Fiction is a window into our future.

While I was reading the book, The Ministry for the Future, my nephew and I watched the movie “Sharknado.” These contrasting climate stories stunned me. Our climate fiction centers around disasters with only a few people surviving, such as Sharknado. The Ministry for the Future is a story about how many people around the world take action to stay under the 1.5-degree Celcius threshold. The journey is disturbing and hopeful. Let us explore these two different future stories.

The cult-favorite “Sharknado” movies center around a series of severe storms that make “Sharknados” emerge, wiping out cities. Fictional sharknados are tornadoes with the power to pull sharks out of oceans into funnels and rain them down onto land. This comical series has people going about their daily activities, ignoring the bizarre weather pattern until it is too late. Only lead characters Fin and April, along with a small group, are able to save the day. 

Is this how we want to deal with climate change? Do we want to hope that there will be a couple of heroes with whom we happen to be when the disaster occurs? While disaster movies are fun, they don’t help us see a path to the future.

We strongly believe that people can make a difference.

It is why we developed the One Planet Life app; to assist you on your journey. It works like a climate fitness app. You select actions that work for you to reduce your CO2, track your progress and celebrate everyday victories. When 16 of us reduce our CO2 emissions by one metric ton, this is equivalent to one person going net zero! Imagine 160 people making the change, then 1,600 achieving the same victory. The good news is that reducing your first metric ton of CO2 emissions is very doable.  

It will take many people acting, and we believe we will get there. If each of us takes action or joyful changes as we refer to them, they add up.  

Let’s make changes so we don’t have a “Sharknado” future! Join us today!