Addressing Climate Change Skepticism in Online Communities

1
00:00:00,108 --> 00:00:03,749
Last episode, I talked about how my community was exposed to

2
00:00:03,769 --> 00:00:07,550
its vulnerabilities to lots of rain, which is basically a climate change consequence.

3
00:00:07,850 --> 00:00:11,931
We're seeing more humidity, higher temperatures, more

4
00:00:11,971 --> 00:00:15,572
cloud cover, crazy rain, squalls, major

5
00:00:15,592 --> 00:00:18,833
storms and major flooding. And I talked about how we're vulnerable and

6
00:00:18,873 --> 00:00:22,254
how our city and our politicians and our engineers and our planners, we

7
00:00:22,294 --> 00:00:25,694
need to start changing the way we're designing our cities to

8
00:00:26,315 --> 00:00:29,586
accommodate for that, adapt to that. Now today I want to talk a little bit,

9
00:00:29,606 --> 00:00:33,590
and I alluded to it a little bit in the last episode, but I want to talk about some of the responses from

10
00:00:33,970 --> 00:00:37,333
my community in terms of Facebook and social media posts,

11
00:00:37,433 --> 00:00:40,956
which is always interesting, you know, in terms of what happens. You

12
00:00:40,976 --> 00:00:44,479
get a lot of interesting comments from extreme

13
00:00:45,260 --> 00:00:48,443
political comments to sort of just great, like,

14
00:00:49,183 --> 00:00:52,226
this sucks, I'm in a really bad situation, can somebody help me out kind of comments. So

15
00:00:52,246 --> 00:00:55,449
we're going to cover a lot of those, but we're going to cover how I

16
00:00:55,509 --> 00:00:58,873
started to respond to some of those and why I started to respond to some of those, even though

17
00:00:58,953 --> 00:01:02,236
I knew there was going to be some blowback. So we're going to talk about that on today's

18
00:01:02,256 --> 00:01:10,213
episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's start the show. Hey,

19
00:01:10,233 --> 00:01:13,716
everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm

20
00:01:13,736 --> 00:01:16,939
your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is a podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you

21
00:01:16,979 --> 00:01:20,543
can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean

22
00:01:20,823 --> 00:01:23,926
by taking action. It's been a hard couple of

23
00:01:23,966 --> 00:01:27,129
weeks, I'm not going to lie. I talked a lot about it in the last episode in terms of

24
00:01:27,169 --> 00:01:30,412
the flooding that's been going on, watching people in my city and

25
00:01:30,512 --> 00:01:33,655
friends go through some tough times with their homes, with

26
00:01:33,695 --> 00:01:37,098
their properties, with their apartments, with their cars being

27
00:01:37,198 --> 00:01:40,461
flooded out and all this kind of stuff it's it's difficult it costs a

28
00:01:40,501 --> 00:01:43,964
lot of money i'm sure it's going to cost the city a lot of money uh in

29
00:01:44,004 --> 00:01:47,307
the region in the province and you know it sucks it

30
00:01:47,327 --> 00:01:50,570
definitely sucks and when you have people who are going through

31
00:01:50,630 --> 00:01:54,533
some things you start to get opinions on social media uh

32
00:01:54,613 --> 00:01:58,377
which is always interesting uh and you start to see how

33
00:01:58,457 --> 00:02:02,500
people are reacting to the

34
00:02:02,740 --> 00:02:06,022
travesty, the trauma that people have gone through. So from people

35
00:02:06,042 --> 00:02:09,304
who are directly affected and have to evacuate their homes or

36
00:02:09,344 --> 00:02:12,646
had to, they found out their insurance isn't covering the

37
00:02:12,686 --> 00:02:16,648
damages from these storms, that's devastating. And

38
00:02:16,888 --> 00:02:20,350
that's a lot of money that they have to put into it, probably go into debt

39
00:02:20,390 --> 00:02:23,532
or get a loan from the bank. Who knows if they'll be able to get it. There's a

40
00:02:23,552 --> 00:02:26,994
lot of stress that goes into that as a family, losing belongings, losing

41
00:02:27,054 --> 00:02:31,037
photographs, things like that. It's stressful. It's

42
00:02:31,137 --> 00:02:34,720
something that you have problems with

43
00:02:35,120 --> 00:02:38,363
years down the road. And when

44
00:02:38,403 --> 00:02:41,586
I talk about these types of traumas, it's not as

45
00:02:41,646 --> 00:02:45,069
bad as losing lives, mudslides and things like that, that other places

46
00:02:45,109 --> 00:02:48,513
around the world go through. You know, this is

47
00:02:48,533 --> 00:02:51,735
a nice community where, you know,

48
00:02:51,795 --> 00:02:55,458
it costs a lot to live in this community, we pay a lot of taxes, we

49
00:02:55,538 --> 00:02:58,661
expect certain things back from the government and protection in

50
00:02:59,041 --> 00:03:02,343
designing the city. And we may not always agree with how

