Stanky Feet, Herstory of Carbon Footprints

"Stanky, the methane (which incidentally is 86 times more lethal than CO2) farting dog, and her hiker human Dawn reached the summit of the Continental Divide in the Colorado Rockies. Dawn was a strong, clear-eyed, observant walker through the woods and knew this forest well. She had grown up climbing these trees, scooping up cones cached by squirrels for the winter, and listened for hours to the trickle of streams while the glint of dusk played watery shimmer riffs from the shore. It was mid-day, and the sun refracted across the glacial lake. Stanky caught wind of a critter and took off. Dawn searched for her darned loveable dog, but Spanky was nowhere to be found on the Path to Net Zero. She was prepared like any good Gold Girl Scout would be. Her day pack contained everything she would need to hunker in for the night until - and if - Stanky found her way back to Dawn..." 

Climate skills interruption...Let's calculate our carbon footprint to see what surprises we may find and then we'll return to cowriting herstory of Stanky Feet. The 14 participants of Women in Sustainability clicked their JOIN BREAKOUT ROOM links and then this link to discover how lightly they were currently living in Earth's continuously changing interdependent systems. 

We welcome Samantha from Boulder, CO! Meghan says, "Hello, here from beautiful Colorado Springs, CO I give a casual land acknowledgment in the chat since this is our very gathering of these girls with my signature second letter often capitalized as my fingers move faster than popping off the shift key. "Hi there, ZOoming in from Homer, Alaska, on the KEnai PEninsula, home of the KEnaitzi tribe, elders past, present future! We say his to Arika (Ah-REE-ka), "Hi All! I'm located in Boulder, CO. Was just reading about the issue of compost contamination here in the Front Range. Samantha responds,  "I had a miserable experience at Western Disposals dropoff compost yesterday!!! Full on drink boxes in the bin." Marcelina "Hey! I recently moved here to the Denver area from WI, my first time joining one of your events. I am excited to be here (: Karen replies, " I'm off camera to make my dinner, here in Brighton, England. Nice to meet you all! Julie pipes in: "Hey everyone - Julie here with SunShare Community Solar!"

The host and organizer of Women in Sustainability, Becky Migas, runs through logistics and values, "Closed Captions are enabled for today’s webinar. To turn it on or off, click the “More” button and either View or Hide Subtitles. You can also click “View Transcript” if you prefer. Here's the link for the Footprint calculator: https://www.footprintcalculator.org/home/en I let everyone know who might appear in the zoom room while we are in breakouts that we are calculating our carbon footprint now.

I encourage each to post in the chat their results. THis is not a test. This is a no blame, no shame game. Rachel posts her carbon footprint numbers: 15 May, 2.7 Earths Arika (Ah-REE-ka) warns, "I do have to leave in 5 min, unfortunately!" Angela gives us her Overshoot Day (the day when we begin using up more of Earth than can be replenished) 17 May Arika (Ah-REE-ka) writes in the chat, 5 May, while Bethany Koch (she/her) calendars 31 March, 4 Earths :( Becky signals to Arika, No worries - we'll send out the recording later this week too! 👍🏼 Marcelina chats 29 Apr.; 3 Earths Julie shows 14 Jul  + 1.9 Earths and Karen scribes 6 Sept. Becky and I were the only ones who knew what our carbon footprint numbers were at the start of our hour of Herstory of Carbon Footprints

We play a This or That game to help determine the direction of how Herstory could go as we learn new values and skills together. The first choice is wild or paved. There are benefits to both and we cover some of them such as leavinging in tact natural systems that have evolved over billions of year to optimize life versus paved cities and roads designed for human habitability and mobility. Becky, opines wild!   Megan agrees, wild. Rachel chooses Wild Angela, also wild Marcelina, another wild Julie, joins the wild bunch Karen disrupts the pattern and goes for Paved. For human shelter Samantha finds herself nudging toward wild. Arika, asks "We really need to define what wild actually means in reality.

Next set of options: Green or Regreen? Karen says "Regreen. To extend the green Marcelina wants to "regreen, nature always wins." Megan and Bethany also choose "regreen to restore the ecosystems that have been disturbed or destroyed before now."

