Climate Shadow

February 2023

What do toilet paper, vegetarian suppers, and calling your rep have in common?

They’re all examples of climate shadows.

Let me explain.

Some background:

My friend A makes weekly vegetarian meals for her non-vegetarian family and then posts food pictures, recipes, and her family’s honest reactions on Facebook. It’s a lot of fun to read, and she’s helping other climate concerned families discover how kid-friendly and approachable vegetarian meals can be.
My friend D records herself calling her representatives and posts the calls on social media. Once she called holding her newborn and I realized I hadn’t called my reps in a long time. What was my excuse again? I called that very afternoon.
When I found out that Charmin clear cuts old growth forests to make toilet paper, I was shocked. No one wants to flush one hundred year old trees down the toilet, and so I began telling everyone I knew about Charmin, and I post regularly on social media about more sustainable brands. I’ve become a bit of a toilet paper influencer, an accomplishment I couldn’t have imagined as a high schooler.

A climate shadow is the influence you have beyond your own actions. When you talk about your climate choices, you can normalize them. I remember my mom asking if I would jump off a cliff if everyone else did. Here’s my update: Would you continue to buy liquid laundry detergent in plastic bottles if everyone else was buying powder detergent in cardboard boxes or laundry sheets in cardboard envelopes?

Personal Action: Become an influencer

You already make choices to be kinder to the planet. Now tell someone (or many someones) about what you’re doing and why. You can become a bike-to-work influencer or a heat pump influencer or an electric stove influencer or a mend your clothes influencer or a No-Amazon influencer.

Why it Matters: Our climate shadows can amplify the good we’re already doing. People worry about climate change and feel helpless in the face of such a large and complex problem. Your response can provide guidance.

Public Action: Get friends to help you change the system

Changing systems is harder than changing your brand of toilet paper or signing a petition. Changing systems includes:

Voting
Getting out the vote
Calling representatives (shout out to everyone who has called their city council rep)
Learning about legislation and supporting it through phone calls and letters
Showing up at city council meetings and testifying
Climate striking
Calling your bank and asking them to divest from oil and gas projects

Why It Matters: In the United States, seventy percent of citizens are worried about climate change, but you wouldn’t know that from how modest we legislate solutions. In most countries, environmentalists have the numbers for dramatic systems change. We have to let our reps know that we are climate voters and they must legislate accordingly! The next time you do something that changes the system, invite a friend to participate. You might be turning a climate concerned citizen into a systems change warrior.

If you’re not already a subscriber to Cool It: Simple Steps to Save the Planet, you can sign up for free.

Tiny Love Story

I grew up hearing about my parents’ cute meet, and a couple weeks ago, I wrote it down. I love reading Tiny Love Stories in The New York Times and I was thrilled to have mine included in the Feb 7 batch.

You can read all the stories here.

Upcoming Writing Workshop

Join me on Saturday, February 25, from 2:00 to 4:00 P.M. EST for “Writing Your Way Home,” an online workshop in which participants will think about home through multiple media—music, sound, image, and research—and will incorporate these elements into an essay concept. The workshop will include in-class writes, examples, discussion, and submission ideas. Cost: $75

About Sari Fordham: I grew up in Uganda in the house on the hill famous for the jungle that surrounded it. Mambas dropped out of the oven and driver ants streamed through the windows. When the chickens squawked at night, my father didn’t know whether they were being attacked by a mongoose or genet.

As an adult, I returned to the house and the jungle was gone. In one generation, a tiny habitat had vanished. After my mother died, I began writing about my childhood in the memoir Wait for God to Notice. Now that I’m a mother, I understand her concerns about making a home in a dangerous place. I feel that urgency, too. But I want to ensure that my daughter will have more access to wild spaces, that all children will.

In Riverside, California, my husband Bryan and I worked to create a small habitat in our yard, one that supported lizards and bees, hummingbirds and house finches, and the occasional hawk, owl, and skunk. In the summer of 2022, we moved to upstate New York for my new job, and into a new house and climate. Right now, we see a lot of birds and squirrels, but also the occasional salamander. When spring comes, we’ll start planting native trees and bushes. I’m particularly excited about adding a witch hazel shrub. Mostly, I’m excited to see how our yard can support small creatures, including my daughter.