51
00:03:02,444 --> 00:03:05,686
certain cities or how certain politicians go about, you

52
00:03:05,726 --> 00:03:09,009
know, designing or working on the communities, but when it comes down to

53
00:03:09,029 --> 00:03:12,691
a thing like this where People can be driven from their homes or,

54
00:03:12,711 --> 00:03:17,174
you know, lose possessions that cost a lot of money that they need. That

55
00:03:17,954 --> 00:03:21,016
is concerning, you know, for us. And so things need to

56
00:03:21,076 --> 00:03:24,458
change. And to get change and to see change, you hear people speaking out,

57
00:03:24,518 --> 00:03:27,660
which I fully for, you know, I'm not against the, you

58
00:03:27,700 --> 00:03:31,803
know, what that people are allowed to speak out. Sometimes

59
00:03:31,843 --> 00:03:35,085
I am concerned about the messages that come

60
00:03:35,165 --> 00:03:38,467
out and the problems that that go on with those

61
00:03:38,527 --> 00:03:41,788
messaging, with that messaging. And, you know, that's just

62
00:03:41,809 --> 00:03:45,450
sort of like, I'm gonna go over today what I do

63
00:03:45,690 --> 00:03:48,891
in terms of work with the community, like

64
00:03:48,951 --> 00:03:52,292
work with comments on social media. And to do that,

65
00:03:52,992 --> 00:03:56,794
you have to be in the right set of mind. You have to be, you

66
00:03:56,814 --> 00:03:59,935
know, your mental health has to be good because you know you're gonna go through it. If you

67
00:03:59,975 --> 00:04:03,336
start commenting and responding to other people's posts that

68
00:04:03,396 --> 00:04:07,615
you may not agree with, you have to be, you know, Understanding

69
00:04:07,675 --> 00:04:10,816
that they may not like that you responded and you don't know how

70
00:04:10,856 --> 00:04:14,177
where the place that they're coming from or the place They're in and you don't know how aggressive they're

71
00:04:14,197 --> 00:04:17,398
gonna come back and you don't know what that's gonna put you through emotionally So

72
00:04:17,438 --> 00:04:20,999
there's a there's a there's a thing that you have to stay focused. You have to be ready You

73
00:04:21,039 --> 00:04:24,320
have to get a good amount of sleep. You have to be healthy for like mentally to help

74
00:04:24,380 --> 00:04:27,781
to do that and stay focused I use magic mine. I

75
00:04:27,821 --> 00:04:31,281
use magic mine every day. It's like a little elixir. It has a

76
00:04:31,401 --> 00:04:34,462
lot of great like a lot of

77
00:04:34,502 --> 00:04:38,024
great things in it. It's got some like different types of mushrooms. It's

78
00:04:38,064 --> 00:04:41,185
got, you know, it's got this caffeine sort of,

79
00:04:41,445 --> 00:04:45,807
I like to call like balanced type of release.

80
00:04:46,187 --> 00:04:49,368
So, you know, when you like, I'm not a coffee drinker, so I'll have a pop that has

81
00:04:49,388 --> 00:04:53,390
a lot of caffeine in it. I'm not gonna name the pop, I don't wanna give it a bad name necessarily. but

82
00:04:53,530 --> 00:04:56,653
I rely sometimes on that pop to get up,

83
00:04:56,773 --> 00:05:00,175
you know, in the headspace, but, and it gives me that kick of caffeine to

84
00:05:00,215 --> 00:05:03,417
stay focused and to stay on my tasks and everything like that. And then all

85
00:05:03,458 --> 00:05:06,960
of a sudden I'm like, Oh, what do I do now? Like

86
00:05:07,200 --> 00:05:10,703
I'm about to crash because that caffeine fix is released all

87
00:05:10,743 --> 00:05:13,905
at once. You know, my, my, uh, my

88
00:05:13,945 --> 00:05:17,107
synapses are like, okay, we're gonna ignore how tired you are and

89
00:05:17,127 --> 00:05:20,710
we're just gonna let you be free and you feel like you've got this boost and

90
00:05:20,730 --> 00:05:23,832
then it just goes away like right away and you're just sitting here

91
00:05:23,852 --> 00:05:27,194
and you're like man this sucks like

92
00:05:27,294 --> 00:05:30,637
this is no no good in any kind

93
00:05:30,677 --> 00:05:34,399
of way of of what is is happening

94
00:05:34,519 --> 00:05:37,899
with you know What's happening? Like, I

95
00:05:37,959 --> 00:05:41,321
don't want to see this. Like, I don't want to have this kind of feeling.

