Picture 1: Kia Aarnio holding a speech at a climate strike event (09/2019).
Picture 2: On a climate march with megaphone (04/2019).

Besides increased environmental awareness and far-reaching agreements between states, our globe needs radical environmental actions, which are targeted at profound change and renewal. The change cannot wait and bureaucracy is slow, so many citizens have become personally active in climate issues. This is what Kia Aarnio, Doctor of Psychology and author of textbooks, and Anne Leppänen, artist and communications researcher, have also done. Read more about their personal change stories in this blog text.
 

Awakening and change

Aarnio and Leppänen were not awakened to climate issues all of a sudden like a strike of lightning. Instead, they realised this slowly but surely, which led to a permanent change.

”I have already believed in climate change for ten years, thinking, however, that it will be taken care of - by someone else. About a year ago acquaintances of mine decided to set up the Aktivistimummot (Activist Grannies) movement, and I decided to join it,” says Leppänen, who administers discussion in the movement’s Facebook group that spreads information on environmental ideas and  moderate lifestyles as well as future hope in a granny-like manner. The group already has more than 5,000 members.

For Aarnio, the change began with reading and watching climate-themed news and proceeded from participating in a climate march in October 2018 and a vegan challenge to publishing letters to the editor, arranging campaigns for climate elections and flying taxes, as well as setting up a Psychologists' Climate Front .

”I calculated my carbon footprint online and found out that even a single flight a year is not acceptable in terms of the environment, so my family’s first big change was to replace a winter holiday trip to Portugal with a spa holiday in Finland,” says Aarnio.

Besides no longer eating beef, Leppänen said that reducing flying was one of her first climate-friendly actions:

”Last year I flew once and wondered about a compensation fee that was only a few euros. How can it be so small and where does the money go?”

According to The Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra’s Megatrends 2020 survey, the change in the environment challenges the whole culture to introduce a change. It is always difficult to change a routine lifestyle, especially if you do not believe in the grounds of the change or understand its direct consequences.

Leppänen feels that sorting waste as well as quitting flying or eating beef are easy choices, as shown by research, though she would like to receive more information on matters concerning electricity and heating, for instance:

”Not realising what would be the best alternative for the environment is the biggest obstacle to taking concrete action. I need information and confidence that my tiny choice is important and right”.
 

Picture 3: Anne Leppänen. Activist Grannies’ planning meeting. 
Picture 4: Reijo Leppänen. Anne Leppänen.

When puzzled about the change

According to Sitra’s Megatrends 2020 survey, the philosophy in which nature is seen as an endless resource intended for man is giving way – nature is now seen as an intrinsic value and man as part of it. Citizens’ values differ considerably in terms of the environment, which causes not only confrontation and growing interest, but also anxiety.

According to Aarnio, the most important thing for a person struggling with environmental anxiety is to contact people who feel the same way and take action. Becoming paralysed by the magnitude of the problem makes people hopeless, while making even a tiny change brings hope.

However, patience is needed even in this:

”Climate activists easily become fatigued, as there is so much to do. I have also had to learn myself where to draw the line in order not to compromise my well-being. If you spend all weekends talking about environmental issues in social media and walk in the streets to collect signatures on petitions, you will experience voluntary burnout.”

Leppänen recommends visiting the Activist Grannies’ website and participating in discussions arranged by the grannies in Oodi Helsinki Central Library. As a reading tip, she mentions ”Valot päälle!”, an easy to understand science book written by Tuomas Vanhanen.

To change one’s own philosophy, Aarnio recommends reading Naomi Klein’s international bestseller ”This Changes Everything, Capitalism vs. the Climate”. Of Finnish books, Aarnio recommends Panu Pihkala’s ”Päin helvettiä” and ”Mieli maassa”.

”This spring, Iina Soininen and Anna Pulkka will be building a low-threshold website in the Climate Citizen’s Guide, which is funded by the Kone Foundation, about ways to act for the good of climate,” says Aarnio.

The climate elections took place, the citizens’ initiative about flying tax was passed, the Finnish Psychological Association has become active and the Activist Grannies are in action. What do Aarnio and Leppänen have in mind next?

”Climate activism is still quite a new thing for me, so there is a lot to learn. I want to inspire people like me to become familiar with matters affecting climate warming and make the right decisions. Besides, a new waste shelter is under construction in our housing company, for which I intend to demand a recycling point,” says Leppänen, who has been a climate activist less than a year.

Aarnio, who has been awakened longer, immediately replies:

”A 3.5% movement. In other words, the aim is to have at least 3.5% of the citizens participate in a climate demonstration. According to research, that would probably be sufficient to make a change. Finland’s biggest climate march is coming up on Saturday 5 September 2020, in which everybody should participate if at all possible!”

You can also promote the change for the good of climate by assessing and examining your consumption habits. You can calculate your carbon footprint using the Ilmastodieetti.fi (Climate Diet) counter, for example, and use it to make changes for a more sustainable everyday life.
 
 
Text: Linda Juntunen
 
The blog is part of EPALE’s January-March mini series ”Adults and environmental awareness meet”. The themes of the blogs in the series: becoming environmentally aware at adult ages, adopting a sustainable everyday lifestyle, the environmental actions of work communities, organisations and whole cities as well as efforts to make them environmentally aware.

Linda Juntunen is a freelance journalist who takes photographs and writes. She worked as a Senior Programme Advisor for the Finnish National Agency for Education’s Internationalisation Services for General Education and Adult Education from 2017 to 2019. Juntunen, who enjoys international living, holds a Master’s degree in adult education.