Twitter can be a fine thing. A while ago I chanced upon Peter Kalmus, author of ‘Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution’ and climate scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. I was drawn to follow him because of his positive messaging about how our individual lifestyle choices do indeed count. He makes the salient point that, as an American climate scientist who has opted for a lifestyle in which he and family consume one tenth of the average American’s fossil fuels, he is leading by example.
I find it refreshing that there are privileged academics among us who are choosing not to live as if it’s still the 1950s. His website noflyclimatesci.org documents “earth scientists, academics, and members of the public who either don’t fly or who fly less”. Along with other climate scientists who have self-declared their low carbon lifestyles, Kalmus encourages me to feel positive these days. Another reason to pay attention is that Kalmus is an articulate CCL member, as I discovered when I listened to his recent discussion about Carbon Fee & Dividend on rootsimple.com. I recommend listening to the whole interview as it’s full of entertaining, deep exchanges with hosts Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen, and is highly informative throughout.
Listen to Peter Kalmus on Roots Simple
Peter’s website is beingthechangebook.com and you can interact with him on Twitter @climatehuman.
Composer pianist Lola Perrin who volunteers for CCL UK, is the founder of ClimateKeys, a global initiative combining musicians and climate change experts to create audience conversations about climate change solutions.
Cheering & energizing – thanks!
I had an argument with my ex a while ago (one of many) about travelling to Barcelona. I was trying to persuade her to take the train, on which our son would have travelled for free due to his age at the time, though he’d be charged for a seat on the plane. Even so, the flight cost less, and my ex said “if they want me to take the train instead of flying they should make it cheaper”. If the damage caused by the carbon emissions of flying were factored into the cost of the flight, then travelling by train would be cheaper.