96
00:05:41,361 --> 00:05:44,563
I feel like I'm less focused. And so I need to

97
00:05:44,623 --> 00:05:47,885
make sure that I have, you know, MagicMind to stay

98
00:05:47,925 --> 00:05:51,207
focused. Because what MagicMind does, it actually releases the caffeine nice

99
00:05:51,247 --> 00:05:54,510
and slow. So, you're going to feel it over a longer period of time

100
00:05:54,570 --> 00:05:57,772
and you're not going to crash after you have it. So,

101
00:05:57,792 --> 00:06:01,235
to be honest, I have it usually around midday. I take this little shot and

102
00:06:01,275 --> 00:06:05,118
it has got some ginger in it. It's got all these different types of ingredients that really kind

103
00:06:05,138 --> 00:06:08,240
of make me feel good about myself. I don't know about you guys, but

104
00:06:08,260 --> 00:06:11,422
when I put bad things in my body, like sweets or things like that, which I

105
00:06:11,482 --> 00:06:15,121
love. I feel terrible after. I don't know if it's the guilt feeling or

106
00:06:15,161 --> 00:06:18,364
if it's just like the actual like content. But when I put

107
00:06:18,404 --> 00:06:21,568
this, like when I shoot this down, it's great. Like I shoot it down

108
00:06:21,608 --> 00:06:24,791
like a shot. It's wonderful. And I want you to have that same feeling. So

109
00:06:24,811 --> 00:06:28,255
if you're commenting on comments where, you know, people are denying climate

110
00:06:28,275 --> 00:06:31,378
change and they're going really political and all that kind of stuff, I want you to

111
00:06:31,438 --> 00:06:34,562
have this type of elixir to be able to

112
00:06:34,742 --> 00:06:37,944
use. And if you want, you can get access to it. I talked to

113
00:06:37,984 --> 00:06:41,126
Magic Mind, said, hey, you know, my listeners may need this as well. Can

114
00:06:41,166 --> 00:06:45,148
I get a deal? They're like, yeah, absolutely. Your first subscription, you

115
00:06:45,548 --> 00:06:49,130
get 48% off your first subscription or 20% off a one-time purchase

116
00:06:49,170 --> 00:06:52,512
with the code TheOceanBlue20. When

117
00:06:52,532 --> 00:06:56,154
you put that in, theoceanblue20, all one word, at

118
00:06:56,194 --> 00:07:00,015
checkout, the website is magicmind.com. Use

119
00:07:00,035 --> 00:07:04,277
the link magicmind.com forward slash theoceanblue and

120
00:07:04,317 --> 00:07:09,340
put in theoceanblue20 to get 20% off the one-time

121
00:07:09,380 --> 00:07:12,481
purchase and 40% off your first subscription. Highly recommend it.

122
00:07:12,541 --> 00:07:16,003
It's great for you. It'll help you focus and get you ready for

123
00:07:16,063 --> 00:07:19,804
these comments that I'm about to talk about today. So I'm

124
00:07:19,844 --> 00:07:23,050
a part of a number of different groups. on Facebook. And

125
00:07:23,130 --> 00:07:26,292
I know, yeah, Facebook, like Andrew, you're old. Yes, I am old.

126
00:07:26,392 --> 00:07:29,634
I'm part of Facebook. I'm on Instagram. I'm on TikTok. I'm with it.

127
00:07:29,814 --> 00:07:33,057
I'm with it, guys. I'm hip to the things. I know that sounds

128
00:07:33,097 --> 00:07:36,659
awful. It drives my kids crazy when I say that. But I'm

129
00:07:36,699 --> 00:07:39,801
in this Facebook group, which is, I love this group. It's called the

130
00:07:39,841 --> 00:07:43,224
Facebook Burlington Dads Group. I love this group. I'm also part of the Oakville group.

131
00:07:43,584 --> 00:07:46,946
That's a dad's group as well. A lot of people, you know, that when

132
00:07:46,966 --> 00:07:50,087
I first joined, it was like, hey, you know, we're all dads here. We're trying to

133
00:07:50,127 --> 00:07:53,388
do our best. We might complain sometimes, but we might do our, you know,

134
00:07:53,728 --> 00:07:57,369
we're looking at sharing resources for helping our kids, helping

135
00:07:57,409 --> 00:08:00,510
each other, mental health things. And it's really great to be a

136
00:08:00,550 --> 00:08:04,091
part of a group like that, where everybody's kind of like on the same track mind,

137
00:08:04,131 --> 00:08:07,172
you know, dads from all over the city, you know, trying to figure out what to

138
00:08:07,232 --> 00:08:10,333
do with their kids or, you know, different like sports, or do you have, you

139
00:08:10,353 --> 00:08:13,754
know, experience in rep sports and this and that, it's really great to see.

