How to build your climate fitness

what do coral reefs

climate change and physical fitness have

in common those three things

may seem very different but each of them

in some way are controlled

by human beings i know this

because i’m a marine biologist and a

historical ecologist

it’s my job to tell the story of

ecosystems through time

and in 2016 i moved from the united

states to hong kong

a city best known for its financial

portfolio so that i could study

its marine portfolio my current research

is on corals corals are wonderful

animals

that grow and build coral reefs the most

biodiverse marine habitat

on earth more than 25

of all marine life relies on them i try

to identify their past

greatest threats so that we can give

them the best chance

for survival and especially

in hong kong corals have had to adapt to

the growing human footprint

on this earth unfortunately

my research reaffirms a global trend

corals are sick

surveys and research claim anywhere from

20 to 30 percent of all shallow water

corals have died

in the last 30 years due to human

impacts

with the greatest global impact known to

be rising temperatures

from climate change how do we get here

why haven’t we done more to stop this

we have failed to combat climate change

because our mentality around climate

change

is wrong

you see in the 60s and 70s science was

already fairly conclusive on this whole

climate thing

and governments were taking big steps to

combat our greenhouse gas emissions

but then the climate issue became

political

facts got mixed with sensationalism and

the dialogue changed from

we need to do something to it’s too late

we can’t possibly curb emissions in time

we told ourselves that we were the

problem not also the solution

and we mentally shut down and pushed

those issues

to the side awful

and statistically speaking we are part

of the problem

the 10 most affluent people on earth

create over 50 percent of greenhouse gas

emissions

emissions that are causing sea levels

and temperatures to rise

at an exponential rate we have given

the oceans a fever and because of this

much of the plant and animal life there

are dying

all right so we’ve talked about coral

and we’ve covered climate change but

what does physical fitness have to do

with this

well i’m not just a marine biologist but

i’m also a lifelong competitive athlete

and a coach i want to show you how my

competitive athletics

not my scientific background is what has

shaped

my mentality and drove me to be the

conservationist

that i am today and how i think that if

we are all a bit more athletically

minded

then we’ll all be much more climate

conscious

now my athletic mentality was birthed

being the youngest

in a big family you get that way when

it’s you versus your older siblings

and it’s always the youngest picks last

at holiday dinners

no wonder i wanted to be more athletic

but one of the first things i learned as

an athlete

was that most of our barriers are not

actually

physical they’re mental and it’s the

same

with climate change so that’s why i’m

going to work with you

right here and now in your first climate

personal training session

on how we’re going to start winning

against the climate crisis

and just like i would do with my

physical fitness clients first

we’re going to reshape your mentality

second we’re going to reform your

climate identity

third we’re going to show you how to

initiate and take action

and then fourth we’re going to teach you

how to care

because together with those steps

is how we’re going to build your climate

fitness

all right let’s get going first step on

our fitness journey

is with mentality and i learned that

fitness buffs have a much better mental

strategy for dealing with problems

than scientists how many of you have

ever had a fitness milestone

or set a health target or played on a

sports scene

anybody yeah then you understand what i

mean when i say

we become goal oriented but task focused

we use long-term goals to help us to

complete

difficult everyday tasks do you want to

climb that mountain

first you start by taking steps do you

want to win the game

first you go to practices listen i don’t

win

every weightlifting competition i do and

my ultimate goal of competing in the

olympics will probably

never be achieved but it’s important

that i look back at those days of

dedicated training

and i realize i am a better

stronger person than i was and i want to

keep improving

that is the definition of the athlete

mentality

our desire to keep working

you know what that doesn’t sound

anything like the normal conversation

around climate change everything about

the climate crisis

is framed as a failure curbing

greenhouse gas emissions

sustainable food production protecting

all the reefs

every time we talk about climate change

we tell ourselves we are failing

now i’m not saying that this is

inaccurate

but what if instead of looking at the

global climate olympics

as unwinnable we focus on our personal

everyday wins today

i recycled everything properly today

i did not eat meat today i took public

transit every time i went outside

now are these earth-shattering goals

that are going to solve the climate

crisis

no but they’re a start and they will

lead

to something bigger remember you cannot

climb that mountain until you start

big goals are built by small winds

when we start to think like that when we

start to build

that climate athlete mentality then we

will really set ourselves up

for climate wins in the future and once

we built that mentality then we can

reform our identity

how we see ourselves and when i first

started training

i saw myself as a scrawny nerd

because i was but then through

years of dedicated training and hard

work i got stronger

and built myself into what i see today

an athletic nerd

but along the way some people saw that

and wanted a similar change for

themselves

so i would spend days writing them a

tailored fitness program in hopes

that i would change their lives and many

of them would inevitably start it

get bored and tired and quit we’ve all

been there right

i needed a way to ensure their

dedication i needed

to help them succeed so the secret

i created a highly scientific

test if you wanted to train with me you

had to do

50 burpees a day every day for 30 days

straight

and if you completed that task i’d coach

