Climate Action Figures

Season 2, Episode 4: Bethany

• John Whidden

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Join host John Whidden and Bethany from Vancouver Island as they discuss sustainable gift wrapping, community-driven climate action, and the importance of connecting with and protecting the environment. Learn about Bethany's journey from the Prairies to studying climate science on the West Coast.

00:00 Introduction and Welcome

00:33 QuickFix: Sophia and Bertha - Sustainable Gift Wrapping

01:32 Meet Bethany

03:17 Community Connections: Climate Conversations

05:57 Bethany's High School Initiatives

08:16 Studying Climate Science on the West Coast

12:13 Bethany's Climate Action and Inspirations

14:35 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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Bethany:

I'm Bethany, joining you from Vancouver Island, and this is Climate Action Figures.

John:

Well, hello and welcome to another edition of Climate Action Figures. My name is John Whidden and this week on the show, you get to meet Bethany. But first, this week's QuickFix, and in case you're new to the program, QuickFix is some action that listeners are taking to improve the environment around them, around all of us, and we want to include your great ideas for somebody you know. And we have had several listeners who have sent in multiple QuickFixes. So send in as many as you like, fire them into us via social media or climateactionfiguresatgmail. com. They don't have to be huge. We love them all. Send them in and we will try to get them on the program. without further ado, today's Climate Action Quick Fix is Sophia and her grandmother Bertha: you may remember them from last season. They told us that they love to wrap gifts with reusable bags or reused wrapping. or homemade wrapping from waste paper. So thank you very much to Sophia and her grandmother Bertha for sending that in. welcome Bethany.

Bethany:

Hi John, thanks for having me.

John:

Oh, wonderful to have you here. Does wrapping gifts in such ways, uh, ring true with you in any manner?

Bethany:

so I have been doing this all the time, um, especially for the last few years when I've really gotten into sustainability, um, it's just because, um, a lot of wrapping papers for, like, gifts, um, aren't actually, like, recyclable in a lot of municipalities because of some of the, like, lining they have in it, so it creates kind of, like, a gray area of Can I throw this in the recycling? Can I not? So to reduce that, I just simply either reuse the wrapping paper, um, which is amazing. In one of my friend groups, actually, we've had this piece of wrapping paper that's been circulating for about a year.

John:

That's like an ongoing joke.

Bethany:

Yeah, every birthday it comes out. and then, Just like using reusable bags and stuff. Um, you can actually get like gifts, gift bags, which you can customize as well, which I think is amazing. Um, I've also used like, different like extra pieces of fabric to wrap up gifts. Um, and then I've also like tied it off with like fun ribbons as well. So I think it's an amazing, great fix.

John:

Wonderful ways to avoid this garbage in gift season. So that's great. Your, your story about your friends reminds me that our resident engineer, Geoff, who, uh, talks about the engineer's verdict from time to time. We have a little joke going back and forth cause we have a birthday card and Christmas card, any card for any occasion that we've reused so many times. I don't know, probably 15 times already. It's gone back and forth between us. So. It's kind of a fun thing to, to reuse stuff and make a, make a little game of it. So Bethany, I wonder if you remember how we met. Should I put you on the spot?

Bethany:

so, we met at this community organization called Climate Conversations. And so what that was, was a, I think it was like a bi weekly meeting, uh, where we would, a whole bunch of people from our community, all different backgrounds, we would meet and we would just talk about climate action in our community, um, and it was amazing. I remember finding the group, through like a mutual friend, um, and their Instagram. And I just remember messaging the one who hosted it at the time on Instagram being like, Do you guys still run this? Can I join it?

John:

I was great to have you join and I bet you're talking about Genevieve. Is that right? And we're going to name her here. Sorry, Jen. We didn't ask you ahead of time, but such an amazing climate action figure in our community and really was at the at the center of this cool group that met. And one of the neat things for me about it was it wasn't that we had to come up with solutions. It was just, we talked about solutions, but the, the impetus, the, the goal of the group was just to talk and figure out what we might do, but we didn't have to come away with, with solutions. but there were all kinds of neat spinoffs that happened. was there anything particular that you, uh, took away from that group that you recall?