140
00:08:14,754 --> 00:08:18,055
Over the last few, I'd say over the last year, maybe the last couple years, maybe

141
00:08:18,075 --> 00:08:21,236
since COVID, we've seen a little bit of a change in the types of posts that

142
00:08:21,256 --> 00:08:24,477
we see. And I have a feeling it's due to a lot of frustration, but

143
00:08:24,657 --> 00:08:27,859
there used to be no political posts allowed in this group. If you

144
00:08:27,879 --> 00:08:31,202
started talking about politics, it would get axed, and it's like a reminder, hey

145
00:08:31,222 --> 00:08:34,546
guys, let's keep politics out of this group, let's just share resources,

146
00:08:34,566 --> 00:08:38,009
let's just have some fun. There's some fun, hey, where's

147
00:08:38,029 --> 00:08:41,533
a good beer place to go? Where's a good restaurant to go? Anybody got ideas? Just local

148
00:08:41,553 --> 00:08:44,776
stuff like that. I love it. It was really great. There's some jokes going by, some

149
00:08:44,816 --> 00:08:48,099
memes going by, and it was a lot of fun. However, like I said,

150
00:08:48,159 --> 00:08:51,440
since COVID, there's been some more political posts and, you know, people who are not

151
00:08:51,660 --> 00:08:55,703
particularly happy with different governments, local, provincial,

152
00:08:55,963 --> 00:08:59,465
and Canadian, like, federal governments. And that's fine, right? Everybody

153
00:08:59,505 --> 00:09:02,766
has, like, if they're starting to let it out, you know, let all the things fly, but you get

154
00:09:02,826 --> 00:09:06,048
responses of people who may disagree with you or may not disagree with you,

155
00:09:06,348 --> 00:09:10,952
but you get responses. And I've always had this policy

156
00:09:11,232 --> 00:09:14,616
for myself that I will only post if I think it's of value to

157
00:09:14,756 --> 00:09:17,999
anybody. I'm not necessarily posting if I disagree with

158
00:09:18,039 --> 00:09:21,442
something. I'm not necessarily posting to try and change that person's mind.

159
00:09:21,863 --> 00:09:25,026
That's not up to me. That's not my job. My job is to kind

160
00:09:25,046 --> 00:09:28,409
of just inform. So when I see a post that's really related towards something

161
00:09:28,429 --> 00:09:32,112
that I know more about, especially if I disagree with it, Start

162
00:09:32,172 --> 00:09:35,413
to want to react to it and and I have to like look at

163
00:09:35,533 --> 00:09:39,014
how I react to it I got to take the emotions out,

164
00:09:39,634 --> 00:09:43,136
you know, if people are calling each other names and stuff like that Maybe I'm not going to

165
00:09:43,596 --> 00:09:47,537
post but if a post continues to come up So as an example this

166
00:09:47,597 --> 00:09:50,798
past week, I saw a lot of posts with the flooding I saw

167
00:09:50,838 --> 00:09:54,219
a lot of posts with the damages and you started to see

168
00:09:54,699 --> 00:09:58,121
posts about climate change denial and and making fun

169
00:09:58,161 --> 00:10:01,303
of climate change, like, oh, they're going to call this climate change problems, and they're

170
00:10:01,323 --> 00:10:04,847
going to call it this, and they're going to call it that. And Trudeau,

171
00:10:05,007 --> 00:10:08,149
as they like to call our prime minister, Trudeau, is going to

172
00:10:08,190 --> 00:10:11,613
do something about it. He's going to tax us more, and then the carbon tax

173
00:10:11,653 --> 00:10:15,416
comes up. Nobody wants to pay tax, and especially the carbon tax. And everybody's talking

174
00:10:15,476 --> 00:10:18,779
about these different things. And then you sit there, and you're like, huh.

175
00:10:19,837 --> 00:10:23,018
This seems to be a narrative that keeps coming up. And a

176
00:10:23,058 --> 00:10:26,339
lot of people don't want to comment on those

177
00:10:26,399 --> 00:10:29,461
posts and on those comments, because they don't want to

178
00:10:29,501 --> 00:10:32,742
get into it with the person, knowing that they're probably not going to change their mind. And I get

179
00:10:32,782 --> 00:10:36,383
that. Like I said, I don't want to change anybody's mind. But that seems

180
00:10:36,443 --> 00:10:40,024
to be the narrative. As more and more people talk about it, more

181
00:10:40,044 --> 00:10:43,386
and more people come out the world like, yeah, that sucks. Like, why

182
00:10:43,406 --> 00:10:46,707
do we have to pay tax? And it's not showing like, you know, it's the common

183
00:10:46,747 --> 00:10:50,108
article, the common sort of comment about, The carbon

184
00:10:50,128 --> 00:10:53,651
tax here in Canada is like, well, we're paying our carbon tax. We've been paying it for four years,

185
00:10:53,771 --> 00:10:57,634
and we're still seeing wildfires. We're still seeing this damage. Shouldn't it stop? Obviously,

186
00:10:57,734 --> 00:11:01,417
that's not how it works. But that is a common comment that

187
00:11:01,777 --> 00:11:04,920
politicians have made, business leaders have

188
00:11:04,940 --> 00:11:08,102
made, and local people have made. Just

189
00:11:08,142 --> 00:11:11,425
sort of like your everyday people who live in a city. And they've made that.