Xplorations or Xplanations? Karen selects "Exploration. For self-discovery and self reasons for preserving the good. Megan also taps exploration"

We love to Local or Global with ramifications on our distribution systems, where things are made, the quality that they are made with, the labor and how it is valued, the cost of materials and getting them to their final consumption. Angela likes Local--fresher, more seasonal foods. Megan loves local, too.  Karen Global shift, securing equity through balanced transition to plant-based foods. Bethany supports global: we can't grow coffee, cocoa, mangoes, avocados or many other of my favorite products in Colorado. Global farmers can also farm sustainably and deserve respect and fair prices. Rachel is a Local gal. Becky chimes in, "I think with food, it shouldn't be one or the other - we need both to exist." Bethany joins in "Yes, Becky!"

Next This or That: Action versus Inaction. We are drawing contrasts so it becomes clearer that our choices fall on a spectrum. There are no perfect choices. Each carries a carbon cost. Each better choice may have an unintended consequence somewhere else in another sector. So the more we know the better can be our outcomes of right-sizing our currently rather large carbon footprints. We all want to be modeling our right-sized carbon footprints. Karen goes for "Action. Through saving money whilst saving the planet."

Shall we fly high or stay low? Bethany: "Fly high on fully-electric aircraft that get charged with renewable power" Megan aligns with fly high. Karen suggests, "Go slow. Walk in the '10 minute access' area."

Together or solo? Megan tries together Becky carries us forward with "community, of course! :)" Bethany gives us "Together: regeneration and protecting the climate require collaboration." Karen agrees Together is far more fun. For raising individual power and influencing those in Power." We've transitioned to powerful or powerless now. Bethany "We are POWERFUL! We can make changes, speak up, install renewable energy, influence governments, etc." Karen pleads "Powerful - when small, repeat choices are added together the system changes." (Precisely what TRUST is up to good for you, Karen!  Becky predicts "powerful, within your capacity! We have to conserve our energy too! and Loves that Karen!"

Karen expertly confirms as I have just gone through a temperature scenario of where we are headed and where we are now and what we need to do to stabilize our atmosphere. We are 1.2 C already!!" Becky shares the link to TEDxVail COUNTDOWN focused completely on innovative climate solutions: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tedxvail-countdown-tickets-407074018347 for Sunday, September 25 from noon - 3pm MT I invite you to Save the Dates for LIVING BRIGHTLY6: a 3-day climate activation JAnuary 5-7 if you want to get more quick, easy, fun solutions for climate.

Give or Take? Bethany, "giving, of course!" Peaceful or Eventful? Karen "Eventful - nonviolent mass demonstrations." Bethany is also "eventful - making things happen." Megan another eventful  SAVE OR WASTE? Karen says, "I save many things.... Could be much more. Taking positive action helps dispel my feelings of hopelessness and powerlessness into gratitude and hope." Becky shares a team-building skill activation. https://www.greenteamacademy.org/ then shares, "I started doing daily emotion check-ins - morning and evening. https://themighty.com/topic/mental-health/i-feel-nothing-wheel-of-emotions We will share this presentation so you have that info too." Julie reminds me, "Kat - we spoke briefly on FB about sharing the SunShare opportunity to our local Denver peeps during this meeting. Are you still open to that?" I agree but Becky announces we are at the time. There is always so much more to learn! Love that answer, Bethany! Megan pronounces, "Thanks all! Really inspiring. Have to hop to another call. Appreciate everything you are doing." Becky greets us,  "great to see you!" Karen  recommends Treesisters is one project supported by my yoga groups, so I trust their choice."  Personally, I would offset with a locally based charity. Not trust the airline options!" I suggest 3 options. 1. Fly direct. Most emissions are from taking off. 2. Offset what you can Terra Pass, local offsets, WILD Foundation for Yawanawa Amazing protecting 500,000 hectares from Xtraction. 3. Choose an airline with a strong sustainability program-operations, fuel, food, labor relations, and governance. 

Stay tuned to Herstory of Stanky Feet. You'll find it at the end of today's presentation here. Enjoy! Thank you for showing up, speaking up and reading. Herstory is cocreated by the women who show up, speak up, and stand up.