I do think that humans are in deep, deep trouble. However, that does not mean we should give up on the changes we are trying to make.
Why? When they won't necessarily solve the huge problems we face? Because they change individual lives. Our lives, as individuals, are usually better for the "green changes" we make. The lives of those around us improve.
Example: Sure, I could go buy all my produce cheaper at WalMart. But, by being a part of a CSA, I support a local organic farmer who loves farming. I support his staff who get a decent pay and health insurance. I volunteer and help other people learn to embrace new vegetables and learn to cook better.
My actions may not save the world, but they do make a difference. Your actions also may not save the world, but they do make a difference!
Do you ever feel like we are doomed, that the damage we have wreaked on this planet will be our undoing? If so, why do you continue on a green path? What motivates you and moves you to make small, and large, changes in your life?
*This new study may have been the source of her doom & gloom. I know it doesn't cheer me up! It appears we cannot stop some planetary changes; we will have to learn to live in a new world.
24 comments:
Can me naive but I don't think we are doomed. At least not yet. Perhaps this is why I continue. I believe that my small changes followed by other people's small changes do add up to a larger change.
Imagine if everyone started using reusable bags today. Imagine if a single plastic bag was no longer manufactured. That is such a small change for a individual but I think it has a huge impact on our environment.
when I look around at everyone else and how wasteful everyone is I sometimes think that our planet is doomed. If everyone started being more aware and stopped being so gluttonness (sp?) I think we could mend the earth. I think think the key is for every one who is conscious of the fact that our planet is in trouble does everything they can and to educate those who aren't aware. Some times I'm afraid that just not enough people care :(
Thanks, Billie & GreenieJoy. I've added a link to a recent study that is not too hopeful. I think small changes can add up but I also think we have to learn to adapt to a planet that is changing as a result of our past actions.
I do think the way our society functions now is unsustainable and thus "doomed" to an extent. I keep going because it's the right thing to do. I keep making changes because I want to be able to say I lived my life according to my principles and morals.
On an email list I'm part of, a guy named Kyle (greenwithagun.blogspot.com) puts it fairly eloquently:
"Ultimately what you and I do doesn't matter to the world as a whole. We each do what we feel is right. If I don't eat inhumanely treated animals, or stay faithful to my wife, or refrain from stealing, it's not because I expect it to make the world kind to animals, faithful and law-abiding. It's just the right thing for me to do - for me.
"If I screw around on my wife and she never finds out, she was never hurt, right? Was it still wrong for me to do it? If someone insults my close friend behind his back and I don't defend him, no harm done, right? But still wrong, yeah? If I find a rich guy's wallet
on the street and take the cash but return the wallet, he won't miss the thousand bucks, will he? So there are zillions of things we do or don't do even though they don't really affect the world much."
I get so damn hopeful sometimes in my little blog world, the farmers' market, my kitchen and then I come to work in the city, not even a big city really and I'm overwhelmed with waste and wonder how the tide can be turned. But it those things that give me hope that keep me going along with wanting to create narratives for the kids that are different from the mainstream because to me the kids are the ultimate hope.
Anna Banana - I think a lot of it does come down to doing what's right. Just wish more people on the planet thought taking care of it was right!
Kale - kids are a big motivator. I probably should have mentioned that in the post. For those without kids, though, that direct motivation is not present. Sure, others' kids matter but not the same as one's very own.
We are doomed. The stuff we do at individual level really doesn't add up because we're still the minority.
The changes that are required have to be done at the state/nation level. The US needs to take our standard of living down to that of Brazil to ensure any sort of real change. We are 5% of the world's population and we use 25-30% of the world's natural resources. That sucks.
Other countries should hate us for our way of life.
I was watching a pbs series episode of E2 last night via internet- China from Red to Green and got hopeful. Though China is this population giant that is changing at light speed, they are coming to see that they can't just do what the first world has done to improve the lives of their people. They have to do better. And their pride to find another, better way, as it takes hold and builds speed will shift the balance of the earth to a greener direction.
If it wasn't for all the individuals, doing experiments, living life more sustainably, talking out it, demonstrating it, having the data out there for others to duplicate the world might be even farther behind.
Its not confidence in technology that I have, its confidence in the common sense of regular people. We're in for a bumpy ride these next 20-30 years, but that ride will be worth it as we come out cleaner on the other side. I have faith. Humans drive to survive is strong!