190
00:11:11,645 --> 00:11:14,967
And I get it. It's frustrating. Like I said, nobody wants to pay a

191
00:11:15,007 --> 00:11:18,775
tax. I don't want to pay a tax, especially a carbon tax. It's

192
00:11:18,835 --> 00:11:22,396
good for, it's supposed to help. It's one of the solutions, one

193
00:11:22,416 --> 00:11:25,857
of the many solutions that we're putting into place and it's supposed to help. It's really supposed to

194
00:11:25,897 --> 00:11:30,298
help disincentivize you from doing things like driving

195
00:11:30,338 --> 00:11:33,519
a huge truck when you don't necessarily have to. So you pay more in gas and

196
00:11:33,539 --> 00:11:37,199
you pay the carbon tax on that gas. So I went out, this is

197
00:11:37,259 --> 00:11:40,560
not to brag, I went out and I got an EV and now I don't have to pay gas but

198
00:11:40,600 --> 00:11:44,161
I pay electricity so now I gotta be careful of my electricity. So there's all these different

199
00:11:44,421 --> 00:11:47,602
ways of incentivizing and disincentivizing and that, the carbon tax is

200
00:11:47,702 --> 00:11:51,034
one. You don't have to agree with me here, although I feel like I'm preaching to

201
00:11:51,074 --> 00:11:54,237
the choir here, but there are people out there who don't

202
00:11:54,257 --> 00:11:57,500
want to pay this tax, who are far against paying this tax, and they think

203
00:11:57,560 --> 00:12:00,703
it's affecting inflation, they think it's affecting our cost of

204
00:12:00,763 --> 00:12:04,006
living, and everything like that, even though it's proven not to.

205
00:12:04,326 --> 00:12:07,506
But, with that said... That narrative continues to come

206
00:12:07,566 --> 00:12:10,668
up and come up and come up, and nobody's responding to it because they know what they're going to have to go

207
00:12:10,708 --> 00:12:14,271
through with social media and commenters. People are

208
00:12:14,431 --> 00:12:18,074
very quick to defend aggressively their stance.

209
00:12:18,514 --> 00:12:21,736
So if I went in, I'm like, hey, you're an idiot. You shouldn't do

210
00:12:21,796 --> 00:12:25,019
this. Climate change is real, and you're

211
00:12:25,039 --> 00:12:28,385
wrong. That's really aggressive. So I kept seeing

212
00:12:28,405 --> 00:12:32,367
that narrative come up where it's like climate change is bad, like being

213
00:12:32,407 --> 00:12:35,989
sarcastic. And sometimes the joke, you never know, it's hard to see tone in

214
00:12:36,709 --> 00:12:39,971
a Facebook post or a Facebook comment. But I started to

215
00:12:40,091 --> 00:12:43,713
feel the need to start to comment. And I'm not commenting to prove anybody wrong.

216
00:12:43,813 --> 00:12:46,974
I'm commenting for the person who's listening or

217
00:12:47,034 --> 00:12:50,316
watching these posts and reading these posts and starting to

218
00:12:50,396 --> 00:12:53,777
say, huh, a lot of people believe in this. maybe there's

219
00:12:53,797 --> 00:12:57,218
something in this. If so many people are saying something, maybe there's something

220
00:12:57,299 --> 00:13:00,740
to it, right? So for instance, as an example, like just kind

221
00:13:00,760 --> 00:13:04,221
of not climate change related, the political race that's going on

222
00:13:04,421 --> 00:13:08,002
in the US right now between President Biden and former President Donald

223
00:13:08,022 --> 00:13:11,344
Trump as the two major candidates, you know, there's a narrative

224
00:13:11,364 --> 00:13:15,045
going around this weekend as I record this that you

225
00:13:15,065 --> 00:13:18,247
know, the President Biden might withdraw from the race. He's getting a lot of

226
00:13:18,287 --> 00:13:21,589
pressure from Democrats to withdraw from the race. And right before the weekend started,

227
00:13:21,629 --> 00:13:25,131
I started to hear rumors that, you know, President Biden

228
00:13:25,171 --> 00:13:28,473
is going to drop out of the race and put

229
00:13:28,513 --> 00:13:32,376
somebody else in. It's his decision, his decision alone, apparently. And

230
00:13:32,716 --> 00:13:35,938
even though he's denied it and he says he's going to stick with the race and

231
00:13:35,958 --> 00:13:39,240
he's going to put a great campaign, he's going to beat Donald, former President Donald Trump.

