New Challenges

A New Challenge will appear in our newsletter every few weeks.
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Community Carbon Challenge — Repair Everything

Picture of toolbox, Rosy the Riveter image from ifixit website, and glove that has been repaired.

“I will repair whenever possible rather than throw away and replace.” FACT: 2020 was the year in which the weight of “human-made mass”—all the stuff we’ve built and accumulated—exceeded the weight of biomass on the planet. Source 

“Repair Everything” first appeared in our newsletter Jan 7, 2021. One year later we think the message is worth repeating. 

  • Repair saves you money, leaves you with a feeling of accomplishment and allows you to preserve treasured heirlooms. 
  • Repair is good for the environment. Combined with proper end-of-life recycling it reduces waste and reduces the need for new raw materials. 
  • Repair creates good green local jobs. If you are not a DIY kind of person, you can support a growing number of repair shops. Yes, this is a thing. Track these repair shops down and support them. 

Many manufacturers have been trying to make repair difficult; some even trying to take the right to repair away. We should have the right to repair our own stuff. 

A Canadian right-to-repair debate update: Bill C-272, A bill that seeks to finally tip the scales in favour of repair passed unanimously after 2nd reading June 2, 2021 and has been stalled in committee ever since. Talk to your MP. In Ontario Bill 72, A Consumer Protection Amendment Act (Right to Repair Electronic Products) was defeated after 2nd reading in May of 2019. 

For more information about repair, iFixit is still a great place to start. And of course, there are DIY videos to help you through almost any repair on YouTube. (Another tip: When you do buy new, buy goods made to last, are repairable and, at the end of their life, recyclable.) 

Resources

A look back at three of our previous repair/circular economy challenges 

Repair Everything | A Stitch In Time – Mend Your Clothes | Support the circular economy 

Community Carbon Challenge New Year’s 2022 — CO2, A Direct Result of Consumption

Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle

Make this the year you start to decouple your lifestyle from carbon as a fuel and as ‘stuff’ you consume. Every activity, object, and item of food comes with a carbon footprint; that is, the amount of carbon that went into its production and transportation and has already been released into the Earth’s atmosphere. We call this embodied carbon or upfront carbon emissions. These emissions are creating climate heating RIGHT NOW. Every day we make personal choices that either increase atmospheric carbon emissions or reduce them.

As Lloyd Alter says in his new book Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle — Why Individual Climate Action Matters More Than Ever, “…CO2 is a direct result of consumption.” (Learn more about the book here. Order the book here [paper or digital].)

So, give some thought to what is enough, what is sufficient to maintain our lifestyle in 2022. Let’s reduce our carbon consumption on a daily basis. A good place to start is by joining 100 other families and 13 Muskoka businesses which have taken on the CAM Community Carbon Challenge. You will find lots of simple, data-backed ideas to help you get started.

COMMUNITY CARBON CHALLENGE PAGE

A Climate Christmas Carol  

We will take climate action together for the people we love and for the planet. For our children, our grandchildren, and future generations we all must act now. Change can happen overnight.

Ghost of Christmas yet to come

The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come

In Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” we witness the transformation of Ebenezer Scrooge through the intervention of 3 spirits. Past, present, and future.

We have seen the past. A time when many of us enjoyed the benefits of a relatively stable climate and cheap energy. We in the Global North flourished!

We see in the present the result of our excessive exploitation of the planet’s resources and our disregard for the effects of pollution on land, air, and water. We see the effects of changing climate already altering the lives of many.

We read the dire predictions for the future by climate scientists if we continue with business as usual.

In Dickens’ story, the Ghost of Christmas Yet-To-Come shows Scrooge that his future fate is not set in stone. The future depends on the actions we take in the present.

We too can make decisions that will ensure a better future for all.

We can do it. We must do it.

Community Carbon Challenge is now on Instagram