March 17

Published by Panetary Health Initiative on 17/03/2022

We did it! We did it! Sixty seven of us, over 2.5 months this year, have taken 365 new actions to restore planetary health. Check out all our actions here and hear why Carla is involved here. Now we’re setting our sites on inspiring more people to join us, especially on 7 April for World Health Day. The theme this year is Our Planet, Our Health. We’d love to see if we can inspire 365 people to take one single action on that one day – to achieve the action of a whole year in one day. 

Through the ongoing challenge of A Year in a Day, I am ‘becoming’ a sew-er, and ‘becoming’ a cyclist. Today, for the first time, I rode my bike to a work meeting – 1.8km more than my first Sunday cycles to the Farm!

Realising that I have to be more prepared to be able to rush out (as I did today) to accommodate the longer time that riding takes, I took inspiration from Libby earlier this year and prepared a bag with all the things I might need the next time I head out on the bike. The bag can be worn as a backpack (therefore it can also used on a walk), or be carried in the new Trolley/tote basket attached to my bike rack. 

I am now prepared … both for sudden unexpected trips, and for the threat of rising fuel prices!

My back pack now includes the following: rainjacket, hat, sunscreen, toilet paper in an old Gazette wrapper plus an extra Gazette wrapper for picking up rubbish, a snake bandage, oil of lemon eucalyptus Aeroguard mosquito repellant, face masks, hand sanitiser, a small trowel, secateurs, gloves, hankies, bandaids, betadine disinfectant, lip balm, matches, a reusable mug, a bamboo cutlery set, pen and paper, and a chiller bag. My water bottle has its own spot on the bike.

How are other people contributing to A Year in a Day?

In response to my post on weight-bearing exercise, Libby offered to help me train to get stronger and Paula sent through the following advice:

. Begin by standing on a comfortable surface, where you have plenty of room at each side. With a 2kg potato sack in each hand, extend your arms straight out from your sides and hold them there as long as you can. Try to reach a full minute, then relax.

2. Each day, you’ll find that you can hold this position for just a bit longer. After a couple of weeks, move up to 5kg potato sacks. Then 25 kg potato sacks and then eventually try to get to where you can lift a 50kg potato sack in each hand and hold your arms straight for more than a full minute (I’m at this level).

3. Once you feel confident at that level, put a potato in each sack.

It’s so inspiring to hear what other people are doing, as we gear up to see if we can actually reach 365 actions in one day for World Health Day on Thursday 7 April. If you haven’t contributed an action yet, why not consider joining us then (if not sooner)? 

Is it worth taking action?

Research by academics at Leeds University, engineering firm Arup and the C40 Cities climate group has identified that 73 per cent of all changes needed by 2030 to keep the world on course to meet the Paris agreement targets need to be made by governments and industry. But private citizens have considerable influence over the remaining 27 per cent.