Of course the world is doomed, but certainly not for a loooong time. Civilization will go on until it doesn't and the earth will keep spinning until the black hole that was our sun sucks it into oblivion. That's just the way it is and there's nothing you or I can do to change it. That said I firmly beleive that we can lessen the hardship of the next generations by controlling our actions and by teaching our kids to do the same. I want to make sure my kids are well, and to that end I plan for their future both short term and long term. Not only do I make them eat their vegetables and finish their hiomework, but they've grown up (some are still growing) green as well. We have managing the recycling be the kid's first job, they are taught the 3 Rs. to grow their own food and to save some water for the fishies while they brush their teeth. I encourage them to help me plan our outings to get as many errands in a session and we volunteer at earthday clean ups. Every little bit helps, and every little bit is taught to the children. They sometimes surprise even me with their resourcefulness in fuguring out how to repurpose some object and it makes me so proud. My oldest daughter is now 20 and she and her friends grew up with all the green slogans and such. I asked her recently if she thought it made a difference and of she noticed people of her generation doing more envirnmentally than others and she said she had noticed a difference, like the hesitation that occurs when there's no obvious recycle bin available, she said quite a few of her compatriates would prefer to carry their trash home than not throw it in a recycle bin. I could go on forever with anecdotes, but the point I'm trying to make is that I have seen my motivation come to fruition and it drives me on.
Heck yeah, it's so easy to think why bother, when we feel the sacrifice of some small changes and see neighbors all around doing everything we aren't, times two. Or when I slip up!!
That's why it's good to have these online communities and know that thousands of people are making big changes. And the more we do so, the more mainstream it becomes, the more the less inclined do too.
The NPR story about that study on global warming had a word from the study researcher about why not to give up -- saying that if changes are irreversible, all the more reason to keep trimming our footprint, so the irreversible changes are less severe than they could be if we just kept on driving/plasticking/trashing.
I, too, have been discouraged lately. It seems that we have known about how society's wasteful ways were affecting the planet for SO LONG and no one is willing to make change.
It feels like most folks are at best sheep, and at worst willfully destructive.
But I continue to make changes in my life because I know that the changes I make are making a difference for me and my family. I can't control other folks, and I can't make them see reason, but I can control myself and my actions.
I can go into whatever is to come knowing that I have done my best.
I just keep on out of habit, and a ridiculous belief in self-improvement.
Really I think it's a moral conviction; it's wrong to waste. It's wrong to kill things for no reason, or through carelessness, or selfishness. It's wrong to disrespect other people's work (by not valuing it or throwing it away). It's wrong to deprive other creatures of the food, water, and air they need.
Now that I have a kid, I feel like I articulate it more (why can't I have a water bottle from the vending machine? Because using a bottle one time is wasteful, and that's wrong. Why are we walking to the park, I want to ride in the car! Driving when we can walk is wasteful and lazy.) But I was doing this for a long time before I had my baby.
Also, I end up talking about the grey areas - how it's important to be good but people can't always, and you have to try but not beat yourself up about stuff - a lot right now.
I actually think it matters for more than just our own moral development and the improvement of our world, although, of course, that matters too. Of course nothing we do matters that much - my vote doesn't matter, my dollar doesn't matter, my choices don't matter.
But the aggregate of choice *do* matter - the aggregate choices are sometimes better and sometimes worse. And the only way aggregate choices work is by a whole bunch of people making decisions. And how do they make decisions? Well, they look around at the other people around them.
Sneaking out and composting your vegetable waste in the dark of night doesn't matter. But chatting over the fence with your neighbor about your compost pile *does* matter. I suppose you could talk about the hypothetical benefits of composting, sure, but most people wouldn't be as interested in something we have no experience with. And you never know when those moments will click.
I grew up with lesbian parents. I still remember the "what does it matter, they are still going to hate us" discussions that went on the gay community in the early
1980s, and my parents' despair of ever being accepted as normal.
By 1989, five or six years later, when I was a senior in high school, my step mother spoke to a packed auditorium of teenagers about gay and lesbian rights at my public high school. One or two people protested, but overwhelmingly, the response was positive.
A decade after that, my mother and step-mother were married in their church, a church that in the late 1980s had issued stern "gay people should not be made too welcome" messages.
A few years later, my mother and step-mother got married at city hall in their town in Massachusetts - it was the same town they'd despaired of ever ceasing to be hated in. The town judge told them how delighted she was to marry them, and their picture was on the front page of the paper with the words "Happy Days."
