeah, it's action.

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Action.

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Yeah.

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So it's the same thing as those

who believe that it doesn't

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exist because it doesn't exist.

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You don't do anything.

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So the result, the outcome is the same.

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That's kind of like putting your fingers

in your ears and going, eh, yes, totally.

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Yeah.

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. Ah, yeah.

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So what do we do?

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What do we do?

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Do we focus on some positive things?

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Do we take action still

and find some good news?

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Join people who are doing

good things to get us forward?

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Yes.

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And, uh, I think, yeah,

find people and also be more

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intentional in everything we do.

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Uh, we can meet people, organize,

but also change the way we're doing

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things, already doing things and

be more intentional, conscious.

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Yeah, conscious.

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I like that.

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Yeah.

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Excellent.

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Okay.

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Thank you.

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Happy New Year.

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Oh, yes.

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Happy New Year You've been listening

to carbon sessions a podcast with

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carbon conversations for every day

with everyone from everywhere in the

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world We'd love you to join the Carbon

Sessions so you too can share your

287

perspectives from wherever you are.

288

This is a great way for our community

to learn from your ideas and

289

experiences, connect, and take action.

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If you want to add your voice to the

conversation, go to the carbonalmanac.

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