We may think about it a lot, but are we doing anything about saving the environment? Or are we just complaining and feeling gloomy? Maybe identifying how we waste time and get distracted might help us in the way forward.
1 Complaining
Complaining helps no one, and the experts say it doesn’t even make you feel any better. We’ve all done it, whether trash-talking Wal-Mart shoppers, launching into another “we’ve had electric-car technology for 100 years” diatribe or boring everyone by rambling on and on about why building over farmland with condominiums is bad. Stop complaining about your do-nothing MP and write them a letter or two.
2 Anger
Every environmentalist has trigger points – idling SUVs, air conditioning left on in empty houses all day, Canada’s attempt to keep massively destructive fossil-fuel extraction alive and well (the Tar Sands). It’s a world of wrongs and the fact that hardly anyone else notices makes you even more angry. To quote John Lydon, “Anger is an energy!” Channel it usefully and ride your bike harder.
3 Complaining that You Can’t Afford To
The recent combo-plate of recession and enviro-doom is not easy or cheap to swallow. To afford that solar-shingle upgrade do you have to endure five years of gruel, iceberg lettuce and ersatz coffee? It seems wrong that the greenest options are always the most expensive ones. But look a little deeper and you’ll find ways to save money and your planet: cutting out factory-farmed meat has a huge impact on the greenhouse gases responsible for climate chaos. Sub in lentils for meat and watch your food bill drop.
4 It’s the End of the World as We Know It. And You Feel Fine.
Look around: your SUV-driving neighbour likes to cut down trees for no reason, your MP can’t even spell “environment” and your country is known internationally as an unapologetic and extra-dirty fossil-fuel superpower. How can we avoid the planetary meltdown we so richly deserve? Bring on Armageddon. Actually, it’s coming very soon, according to some interpretations of the Mayan calendar. Just remember that we’ve repeatedly called for the End of the World since at least 1000 A.D. and the track record, obviously, is poor.
5 The Wal-Mart Blanket Condemnation
Can Wal-Mart’s recent efforts to reduce its environmental footprint ever offset its (probably) far greater negative impact? We can’t even begin to answer that in this rushed and irresponsible Top 5 list, but we’re not sure the alternatives to Wal-Mart are any better. Shopping Canadian in a country whose organic certification and alternative energy programs lag far behind countries with comparable GDP does not always translate into a better green bet. Fortunately you’ll find no shortage of product information on the Internet and in this far-out, kind of subversive old technology called books. Turns out there are five ‘R’s’ behind low-impact consumerism: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Research, Relax.