And all of this happened very quickly in human terms - the world still isn't perfect for gay people, but the difference is huge. And much of it lies at the feet not so much of activism (although that was important) but of ordinary, daily acts - the sister who came out, when it would have been easier to stay in the closet, the guy who said "Wait, my sister is gay, and that's no ok for you to say." The mother who calmly mentioned that she had a new grandchild - her daughter's new lover. The gays and lesbians who came out at work, who insisted on bringing their partners to the party or to the family gathering.
All of those individual actions combined to transform the world. Not just change it a little, but make the difference between gay life in 1982 and in 2002 the difference between night and day.
So yeah, they matter.
Sharon
I read a book once called "An Imperfect Offering". It was written by the past president of Doctors without Borders, and this man had been to Rwanda and Afghanistan and all sorts of places where people were doing horrible, horrible things. And he saw all the suffering and pain and death and he could only change a little bit. Maybe he and his team could save 10,000 lives when millions were dying. But those people lived on to bear witness and pass down the lessons of that time.
So he kept on working, to save the lives that he could.
That really isn't cheerful is it?
Anyway, I keep on doing my thing because I will have to answer to my son some day. And because I hope to inspire others to do the same, and multiply my effect. And because it is right and I despise the "who cares about the environment?" attitude of many people around me. Why would I want to become like them? ;)
Never, ever feel that way. Ever. Ha!
Yes, I do. But honestly, what keeps me going is knowing that I'm doing the absolute best that I can do to change the things that are pushing the earth in the wrong direction. And knowing that doing those things is definitely better than sitting around being depressed.
And you know, if we don't try - if we don't do our very best - then we'll never know if we could have made difference. I'm not willing to live with that.
Our actions make a difference in other people's lives. You push me, I push you, we push our readers and our families and our friends, and they push theirs, and we do create change. The wider scale the better, I think - and maybe we all need to put our energy into making sure we're reaching as wide as we can. But we're creating change.
PS Deep in our hearts, I think some of us knew the results of this study. But it doesn't mean the world is ending. It just means it's getting more difficult. Which means we need to work even harder!!!!!
I think what we do does matter, even if it seems small. My boyfriend doesn't get why I bother. He doesn't understand why I want to learn to make my own bread to create one less plastic bag thats used to package that store bought bread. It may seem insignifigant but its not. Because take 1 million people and have each one of them make one loaf of bread thats 1 million bags saved. Take 1 million people use one less plastic bag at the grocery store and thats 1 million bags kept out of the dump and 2 million bags worth of resources saved. What each individual does may seem minute(sp?) and may seem like it what you're doing isn't making a different but if you took one million other people doing the same exact thing it does make a difference :)
Climate change is here. I already feel it in the shifting seasons. The rain season that is shorter. The tomatoes that do not ripen until December. I don't think we can change what is here and certainly climate change will continue. We have proven to be a resourceful species though and I still have hope that we will find a way to adapt and have decent lives for our children and their children.
And, as you point out, even if we are doomed, living in accordance with our principles, trying new, greener ways of living that improve our quality of life - like your CSA example - does make a difference. Even if it is not enough of a difference to stop climate change.
The shock value alone of telling people that I don't use deodorant or that all of my clothes are line dried is enough of an incentive. Who doesn't enjoy being a trend-setter?
I'm not out to save the world. In fact, I've never claimed that my motivation for living the way I do has anything to do with a desire to stop global warming or reverse peak oil. I can't control those things, but I can control my little corner of this world, and here, my goal is to leave *it* better than when I found *it*.
Very simple philsophy, and I sleep very well ;).
Bleh ... I meant "simple philosophy" ;). Guess I should go and get some of that sleep :).
Every day that I wake up is different from the day before. Every day that comes brings new changes. I honestly don't worry about long term, i.e. 20-30 years in the future stuff. I worry about how to put food on the table next month. If I wake up and I've got the funds to do that, it's a great day.
One day at a time, one week at a time, one month at a time. The rest will build on that and every little change that I make keeps me going forward.
I've been saying for years that it's way too late when it comes to saving the planet. But I still wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't do my best to avoid contributing to it. I guess what I hope is that a few people will learn by my example, and they will teach a few people, and so on. That sort of trickle-down effect isn't going to save the world, but it's what I can do with a little extra effort.
Thank you, everyone, for sharing what keeps you going in the face of bad environmental news! I found your stories heartening and encouraging, and hope others do as well.
Yes, I'm late in the game, but I don't believe we're doomed.
Do I believe every action has an effect? Of course.
Do I believe that humanity and/or the world is doomed? No. I believe it will change, perhaps not for the better (ie. species dying/climate shifts), but it will exist.
We can do two things: We can succumb to the "why bother" point of view or we can keep making a small difference in our own small way.
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