How to Think of Climate Change on a Small Scale
When I used to live near the waterfront in Toronto’s east end, I would wake before dawn and go sit at the end of a breakwater to catch the sunrise. I would face the lake, close my eyes, and notice a subtle warmth on my left cheek as the sun would rise to the east. I did this fairly consistently for nearly a year before moving downtown last summer to be closer to my office.
I’m about to head to British Columbia and Washington State to connect with politicians about my project to get climate change labels on gas pumps and have already received a few inquiries about jurisdictional matters. While I’ve written a 40-page legal report that canvasses these issues (and a very prominent environmental lawyer explored the same in an article for Municipal World), I can’t help but wonder if we’re focusing on the wrong part of the issue.
My morning practice shifted my perspective in a way that led to a different focus.
During my mornings at the breakwater, I noticed how the sun would come up over a different point on the horizon throughout the year. I also grew more of an awareness that the sun wasn’t rising in the east but that the Earth was rotating eastwards to reveal the sun. It’s one thing to read about this in school and understand it intellectually, but it’s something entirely different to appreciate it in this manner. As I sat there in what seemed like stillness, I began to get curious about the speed at which our Earth moves.
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