Although the talk surrounding climate and environmentalism has only ramped up in recent years, it still feels exactly like it did eight years ago. Even with the fires and natural disasters, it still seems like most of the world doesn’t care. Perhaps it’s also an admission to the overwhelming inevitability of it all, an argument that people often bring up. Perhaps it was already over before it began.
Where does the moral responsibility of it go? Is it up to businesses to source more sustainable materials, pay fair wages, and reduce their emissions? Or is it up to the consumer to buy the more “eco-friendly” choice, to stop spending so recklessly on single-use goods, to do everything in their power to minimize their carbon footprint.
For a while, I thought it was my responsibility. In high school, I tried to organize a single-use straws movement in my town. For some reason at the time it had been idealized as a gateway into getting rid of single-use plastics as a whole. Once the straw problem had been tackled, then perhaps next water bottles, disposable cups, etc. etc. In reality, the retrospective on the straw craze had concluded that it ended up being an easy way out for businesses to be greener when in reality they would continue doing more damaging activities under the guise that they were saving the environment by switching their plastic spoons to wooden and plastic straws to paper. I always wondered about that take because I suppose if I was Big Business, and given the choice to save the planet or increase margins, I’d always choose the former. No one wants to do the bad thing right?
Perhaps I felt and still feel a visceral connection to this sense of personal responsibility because in high school they took us to see a landfill and a recycling plant (where I learned only 10% or some crazy low number ever gets recycled) and I felt incredibly shocked seeing the enormity of stuff being buried into the ground or manually sorted.
Even though it’s been a while since the landfill tour, I feel like I find all the more reason to care. Every day to work I see the climate clock counting down the time left, I read passages about superfunds and fires, and during lunch we discuss the smoky east coast summer. We’ve known this for so long that even when the effects are in our face so much we can’t look away, we still don’t know what to do.
It feels like all I can do is vote, donate, and do minor acts of individual action that I know might be a blip in the sea but offers hope to me. I try to bring my reusable utensil set/waterbottle/containers wherever I go, I try to not get too much takeout, I try to avoid buying new things and using e-commerce websites and those snacks in tiny bags, but sometimes I realize that this whole world’s economy relies on making waste and on making new things1. I would have to live an incredibly monastic life to avoid making waste. But I can’t resist thinking that doing all this means something.2 I mean, the consumer resistance against Shein means something right? Consumer action means something right?
left image - a dream for circularity instead of straight waste https://twitter.com/LegoLostAtSea/status/1614674823220985856 right: an art piece where an artist didn’t throw out any of their waste over a month and a recording of all its accumulation
My individual action is my tiny beacon of hope for the future, even though it’ll probably do nothing to stop the stream of making things, buying things, and burning things into the air. But it’s too sad to think of hopelessness as the inevitable. I toil and live my life in hopes of a better future. If I was given the choice, even if I’m not really given the choice, I’ll take it and do my best.
notes from my brain crevices
I’ve been meaning to write for so long that I’m pretty sure I’ve been thinking about it weekly - I appreciate that people I know and don’t know follow this but I think I got wrapped once again in a - I’m producing content that’s going to spend people’s attention and I want people to spend it well so maybe I shouldn’t write ~ also tiktok brain even though I’m not even on tiktok ~
Lately I’ve also been very interested in ambient images - something about it being a little off from reality is kind of the magical-ness of real life
I’m in NYC for the next year for my first postgrad job - if you’re here please lmk!
Disclaimer: In 2 min post-writing this retrospect I know I have a more extreme sense of individual responsibility regarding environmentalism, but I think on my personal evaluation of How Much Ability I have over what I could do, it’s my own bar I set myself to. Everyone has their own bar and level of ability to take environmental actions given individual circumstances etc. etc.
Along the theme of Feeling Bad When Using Single Use Plastics - I feel really bad when I use a red solo cup but will enjoy a game of stack cup. I wish it was a norm to just reuse that stuff… being “sustainable” in these minuscule actions like aforementioned and bringing a reusable jar to the wholesale store, but they are also arguably a Hassle. Trying to avoid creating too much waste is Really Hard and Inconvenient :,o
And so does the media - re: https://www.npr.org/2017/07/19/537954372/want-to-slow-global-warming-researchers-look-to-family-planning - an article I initially thought was kind of crazy but now after figuring how much I waste makes some sense…