Front Burner - Weekend Listen: 10 Minutes to Save the Planet

Episode Date: July 15, 2023

Our brains aren’t wired to save the world. But if you’re ready to make changes that actually stick, 10 Minutes to Save the Planet will show you the way. Co-hosts meteorologist and climate reporter Johanna Wagstaffe and broadcaster Rohit Joseph work through the UN’s 10 actions for a healthy planet, but in a way that won’t shame, overwhelm or bore you. Think of each episode as a bite-size guide to fight climate change, rooted in behavioural therapy. More episodes are available at: https://link.chtbl.com/Gs-5DFiM

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, Tamara Kandaker here. We have a special bonus episode for FrontBurner subscribers from the brand new podcast, 10 Minutes to Save the Planet. You already know what you need to do to help the planet. So what's holding you back? 10 Minutes to Save the Planet takes you from best intentions to achievable solutions, and it won't take more than 10 minutes of your day.

Hosts Johanna Wagstaff and Rohit Joseph offer concrete advice rooted in behavioral science to make that change finally stick. The 10-part series is based on official UN recommendations, but the episodes are both fun and accessible. You'll laugh while you learn and meet scientists and changemakers who inform and inspire. We have the first episode for you now. Have a listen. Opening the fridge. The smell of rot overwhelms. Okay, it's not that bad,

but I definitely need to pinpoint what that smell is. Opening crisper. Oh, that is, that is definitely the target of the smell. Oh, but please tell me I'm not alone here. They were moldy tomatoes, by the way. Actually, it's better for the planet if I am the only one. It's better for the planet if I am the only one. I'm Johanna Wagstaff, a meteorologist, often with moldy lettuce. That is not a euphemism. Please don't be.

And I'm Rohith Joseph, a journalist with moldy cucumbers. Way too often, cucumbers. Nice. Not reliable, Joe. Not reliable. And on this episode of 10 Minutes to Save the Planet, we're looking at how to get in the habit of throwing away less of our food. And here's why it's important. The United Nations says food waste accounts for 8 to 10 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. And more than half of the food wasted is from households, from everyday people. We can't as easily blame the man for this.

Not this time. It's us. We can do better. And when you throw the food away, it is wasting valuable resources and it's producing really powerful methane farts. That warms up the planet way faster than you'd think. And that's bad.

So here, this is one of 10 climate actions recommended by the United Nations. And we already know what we have to do. We know how to solve climate change. Oftentimes, we just get stuck because our brains are weird and we make some stupid decisions at times. And we also get stuck thinking nothing will help. We're taking on the challenge ourselves with the help of an expert in human behavior. We're going to try and rewire our weird brains to make these steps part of our daily lives.

Changing our behavior just one step at a time so that we don't all die. This should be a really easy one for all of us. Just don't throw away as much food. I literally have the visual of just setting fire to dollar bills. That's what's happening when we're just tossing out the food at the end of the week. Now, I've got to say, I really want to get better at this because as you said, an individual can really move the dial on this front. My husband is basically taking the lion's share for it in the family because he will eat food that is so far beyond the expiry date. It is so disgusting and I feel so proud of him. At the same time, we live busy

lives. We've got a four-year-old. So, you know, at the end of every week we are throwing or composting food and it does not feel good. You know, I know that the best before date is kind of a tricky one. And I still, I still way too much like listen to it obediently as if it's god telling me if you eat this food any later you will be smited and march 23rd is your death date i'm serious i i think i listened to the best before date too much i'm like the opposite of your husband and i end up throwing away probably stuff that shouldn't be thrown away so that's my Joe. Okay, you do need to meet in the middle, but why don't I first take you on a little picnic?

This is live footage of an actual lunch that I would pack for myself. That's amazing. Yeah, no judging, but I've got peanut butter and jelly, slightly old carrots. I met up with food systems expert Tamara Soma. She teaches at Simon Fraser University

and there's a garden there with a picnic table. So we each brought our own legit lunch, but I'm actually going to fast forward to the end of the meal to the compost. You don't want to waste food to begin with, but these are food scraps and it's really good to compost it. So let's just move this thing here. There's some good critters. Can you feel that it's warm it's warm yeah critters and worms so food literacy is basically like the education and the knowledge of understanding the whole food supply chain food cycle from food production all the way to the consumption and to the waste management food education education has not been valued very much and so I think that we need to think about food education as a way to help us better understand climate, to help us

better understand math and science, to help us better understand culture and in the context of Canada especially, you know, I'm passionate about land-based learning and I invite Indigenous elders and experts into my classroom. You know, learning about food, being in touch with the land and recognizing the Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge is one way to actually like support decolonization and reconciliation. The big takeaway here is, yes, we have to throw away less fruits and veggies and fruits and veggies really are the problem for most households how do we do that it's about being mindful and knowing what you have and how to use it well and when we

