by Donald Waters
Over the past few years I have been going through a realisation – one I think is shared by many: that climate change is in fact a crisis, and that crisis is happening now.
Prior to this, the warming of the planet due to human-generated greenhouse gas emissions was, I’m embarrassed to admit, something I was concerned about but thought would only really impact future generations. ‘Anyway, it’s a system issue,’ I would say with a grimace as I booked my next flight.
Part of this, I’m sure, was due to context: if none of your elected representatives are behaving like there is an issue, why would you? Denial certainly had a role to play, too. I mean, the climate crisis is just so darn inconvenient, isn’t it?
A disaster unfolding
One of several turning points for me was the UK summer heat wave of 2022. Wildfires swept through North America while London was overpowered by temperatures so severe that the IT systems of the hospital I worked in were frazzled. The grass was yellow, the air was oppressive, the concrete gleamed with dread. I escaped to Scotland on overheated railway lines for the weekend but what I found there was even more unsettling. The hills which I knew so well were also frying, the rivers were too warm. Everything was going wrong.
In my usual approach to dealing with difficulty, I started reading more and more books on the topic, which only made me more concerned. Anything published even a year or two earlier was out of date – things were clearly accelerating.
But what could I do? I didn’t want to give up on all the things I enjoyed, and even if I did it clearly wouldn’t make any difference. The world was careening towards disaster and everyone (me included) was too caught up in their lives and distracted by their phones to react.
Journey of a Green Runner
It was soon after this that I read Damian Hall’s book We Can’t Run Away From This. This felt so directly relevant to me. Although I couldn’t run anywhere near as fast or for as long as Damian, I too had gone through more pairs of shoes than I could count, bought lots of other kit rather than trying to repair things, and travelled all over the world to go on outdoor adventures. Damian was brave enough to admit he was a “hypocrite”, but still outlined important positive changes that he was making. The book helped me face up to something essential: just because someone spends a lot of time outside and worries about climate change doesn’t mean they aren’t a major part of the problem.
The book also led me to the Green Runners. One of my dominant feelings when facing the magnitude of the climate crisis is a horrible loneliness; a cognitive dissonance generated by the disconnect between the existential threat and minimal global action. The Green Runners seemed to be a community of people who all liked and cared about the same things as me.
They wanted to find a way of sustainably doing the things they loved while taking action to avert the hastening disaster. Some of them were people I’d been inspired by for years (Jasmin Paris! Damian Hall!), many weren’t, but all were collectively exactly what I needed: a community outlet for my climate despair.
Small actions, big changes
As all Green Runners do, I made my Pledges for my first year. I was inspired by other brave Pledges but decided for my first year I would try to keep mine modest. They sounded woefully insignificant, but I hoped that way they might actually be achievable.
And they were: I got a train back from visiting my girlfriend’s family in Germany rather than flying; I started making my own flapjacks and largely kicked my cereal bar habit with its attendant waste problem. Big credit goes to Lana (also a Green Runner) here who masterminded an anti-plastic crusade!
I am a climate hypocrite but with the help of the Green Runners I am gradually becoming slightly less so.
Donald Waters
The most fun part of my Pledging was I also got really into repairing stuff. Initially I patched some shoes using the Pair Ups kits made by Darren Evans (a founding member of the Green Runners), then sewed clothes first by hand and then taught myself to use a sewing machine. This was really satisfying. It changed my relationship with my kit, treating things I had glued or sewn back together with a pride and respect I had never shown them before.
Little actions spread to other things. I found myself thinking more about the ways I got to outdoor places, and frequently decided against driving to run up a hill unless I could at least share lifts with someone. This resulted in me getting a bit more public transport but mainly doing a lot more road running. Neither I nor my feet were particularly happy about this, but I found a bitter taste in my mouth every time I thought about getting in the car on my own, picturing the historic 2023 wildfires in RSPB Corrimony in the Highlands, or looking up at the skies with fewer and fewer birds and thinking better of it.
Even though I knew that no individual action was going to shift the dial in any meaningful way, I felt more congruent, that I was living more in line with what mattered. Some of my paralysing fear had been transformed into purpose.
Ambitious future
Spurred on by some success and the bigger successes of other Green Runners, I go into my second year as a Green Runner with slightly more ambitious goals. So far, they are going well: I am writing this wearing a pair of old Walsh trainers which I have glued a new sole on to; I’ve bought no new kit so far this year; I have taken one flight this year and have no plans to take another.
One flight is still too many, I still eat a lot of cheese. I am a climate hypocrite but with the help of the Green Runners I am gradually becoming slightly less so.
I was right, it is a system issue, and we need to reject anything that promotes individual responsibility over system change (as the fossil fuel giants have done for so long, let’s not forget BP coined the idea of the ‘carbon footprint’).
That’s where the final, and hardest Pledge to speak out comes in. I feel scared about this, as I am about the future, but being part of the Green Runners has made me more hopeful too, and that is important.
Donald’s Pledges
2023 Pledges
How We Move: To replace one flight with a train journey this year.
How We Kit Up: To try repairing running shoes.
How We Fuel: To make flapjacks and not go through so many plastic bar wrappers.
How We Speak Out: To tell everyone about the Green Runners.
2024 Pledges
How We Move: To fly only once in 2024.
How We Kit Up: No new kit in 2024. To continue to improve my running shoe and kit repairs; this year I want to learn to resole shoes myself.
How We Fuel: To continue making flapjacks and not buy cereal bars. Start recycling thin plastic at the supermarket. Participate in Plastic Free July.
How We Speak Out: To join a climate change campaigning group in addition to Green Runners. I think Health for XR.
About the author
Donald describes himself as a decidedly average fell/hill runner based in Glasgow. He is most at home slowly plodding long distances in poor weather carrying a slightly-too-heavy bag.
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