KEY POINTS:
I Had a shock run-in on Albert St last week with an acquaintance I had not seen for 15 years.
Our chance meeting truly was shocking - for both her and me.
For her, well, I can't adequately describe the look on her face when she made those opening remarks about how shiny my head was and how "follicly challenged" I'd become since we last met.
I was shocked at how she had changed in her attitudes towards protecting the environment.
Like a Christian missionary, she preached how important she thought it was for people to wake up and do something about climate change before it was too late.
She went on and on about how inaction could affect food supplies, down to the amount and range of seafood we would be able to order at restaurants.
She spoke of how her skiing holiday in Switzerland was spoilt earlier this year when there was hardly any snow because the country had had its warmest winter since records were kept in 1860.
"If we don't do something, who will - Captain Planet?" she said.
I could not believe the change in her or that this was the same woman who used to ridicule my involvement with the Boy Scouts and the neighbourhood recycling programme.
Five minutes into our conversation and - eureka! - I found out why she had become such a Greenie.
"It's so cool to be green now, you know," she said, showing me her bought-in-Milan, US$500 organic canvas bag designed by Stella McCartney.
Flashing the latest Singapore edition of Vogue, she read aloud a headline which said, "Harness the power of fashion to change the way the nation shops".
But what amazed me even more was her conviction that as an individual she could make a difference.
When she did not finish her fried noodles at the food hall, she refused to use a doggy bag because the stall used plastic and not biodegradable containers.
I had this encounter fresh from reading John Key's speech on National's climate change target, and Jeanette Fitzsimons' criticism of that plan - so it was exhilarating to be talking about climate change with someone in layman's terms.
I found find it hard to understand the terms used in Key's and Fitzsimons' press releases like "low carbon products", "carbon neutrality" and "greenhouse gas emissions". Neither could I picture the how "New Zealand's emissions grew by 6.8 million tonnes".
References to the effects of climate change made by these politicians are simply too out of this world to inspire me to do more for the environment.
But surprisingly, the 30 minutes I spent with my old acquaintance did.
I could identify with how she said even my dinner could be at stake if we did nothing.
And as someone who once managed a hotel at Mt Hutt in the South Island, I could feel for the businesses surrounding the Swiss ski fields and the losses they must be facing because temperatures have gone up a few degrees.
But more important, I think my friend re-instilled the belief that I too can make a difference.
I can't afford a US$500 designer grocery bag, but I am now more convinced than ever to use my 99c Pam's shopping bag as opposed to plastic bags.
And perhaps I'll be able to play my tiny part in reducing carbon emissions by changing the light bulbs in my home to energy-saving ones.
Last month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that if nothing was done to address climate change, New Zealand faced the prospect of major floods, droughts and fires.
I think New Zealanders as a whole are aware of the problem.
A ShapeNZ poll last week found 80 per cent thought climate change was a problem, 36 per cent thought it was an urgent and immediate problem, and only 8 per cent thought it was not a problem at all.
However, the IPCC report said ongoing scepticism was one of the barriers to positive action being taken to address climate change.
If all that is already happening in this world is not able to convince people, I really doubt that dishing out more facts and figures will make any difference.
To convert these sceptics, a good way is to have a campaign to promote going green as being trendy and cool.
Meeting my friend, and seeing how fashion had transformed her into an advocate for the environment, left me with the feeling that there is hope yet for Mother Earth.