do have to compost make sure it's just the food scraps not your your entire crisper of sludge but to actually get our brains to do that we have to care about where our food is coming from and where it's going. We have to feel like we're part of the big picture. I just want to say CRISPR of sludge was my 90s grunge band name and you stole it from me. I really don't like that, Jo. I'll have to come up with a new one. Okay, but on that front of composting and learning, I'll start with the composting because it actually does help. It significantly reduces the methane emissions produced by food waste. And some people, I find

myself guilty of this sometimes, rely on the composting for getting rid of the leftovers. Let's be real. We all do it, but that's not the point of it. So this is where learning really comes in. The United Nations Environment Program says track your food waste with a food diary. It can help just figure out those patterns, those things that you constantly are throwing out. Maybe you're buying way more tomatoes than you need and you're not an Italian grandmother. So please, you know, stop doing that. This was for the data nerds too, right? Like tracking data Excel sheets. Who else is pumped? Yeah. Fitbit your fridge is I guess what I'm getting at here. And speaking of the fridge, you know, we keep throwing things out because we don't

see them in our fridge. They're hidden away. Sometimes we tuck them away. And this is something our very own behavior expert says she's been forcing herself to change. She calls it feng shui-ing her fridge. I'm Jiaying Zhao, but I go by Jay-Z. I'm a professor of psychology and sustainability at the University of British Columbia. For the past 10 years, I've been working on behavior change. So I'm trying to get people to do the things that are not only good for the planet, but also good for themselves. The fridge is not designed with human behavior in mind. Why? Because we're asked or advised to put perishables in the drawers or to the back of the fridge when it's the coolest. So what we should do instead is completely kind of feng shui

our fridge. So what I have been doing with my own fridge is I put perishables at the door. I move everything that will go bad soon, I move them to the door. So when I open the fridge, I see them right away and I use them. And I put the condiments, the durables in the drawers and in the back because they last and they can just stay there forever. Put mustard in the back, ketchup in the back, put the fruits, vegetables at the door. And actually, I have not wasted a single piece of carrot since I've done that.

This is like mind-blowing for me. Why have I never thought to move the like tiny bit of condiments at the bottom of a bottle into the crisper and put those rotting tomatoes that will no longer rot if they're on the inside of the door. I'm honestly reorganizing my fridge in my head right now. I have to make a confession here, Jo. Okay.

When I told my girlfriend about this, she's like, I've been telling you this for ages. And she's like, why do you have to listen to a behavior in expert, you know, expert in behavior? You get what I mean. She's not mean. She's not wrong. She's not wrong. And I'm going to also make that change because it adds up. And here's another thing. When we have so many leftovers, Johanna, it sometimes feels overwhelming, right?

Like, what am I going to do with all these tomatoes and onions and cucumbers? Well, guess what? There's websites that can actually help you figure that out. Like supercook.com. It's one of these websites that you put in the things that you have left over and you're scrolling, search food waste. And there's so many influencers who are sharing ideas for how to store your food, like putting a bouquet of lettuce in a vase and that'll keep it longer. So, yeah, there's so many suggestions out there. What else you got? You can always just share the food you have, whether it's donating it to charities, food banks, community fridges, or just getting people together and helping you finish that ridiculous amount of mac and cheese you thought you'd eat when you were a bit stoned.

That's okay. People can come and help you out. I feel like the takeaway for me reshuffling my fridge is going to be huge. I think I'm going to try and take better account of the food I'm constantly throwing away and maybe learn from that as well as feng shui-ing my fridge. Listen to your girlfriend. That's 10 minutes, everyone. What are you going to do to try and feng shui your leftovers? try and feng shui your leftovers. I'm sorry, everyone. I just found, I just found me tomatoes.

I feel really bad and like I might throw up. I can't believe I let you all into my fridge and my world like this. You've been listening to 10 Minutes to Save the Planet from CBC Podcasts. The show is written and hosted by Rohit Joseph and me, Johanna Wagstaff. Our producer is Teresa Lalonde. Sound design by Jill Constantine.

Fabiola Carletti is our digital coordinating producer with assistance by Sean Lloyd. Our managing producer is Damon Fairless. Executive producers are Cecil Fernandez and Chris Oak. Tanya Springer is the senior manager of CBC Podcasts. And Arif Noorani is the director. That was an episode from 10 Minutes to Save the Planet. You can head over to their podcast feed right now for more episodes.

For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.