232
00:13:40,515 --> 00:13:44,198
there seems to be a lot of talk between different news media about

233
00:13:44,619 --> 00:13:47,841
this happening. And as more and more people talk about whether it's going to happen or not,

234
00:13:48,222 --> 00:13:52,045
you start to believe that there's something there. And I feel like the same thing with

235
00:13:52,065 --> 00:13:55,348
the climate change denial and all this stuff, as more and more people read

236
00:13:55,428 --> 00:13:59,611
about the people kind of crapping on the idea, They

237
00:13:59,651 --> 00:14:02,733
tend not to believe it, or they tend to say, hey, there might be something in

238
00:14:02,753 --> 00:14:05,914
this, as so many people are against it, or so many people have something to

239
00:14:05,974 --> 00:14:09,436
say about it. Maybe there's something there, and maybe I should rethink what

240
00:14:09,456 --> 00:14:12,737
everybody else has been telling me, no matter who it is. It could be the actual

241
00:14:12,777 --> 00:14:15,959
person. Biden could come out and be like, no, I am not dropping out of the race. But

242
00:14:15,979 --> 00:14:19,240
then all these media outlets are like, huh, he's saying that, but there's a lot of pressure for

243
00:14:19,280 --> 00:14:22,422
him to do it, and he might do it this weekend. People are like, well,

244
00:14:22,442 --> 00:14:25,884
maybe it will happen this weekend, or they wouldn't be surprised if it did, or maybe they're expecting it

245
00:14:25,924 --> 00:14:29,607
to happen. Whereas, you know, with climate change, it's like, well, enough

246
00:14:29,627 --> 00:14:33,070
people say no, or it's not happening, then eventually,

247
00:14:33,090 --> 00:14:36,294
you know, politicians are like, look, this is the most of my people. This

248
00:14:36,354 --> 00:14:39,677
is most of the people that I represent. So maybe I shouldn't do anything about

249
00:14:39,717 --> 00:14:43,240
climate change. Or maybe people reading this, like, maybe there's something in it. That's

250
00:14:43,280 --> 00:14:46,883
dangerous. That becomes dangerous, and that's when I start to respond. It's

251
00:14:46,903 --> 00:14:50,325
to respond to the people who are reading it, who are kind of on the cusp of the idea,

252
00:14:50,345 --> 00:14:53,827
and they start to see their fellow, you know, in this case, you know, Burlington

253
00:14:53,847 --> 00:14:57,049
dads, start talking about this denial, and how talking about it's a joke, and

254
00:14:57,069 --> 00:15:00,251
how talking about the carbon tax isn't working, even though there might

255
00:15:00,271 --> 00:15:03,596
be stats to show different. This is

256
00:15:03,616 --> 00:15:06,980
a problem. So I start to comment. And I went a little, kind

257
00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:10,544
of a little aggressive. I was like, look, the ignorance in this group about climate change

258
00:15:10,584 --> 00:15:13,707
is really scary. And then somebody responded. And I kind of expected, I

259
00:15:13,727 --> 00:15:16,911
was kind of baiting someone to respond. And we went into

260
00:15:16,931 --> 00:15:20,014
this conversation, which I have to admit, it wasn't as aggressive as I

261
00:15:20,074 --> 00:15:23,491
thought. And I kind of know the person

262
00:15:24,351 --> 00:15:27,473
from the past. Not well, but I kind of know the person. And I

263
00:15:27,513 --> 00:15:31,075
don't know if he remembers me, but we used to work out at the same gym. And so

264
00:15:32,056 --> 00:15:35,278
the rhetoric got a little better. He started to talk about how

265
00:15:35,318 --> 00:15:38,620
climate change, and he mentioned politics and things like that. I

266
00:15:38,660 --> 00:15:42,243
took politics right out. I said, look, you may not agree with the

267
00:15:42,263 --> 00:15:45,965
solutions proposed by the government. Totally get that. Totally understand that. But

268
00:15:45,985 --> 00:15:49,307
the fact is that these storms had to

269
00:15:49,407 --> 00:15:52,668
do with climate change. Hurricane Beryl was a climate

270
00:15:52,688 --> 00:15:56,350
change consequence. We started to see increase in

271
00:15:56,690 --> 00:15:59,992
ocean temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, continued for

272
00:16:00,092 --> 00:16:03,634
quite a long time. A hurricane that's a Category 5 that happened in

273
00:16:03,794 --> 00:16:08,436
late June, early July, coming in through the Caribbean, devastating

274
00:16:08,476 --> 00:16:11,718
a lot of communities within small island states, coming up

275
00:16:11,818 --> 00:16:16,120
through sort of middle America. right

276
00:16:16,160 --> 00:16:19,683
into Canada, like right into Ontario. We got those rains and then flooding happened

277
00:16:19,703 --> 00:16:23,285
because of those rains. That's a climate change consequence. You cannot deny that

278
00:16:23,326 --> 00:16:28,419
that didn't happen. You cannot deny that that hurricane started earlier. because

279
00:16:28,439 --> 00:16:31,983
of the consequences of climate change. And these

280
00:16:32,043 --> 00:16:35,247
squalls have happened more and more because it's hotter. It's hotter every year.

