Facing climate change from a roof

Thoughts and drawings about hiking and how it can help us face climate change, extreme weather and global warming, by using the know-how, techniques, mindset and designs from hiking.

See all drawings about climate change and hiking here

Thoughts on technology, climate change and hiking

Text and illustration by Frits Ahlefeldt. Hiking.org

When the water rise people often seek to the roof bringing their most important things with them up and then wait for the water to fall. And today what most of us seems to consider most important are our screens.

I sketched up this drawing of people on a roof watching a screen to somehow express how we today are living the double reality of both digital images, news, communication and entertainment. And at the same time we all live on a tiny planet that is getting more and more challenged. And as we watch our screens more and more, we also see more headlines talking about sea level rise, flooding, storm surges and a whole row of other challenges that our screens can show us, but seldom help us avoid in the real world.

How can hiking help us facing climate change?

Hiking can help us both live using less resources and also to live more nomadic lives, where we are more capable of moving out of the reach of the rising water when needed and fast. Hiking can simply help us face the approaching changes in ways that are better both for us and the planet.

Moving away from the roof and onto a more sustainable mindset

Sitting on the roof is what most of us will consider the worst case scenario. But it is also a scenario that are becoming less and less easy to brush of, as not going to happen. Just the latest prognoses of sea level change put countless of coastal communities into the high risk zone of flooding.

Moving out of the reach of the water is one way, but before this happen we can still do a lot of things to slow down the pace of the changes. And surprisingly many of them are related to walking. When we walk we use less resources and relate better to the places around us. Spending less and using local resources instead of global ones. Getting rid of cars, of long distance commute and resource demanding lifestyles is just first step

Learning to get by on foot can also teach us how to relate better to our neighborhoods and to the resources and people that are within reach, in both good and challenged times. And it can also help us to get in better shape and healthier.

Hikers also learn to eat less, and more wisely, as they need to carry everything, so they also waste less and eat less meat, because meat is difficult to keep fresh, compared to plant based protein sources. All something that can help slow the amount of resources we use.

Hiking can also help us navigate in unfamiliar terrain and face challenges in ways where we get more robust, learning to read the clouds and winds and know what to do and when to move, when the weather goes into an extreme gear. Maybe there is even hope hiking can help us avoid ending up on that roof at all….