New Year’s Resolutions – For The Planet

We’re more than half-way through January and perhaps some of those promises you made to yourself are beginning to lose traction in your life? New Year’s resolutions are most often personal – read more books, get in better shape, meditate to reduce stress, stick to a budget etc. Sadly, data shows that only a small number of individuals (8-9%) are successfully adhering to their resolutions a year after making them. The reasons for failure include setting unrealistic goals, lacking a clear plan, having no accountability, and forgetting the ‘why?’.

I encourage you also to consider making resolutions that go beyond the personal and into the realm of planetary health.

This past spring, in our Earth Day message, we shared a ‘planetary pledge’ that individuals can adopt at any time. These are small actions we can commit to which, collectively, can have a huge impact on the health of the planet. Even choosing one or two, and sticking with them, can make a difference:

• Walk, bike or take public transit to work at least twice a week

• Plan a local holiday rather than one requiring extensive transportation

• Practice mindful consumption. Factor in the carbon footprint of the food and products you choose to buy

• Make three dinners each week that are entirely plant-based

• Reduce the amount of single-use plastics at home and work

• Work towards a greening your healthcare workplace (Green Office Toolkit)

• Adopt planetary health strategies in your clinical practice by, for example, reducing unnecessary tests and prescriptions (Climate Action in Healthcare) (Choosing Wisely Canada)

• Get involved and learn from doctor organizations that view planetary health as being inextricably linked to human health (Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment)

• Author your own individual commitments, aimed at reducing your carbon emissions

Happy (belated) New Year, and good luck making those resolutions stick!