281
00:16:35,307 --> 00:16:38,611
We're breaking records. And we're starting to see the consequences of

282
00:16:38,651 --> 00:16:41,854
that rainfall when we break these types of records. And we start to see more

283
00:16:41,914 --> 00:16:45,258
humidity in the air. That humidity has to go somewhere. And it comes down

284
00:16:45,318 --> 00:16:48,888
in rain. in major storms, and it comes down to rain in

285
00:16:48,968 --> 00:16:52,529
short periods of time, and a lot of it. And so I started to say

286
00:16:52,549 --> 00:16:55,850
that, and then the guy responded, well,

287
00:16:55,870 --> 00:16:59,030
it's like, now we're worried about a plastic straw. Why are we to save a sea turtle, and this

288
00:16:59,090 --> 00:17:02,151
and that? Why do we care about saving the sea turtle? So I responded to that. I

289
00:17:02,171 --> 00:17:05,392
said, that's a separate issue. But while you're on that, 30% of plastics made by

290
00:17:05,452 --> 00:17:12,814
the phosphate industry is 30% of the greenhouse gas emissions. You

291
00:17:12,834 --> 00:17:16,256
know, the plastics industry is made from petroleum. It's a petroleum

292
00:17:16,296 --> 00:17:19,439
product. And so 30% of that is

293
00:17:19,539 --> 00:17:22,921
turned into like greenhouse gas emissions. That's a scary thought. You know,

294
00:17:22,941 --> 00:17:26,563
that's a significant portion, you know, of greenhouse gas emissions.

295
00:17:26,944 --> 00:17:30,246
And to make these plastics, and then when they break down, they become problems. Like

296
00:17:30,266 --> 00:17:33,388
they're problems for humans. They're problems for animals. You

297
00:17:33,408 --> 00:17:37,009
know, I said, yes, a plastic straw was taken out of a sea turtle, and

298
00:17:37,049 --> 00:17:40,550
it's become the inspiration, like a sea turtle's nose, and has become

299
00:17:40,570 --> 00:17:44,171
an inspiration of the single-use plastic movement, of trying to decrease single-use

300
00:17:44,191 --> 00:17:47,532
plastic. It's actually inspired governments, including my own, Canada, and

301
00:17:47,572 --> 00:17:50,874
our own, to ban single-use plastics because of

302
00:17:50,914 --> 00:17:54,455
the major problem. That was an inspiration. It is not the fact that straws are causing

303
00:17:54,755 --> 00:17:58,416
the plastic problem. It's a fact that it's a tool that we use as inspiration

304
00:17:58,476 --> 00:18:02,017
to say, hey, look, this is, like, we caught this in hand.

305
00:18:02,057 --> 00:18:05,518
I said, four months later, there was a plastic fork that was dislodged from

306
00:18:05,538 --> 00:18:08,819
a sea turtle in the same area,

307
00:18:08,839 --> 00:18:12,140
like 70 kilometers down south of that area, a sea turtle had,

308
00:18:12,560 --> 00:18:15,881
you know, all over the sea turtle had a fork in its, like, lodged

309
00:18:15,982 --> 00:18:19,263
in its nose. You know, same kind of problem. Actually, it was the same

310
00:18:19,303 --> 00:18:22,905
scientist who took it out. you know, these are, they

311
00:18:22,925 --> 00:18:26,188
become tools of an inspiration to, for a movement. And, and

312
00:18:26,228 --> 00:18:29,592
I've heard this before, where it's like, oh, who cares about a plastic straw? Well, we

313
00:18:29,652 --> 00:18:32,895
need to care about the plastic, you know, and how much stuff we use as

314
00:18:32,935 --> 00:18:36,038
plastic. There has to be changes that happen. That's a separate issue, although it's

315
00:18:36,078 --> 00:18:39,381
kind of similar, because the fossil industry is responsible for making

316
00:18:39,401 --> 00:18:43,729
these plastics the way that they're made now, even though they keep, they can be different. So

317
00:18:44,109 --> 00:18:47,673
when we look at these types of comments, you

318
00:18:47,713 --> 00:18:51,115
have to inform. And that's what I'm doing. I'm informing. Not necessarily to

319
00:18:51,175 --> 00:18:54,598
change the mind of the person I'm talking to. I don't need to change that person's

320
00:18:54,618 --> 00:18:57,861
mind. What I need to do is inform people who are reading this who may not see another

321
00:18:57,901 --> 00:19:01,284
side. And that's sort of the way

322
00:19:01,444 --> 00:19:05,007
I do things, the manner in which I roll on social media,

323
00:19:05,668 --> 00:19:09,111
to put a little slang into that. I'm showing

324
00:19:09,171 --> 00:19:13,584
how uncool I am in this episode, regardless. Look,

325
00:19:13,724 --> 00:19:16,849
that's my method, and that seems to

326
00:19:16,909 --> 00:19:20,854
work because it didn't turn into aggression. I highly thank

327
00:19:20,874 --> 00:19:24,059
the person I was working with or going back and forth with,

328
00:19:24,760 --> 00:19:28,485
and it's fine that we disagree on something. However, other

329
00:19:28,505 --> 00:19:32,088
people got to see another side and you start to see likes

330
00:19:32,288 --> 00:19:35,611
on my comments and I'm not insulting somebody.

