The face of the earth changes

 A video that's very short. Just Pangea to today...continental drift.

In my own life, Thursday this week was pretty full. First getting my taxes done with AARP which offers a free service for us elders. Then going to the clay studio for the first time and getting my hands in clay again...since before COVID's pandemic hit. I did it. Clay under fingernails. Wore a mask so no dust got in my lungs. And parked in the handicap slot just 2 from the front door.

However, there was apparently an eager young police officer from Black Mountain giving tickets out for minimal infractions. One woman had parked over the brick walkway...which is still part of the parking lot. And I got a ticket too. At first I thought it was because the disabled plaque was lying on the dashboard rather than hanging from the rearview mirror. But no, it was more obscure. My plaque says it expired in Aug 2022. However, I turned 80 before the end of that August, and I remember the letter for the renewal saying, if you turn 80 before your plaque expires, you no longer will need to renew it. Or something like that. I didn't keep the letter.

And that was what my parking ticket says...that it expired Aug 22. The ticket also clearly shows my age as 81. So in May I will go to court and plea that letter was my "get out of jail free" card. Of course tomorrow I'll call the DMV and see if I can find someone to send me that in writing again. It's worth 219 dollars or so!

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And a few notes from Katharine Hayhoe's newsletter last week. She went to another big conference, the  World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. She said she was inspired by:

...all the people I met at WEF who were there to advocate on behalf of those living in poverty, war, disease, or scarcity. As Jane Goodall said during one of her talks, “If you don’t have hope, you give up, you become apathetic, and you do nothing.” From obstetrician Jemilah Mahmood who founded the Malaysian Medical Relief Society and leads a center for planetary health, to entrepreneur Alloysius Attah who provides small shareholders in Africa with access to cutting-edge information and training that helps them grow more food, most people I met were far from apathetic. Rather, they are fighting tirelessly for the changes we need to ensure a better future for everyone.

IKEA CEO Jesper Brodin considers sustainability and nature as essential to his business model. “I start with the rationale, ‘How could it be possible to build a future business model on depletion of [natural] resources?’ It’s simply the absolute worst idea,” he said during our WEF panel. “That doesn’t mean that the transition and transformation is easy. But I do believe that all of us need to go through a massive transformation.”

Since 2016, IKEA has grown by 30.9 percent while cutting their absolute carbon emissions, by 24.3 percent; and one of the most encouraging panels I co-hosted with Jesper was the launch of Action Speaks, a platform to share and scale business climate action world-wide. 

 What can you do?

Climate Fresk is dedicated to expanding access to climate education through three-hour workshops they host all over the world. It’s a fun, interactive experience that includes flash cards and other learning opportunities that leave you equipped and ready to have your own conversation on how every decision is a climate decision.  

https://climatefresk.org/world/registration-workshop/