Bethany:

one of the big things that I came away from that group from, like, every time was just an amazing community connection, and getting in tuned with, like, my local community, like, after some of the meetings, I remember, like, learning about community gardens and going and seeing community gardens that I didn't know existed, um, or going to this, like, Event. I remember there was this like one tin, how I would describe it was like a tin can or documentary in like a tin can. So it was like a 360 documentary all about the sustainable development goals. Um, which I would have never known about if someone didn't, like, highlight it in, um, climate, conversations.

John:

I don't know how I missed That one. That sounds so interesting, but I did miss that one. But there were so many other people. You're right. The community was amazing. I'd like to name everybody right now on it because I know some of them listen to the program, but I'll miss somebody. So I'm not going to do that. But just suffice it to say amazing. And it's so important for all of us to get connected into communities like this. I'm not sure whether it's about climate or not, but this one really did encourage apparently you as well as me in terms of, yeah, there are people out there doing things. I'm not the only one, so that's kind of neat. Now, Bethany, during those meetings, you, uh, you were a bit shy because, you know, I'm the youngest member of the group, but we were really inspired by the things you were doing. And I. Can recall some things you did at Hat High School. Uh, do you want to tell us about some of those initiatives that you were a part of, because there was some really cool stuff going on there.

Bethany:

Yeah, so I was a part of, the Earth Club at Hat High. Um, I'm actually wearing the Earth Club shirt today. Um, some of the things that we did there, um, and one of the big projects that I was a part of was we had six grow towers stationed around the school. So, what these grow towers were, were were these, towers of, um, white plastic. Um, they were about the diameter of a basketball and they were about, I would say, two meters high, is how high we could stack them. And we had plants in them and the plants, uh, would grow on these towers and we had water on it, or in the base, and the water would pump through the towers and water all the plants. So we didn't need any soil, uh, for this project. Um, and then we had lights. And so we could have produce, which, uh, we could supply to students of the school year round, uh, which was pretty amazing. Uh, we also had like a lot of students, like when the plants were starting to grow, saying how it was benefiting their mental health, having, something green in the school growing, even in the dead of winter.

John:

Yeah. It was amazing to hear about those things. And, what did you have a favorite thing you grew there?

Bethany:

I would say our microgreens were pretty cool to grow. It was like my first time like learning about microgreens,

John:

And did you eat them? Were they delicious?

Bethany:

they were. We also grew some tomatoes, which normally you need, like, a pollinator to, pollinate the tomatoes and stuff. but what we did, since we didn't want bees and all the other pollinators, bats flying around the school,

John:

Oh, but that'd be fun to have bats and bees in your school. Why not?

Bethany:

yeah, um, so what we did was we had to, like, pollinate them with, like, paintbrushes. Yeah. So that one was another cool one

John:

What a great way to learn about pollination too, because so many students don't understand that process and the importance of it.

Bethany:

Yeah.

John:

so Bethany from Medicine Hat, then you moved away, to the West Coast to where you are studying. Do you want to tell us where you are and what you're studying now?

Bethany:

I am in Victoria right now, um, studying, climate science. And so what that entails is I get to learn all about like the earth system and all of the spheres of the earth, um, and how they interact from a science standpoint. Um, and then what I can do with that is really use it to see, okay, here are our issues with today's climate, and what are some things that we can do to help alleviate that or fix that?

John:

Oh, that's great. Uh, in your courses that you've taken or the ones you're taking now, do you have a favorite?

Bethany:

I would say a lot of my courses on, like, Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, those are the ones that I find to be my favourites.

John:

So we might've lost you permanently to the West Coast then.

Bethany:

Possibly. You never know.

John:

And Bethany, if we have young listeners who are thinking, yeah, I might like to follow that route and go off to university to study that kind of thing. Do you have thoughts about UVic specifically or other universities that have strong programs in those fields?

Bethany:

Yeah, what I would say to anyone looking to, like, pursue, like, climate action in, like, a university, degree is just find something you're passionate about, and be okay with changing, what you want to do. Um, what I learned from my experience was I initially was actually in biology. Um, but then thinking like, oh, a lot of climate action, I can be on the ground doing like plant stuff and forest stuff and kelp stuff, really like drawing down the carbon. but then I got into the program and I was like, I don't really like biology. I don't know, I get how it like connects to climate, but I don't know if it's my climate career in the future. and so I was like, let's try out this new climate science program. It looks interesting. It's really cool. Um, and I I'm finding mentors in the program, um, and I'm really enjoying it. So what I, another thing that I would recommend to people, especially younger people looking at possibly doing something like this in the future is find people who inspire you and reach out to them. ask them what it's like.

