Sustainable September
In January 2020, a few months after giving birth, I wrote down ‘live more sustainably’ as part of my annual intention setting. All was going relatively well until the pandemic hit a few months later. Confined to my home with a baby and work, I began several home improvement and other projects that led to more consumption. Living sustainably wasn’t as much of a priority anymore, as other more pressing concerns took over my life.
The recently published IPCC 2021 report was the wake up call I needed. Having worked closely with communities who have been most impacted by climate change, I guess the report’s findings shouldn’t have come as a surprise. But they did. I had grossly underestimated the scale of the climate crisis.
Here are some of the main findings from the report:
It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land. Widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere have occurred.
The scale of recent changes across the climate system as a whole and the present state of many aspects of the climate system are unprecedented over many centuries to many thousands of years.
Human-induced climate change is already affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe. Evidence of observed changes in extremes such as heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts, and tropical cyclones, and, in particular, their attribution to human influence, has strengthened since the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5).
Global surface temperature will continue to increase until at least the mid-century under all emissions scenarios considered. Global warming of 1.5°C and 2°C will be exceeded during the 21st century unless deep reductions in carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions occur in the coming decades.
Many changes due to past and future greenhouse gas emissions are irreversible for centuries to millennia, especially changes in the ocean, ice sheets and global sea level.
The report’s publication coincided with a family vacation to the Kenyan coast. Waking up each morning to a new batch of plastic deposited on the shore was anxiety inducing. I was so angry with myself for carrying disposable diapers to this fragile ecosystem while using cloth diapers in Nairobi.
I decided that it was time to make some changes to our home and lifestyle that should have been made a long time ago.
Me with all of my trash in September
Here’s what we did over the past month as part of what I called ‘Sustainable September’:
Buy less: Apart from groceries and household essentials, I bought one skincare product for myself and one language learning aid for my daughter this month.
Shop local: We got our vegetables directly from farmers at Mlango Farm and Kilimani Organic Farmers Market, reducing a ton of plastic waste.
Refuse: Straws, clingwrap, paper bags, cloth bags, receipts- just some of the things I said no to this month.
Swap: We made some changes to the products that we use. You can find more details about this here, here, and here.
Compost: I began composting this month and it has been so therapeutic especially in containing climate anxiety. You can read more about it here.
Segregate: In addition to a bin for food waste, I assigned separate bins for plastic, paper, metal, and glass. I kept collecting the waste that we generated for the whole month to take stock of where we are generating the most waste. Surprise, surprise- it’s plastic. Specifically, plastic from foodstuff like lentils, rice, cereal, milk etc. There was also quite a lot of paper and cardboard waste that I didn’t expect. We kept an additional small bin for mixed waste that cannot be segregated. This one was taken down to the building dustbin once a week, and will probably end up in the landfill. After segregating the rest, we deposited them at the Taka Taka bins at the Total petrol station in Kileleshwa (there are many across the city).
Learn: This month, I’ve been committed to learning more about how to reduce our impact on the environment and live more sustainably, drawing inspiration from so many including Nyachomba from Kenyan Expat Mama and Aparna from Global Mindful Journey (you can check out our Instagram lives here and here). I especially loved this article by Eloise Rickman on talking to children about climate change.
It’s definitely been a month filled with learning and growth and I was excited to take you along with me on it! I hope to continue these small steps into the next month and beyond, focusing especially on what is coming into my home and what is going out. Next year, I plan to attempt to grow some food in small pots in our balcony. Fingers crossed!