you

now who knows anything about burpees

they’re pretty awful right yeah but

most people can do them and this test

worked for that one

simple reason because really it wasn’t

about the burpees they were just a decoy

but because most people can do them but

they were

easy enough to get through and that was

how it worked

because after 30 days of this task

people started to feel different

and after 30 days of this challenge

people started to identify

as someone who could do the fitness

thing

now listen i can’t make you do burpees

for climate change

as much as i really want to but here is

your 30-day

very achievable task every day for the

next 30 days

do one thing that actively improves your

climate fitness

maybe it’s actually using that reusable

water bottle and cutlery

maybe it’s cutting me out of just one

meal a day

maybe it’s always taking public transit

when you need to get somewhere

anything do it i don’t care and you know

what

just like those burpees i know they’re

going to be tough at the beginning

but every day you do it see yourself

doing it

build a routine and through time you

will start to

identify as someone who can do the

climate fitness thing

and for the record i’m not perfect

i still struggle every day with both my

climate

and my personal fitness my biggest

weaknesses are

i eat too much meat i have really poor

ankle flexibility

but i recognize this and i am also

working at this

every day to try and better myself

because even i can use a reminder of

hey i do the climate fitness thing

all right session recap we’ve talked

about your mentality

and your identity now it’s time to

initiate action

it’s time to use these hands and i

believe we are the best athletes

at the sports we enjoy and it’s the same

for our climate fitness so after your 30

day challenge you’re going to start to

identify as a climate athlete

i want you to take that feeling and

harness it and then use it

to build a community around you and with

that community

continue to do climate actions in a way

you

enjoy do you like the beach organize a

beach clean up

do you like to cook cook using local and

sustainable foods

are you crafty make stuff you need out

of recyclable

and reusable materials but building a

community around you is important

because the community is like a gym

membership or running club

first it’s a group of people that holds

you accountable

and expects you to be there but second

it’s a group of people that surrounds

you and that

you are growing with and learning from

and can support

and those daily tasks that were small

individually

then become impactful community-wide

all right now we’re at the tough part of

our fitness journey

because now i need to convince you to

continue on your own

i need to get you to trust and care

about your climate fitness

why because there comes a point in

almost all athletes careers where they

no longer have

regular coaching when they need to find

the personal motivation to continue to

change on their own

this is the part of that fitness talk

where i say you have to trust

the process that i just laid out for you

and i know i can see some people rolling

their eyes

but it’s true and athletes will

understand this

because in order to achieve their goals

athletes are more willing to

trust and follow expert advice

most athletes are not highly scientific

they did not need to understand all the

peer-reviewed literature before they

were ready to make a change in their

lives

i have never had a client come up to me

and say

i just read a fascinating paper on type

1 versus type 2a and type 2x muscle

fibers and i want to incorporate that

into my training

no most of my clients have simpler goals

i want to lose weight or i want to get

stronger

why is it that simple because they

understand what they want

and they trust a process to get them

there

so why can’t we do this for our climate

fitness

what’s ironic is most of us know more

about climate science than we do about

exercise science

we’ve known for decades what greenhouse

gas emissions are doing to our planet

emissions that get trapped in our

atmosphere and create an earth blanket

that is heating the earth at

temperatures too fast for things to

adapt

emissions that are human driven meaning

it’s both our fault

and up to us to fix it

so why is this climate information so

difficult to turn into climate action

well jane goodall once said only if we

understand

will we care and only if we care

will we help and there’s

the gap we understand about our personal

fitness

if i lose weight i will fit into my

favorite pair of pants again

it’s personal of course we care but we

don’t understand

what our climate fitness can achieve

what’s personal about climate change

what if i told you that your climate

fitness

saves lives in the 2019 study

a team found that on average one future

premature climate related death will

occur for every 1 000 tons of carbon

burned

that’s about the annual emissions of

just the electricity

of just one of hong kong’s 42

000 buildings and what’s more

is this is likely to affect people that

are living in developing or high-risk

countries

not those living in buildings like this

that’s one

billion climate-related deaths in the

next one to 200 years

that averages to 10 deaths 2-3 families

a minute

that’s just human deaths we still don’t

have a great understanding

of the indirect impacts to global

biodiversity

but judging from my corals it doesn’t

look good

i cannot think of a more personal reason

to care

our climate fitness saves lives

who wouldn’t want to identify as someone

who saves lives

and just like those burpees you did the

process to get here

wasn’t really that tough was it and that

is exactly the point the road

to your climate fitness is not actually

that steep

remember first all we have to do is

reshape our mentality

next we just reform our identity and

then third

we’ll learn to take and initiate action

because after those three steps

we will understand about our climate

fitness and we will care

because yes the global climate olympics

is a mountain but your

personal journey is about finding the

mentality

to be willing to climb it it just takes

one step at a time

but we can do it team we just have to

start

thank you

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