John:

Great advice. So, head down a road and you might change your direction, but get started in some direction at least,

Bethany:

Yeah,

John:

And, uh, in terms of where you went to university, you looked around presumably at a variety of places to go. any advice for young people about how to choose where they might, pursue further education?

Bethany:

for one, the location. I find, like, the location really matters where you are. if you love where you are studying, that's even better. and then two, also look at the programs. since some, you might want a smaller university with smaller programs, sometimes you want, like, a bigger university with big programs. This goes for not only university, but like trade schools as well. Where do you see yourself in the future? Where do you see yourself fitting in as well?

John:

Great. And when you look back on the path that brought you to this point in your life, what were your big inspirations that, that led you this direction?

Bethany:

I have family out on the West coast here and I had been visiting, um, since I was a young kid and I was just mesmerized by the environments here. Um, more so than the prairies at the time, uh, where I grew up, it was just a lot of mountains, a lot of ocean, and I was just mesmerized by it.

John:

Now, uh, before we wrap things up today, we need to get to your climate action, Bethany. So tell us about that.

Bethany:

Yeah, so my climate action, is just going outside. Um, I find that when I go outside, I get, I get inspired and recharged, to do a whole bunch of other climate actions,

John:

That ties in exactly with what you were talking about, right? Choose the place you love to live. if you can do that, do that, right?

Bethany:

yeah. And if not, just find somewhere outside that you love about it. even when I was living in the prairies, I really started to love it when I learned about my local ecosystems, and, learn about all of the, like, different grassland ecosystems, all of the different creatures, that were living there, all of the connections that were there.

John:

The other thing about that for ourselves and for others, I think, is I was just talking with a fellow educator about, protecting the environment. And if We and people we hang with or the students we work with or the friends we have love the environment, they'll want to protect it, right? So the more we can get out into the environment and encourage others to do so, the more people will want to protect it because they'll realize what's out there and what the value is, because it's so valuable, as you say, to our health and our well being mentally and physically, right?

Bethany:

and even on that topic, like, I love, going outside with my friends as well, getting more people outside as well, so then you get both the benefit of being with friends, being in community, and then also being outside, and sometimes even doing active stuff, so you get like a whole array of benefits for yourself.

John:

I was just talking with a group of college students, and doing a program with them. And I, I challenged them during the week in the next few weeks, every week, try to modify something that you're doing so that you do it outside. Go walk around the pond. They have a beautiful pond there. If you're having a meeting with a fellow student about a project, walk around the pond and talk about it. And you'll be amazed at the difference in the ideas that are generated and the, and the feeling you have when you're finished. You know, you won't be sagging and falling asleep and needing a coffee. You'll be rejuvenated. At least I find that. So Bethany, before we let you go, tell us what gives you hope. These days.

Bethany:

for me, what gives me hope is all of the connections that I've made, in the communities that I have, um, been a part of and interacted with, um, and traveled through, when you start talking to people Even if you don't even think about talking about climate action, you can really find what people are passionate about. Um, which really brings me hope. And this is related to, how I get recharged by community as well. so then I can continue going forward with subsequent climate actions. it really also ties into, this. notion from Jane Goodall that I really am inspired by as well, her definition of hope, which is, um, hope is both something you look forward to in the future, but also how you get there, um, and how you, uh, recharge yourself to get there, um, and keeping that hope and vision alive.

John:

Well, bonus points for bringing Jane Goodall into the end of the conversation. She's such an amazing and inspiring woman. Bethany, we sure appreciate your sage thoughts and, so much to unpack here, love hearing about your story. Thank you so much for joining us on the program here today.

Bethany:

Yeah, thank you for having me.

John:

And thank you, dear listener, for being with us today. We will be back again next week, same time, same place, to hear from another climate action figure. Until then,

Bethany:

Go figures!