I’ve participated in a few chats – on and off-line – about the climate lately. It’s front and centre for me, not just pursuant to the latest UN report, but also following on the heels of record-breaking fire and hurricane seasons, refugees from Africa and a simple, general awareness of what is going on in the world around me.

Mostly, I hear people talking about what we can do: reuse, recycle, take public transportation, use solar panels – there is a long list. These are all good and I agree that we should do these things wherever, whenever, however we can.

But none of these individual changes mean a thing without political will – and because politicians are bought and paid for by corporations, mainly the oil and gas cartels who care only for a quick profit and the planet be damned – I don’t think we have much hope.

That said, there are two extremely powerful things people can do – and these are the two things people most resist to the point of not even wanting to talk about them. These are the two things that take create a monster carbon footprint.

1. Stop eating meat. This includes chickens. This includes fish. Just stop. You won’t starve. You will simply have to adjust. I can already hear the outcry. “But I only eat free-range!” Vegetables also take up a lot of room!” I’m not even going to argue this one. Just look it up.
2. The biggest difference you can make – stop procreating. Stop putting more people on our already overcrowded planet. If you must, have one. Yeah – I know the argument – but people in developing countries keep having kids; why should I stop? Because your kid consumes 10 times the amount of “stuff” that a kid in India does. And even if they consumed the same amount, just stop. It’s more powerful than stopping plastic. No one wants to talk about not having kids. All I see are FB posts about cute babies and congrats on being pregnant and – here’s a reward for having a baby – child subsidies from the government, and tax deductions.

There are too many people on the earth.

As Simon so eloquently put it – we are all Easter Islanders – chopping down the very last tree, knowing that doing it is going to kill us. And we are doing it anyway.