331
00:19:35,632 --> 00:19:38,935
I'm not coming out and saying hey you're an idiot or I think you're an idiot. I

332
00:19:38,995 --> 00:19:43,178
don't. This is somebody who I feel is not correct in

333
00:19:43,218 --> 00:19:46,320
what they're saying. and how they're going about it.

334
00:19:46,740 --> 00:19:50,201
I'm trying to take politics out of it because I don't care if you're, if

335
00:19:50,221 --> 00:19:53,622
you don't like the Prime Minister or if you do like the Prime Minister or their

336
00:19:53,662 --> 00:19:56,823
methods, is that climate change is climate change. You may not like the

337
00:19:56,843 --> 00:20:00,184
way we manage things, same with COVID. We may not like some of the ways that were,

338
00:20:00,344 --> 00:20:03,564
it was managed. There's some things that the provincial government and the federal government

339
00:20:03,584 --> 00:20:06,806
that did that I didn't like in that situation, but You have to look at

340
00:20:06,826 --> 00:20:10,011
the overall situation that we're in, and this is what the government decided to go to.

341
00:20:10,031 --> 00:20:13,356
If you don't like it, vote him out. That's fine. That's not the

342
00:20:13,396 --> 00:20:18,463
issue here. The issue is that you are denying what's happening. You're

343
00:20:18,483 --> 00:20:22,108
denying that it's a climate change issue, and it's a climate change issue. If we continue

344
00:20:22,128 --> 00:20:25,331
to deny it and our politicians read those comments and look at,

345
00:20:25,371 --> 00:20:28,695
well, most of the people that are speaking up are against climate change. So

346
00:20:28,755 --> 00:20:31,858
why am I going to run on something that says, hey, we're going to do

347
00:20:31,878 --> 00:20:35,562
something about climate change when you're highly against it? I'm not going to get voted in. That's

348
00:20:35,582 --> 00:20:39,146
a concern. That's a concern that we see happen

349
00:20:39,307 --> 00:20:42,851
over and over again when politicians get into, whether it be local, provincial

350
00:20:42,911 --> 00:20:46,176
or national governments, they don't do the things that we would hope

351
00:20:46,196 --> 00:20:49,600
that they would do to protect us, to make sure that our

352
00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:53,385
community is resilient so that we become climate change resilient.

353
00:20:53,725 --> 00:20:56,906
Right? That's sort of the issue. So the comments matter. And

354
00:20:56,966 --> 00:21:00,227
if you're somebody who is adamant about trying to

355
00:21:00,307 --> 00:21:03,488
inform people like I am, you make comments not for

356
00:21:03,508 --> 00:21:06,929
the people you're arguing against or debating against, you're making comments for the people who are watching, who

357
00:21:06,949 --> 00:21:10,750
want to see another side and are okay, like feel scared.

358
00:21:10,790 --> 00:21:14,151
Because sometimes saying what you think and saying what you believe

359
00:21:14,191 --> 00:21:17,492
in and saying whether they're fact or not is very difficult on

360
00:21:17,532 --> 00:21:20,952
both sides of any issue, because you never know how people are going to react. And

361
00:21:20,992 --> 00:21:24,417
if you don't want the aggression, That's scary, especially

362
00:21:24,597 --> 00:21:28,220
if it's in person, right? And so being able to speak up and

363
00:21:28,280 --> 00:21:31,683
being able to comment on certain things, not to change somebody's mind

364
00:21:31,703 --> 00:21:34,938
and not to get personal, but to inform people. is

365
00:21:34,978 --> 00:21:38,119
the way I go about it, and maybe you can do that too. But I'd love

366
00:21:38,139 --> 00:21:41,541
to hear your method of going at people when

367
00:21:41,561 --> 00:21:44,682
you see something you don't agree with. I'd love to hear it, especially when it comes in the

368
00:21:44,722 --> 00:21:48,243
context of climate change or ocean conservation and ocean

369
00:21:48,283 --> 00:21:51,785
science. Love to hear your thoughts. Hit me up on Instagram, at

370
00:21:51,925 --> 00:21:56,026
howtoprotecttheocean. That's at howtoprotecttheocean. And

371
00:21:56,206 --> 00:21:59,755
if you are interested in MagicMind, you

372
00:21:59,775 --> 00:22:03,518
can go to magicmind.com forward

373
00:22:03,578 --> 00:22:06,982
slash theoceanblue. That's magicmind.com forward slash

374
00:22:07,002 --> 00:22:10,886
theoceanblue. And if you want 48% off, 48% off

375
00:22:10,906 --> 00:22:14,049
your first subscription or 20% off your one-time purchase, you can

376
00:22:14,089 --> 00:22:17,852
put in the code theoceanblue20. That's theoceanblue20 for

377
00:22:17,953 --> 00:22:21,977
your first subscription. Taste

378
00:22:22,277 --> 00:22:25,383
of magic mine. It won't be your last. I highly recommend it Thank you so much for

379
00:22:25,423 --> 00:22:28,769
joining me on today's episode of the how to protect the ocean podcast. I'm your host Andrew