Sustainable Living – Why Bother?
I thought I was pretty clever coming up with this “Why Should I Bother…” theme but when I began to do my research, of course I found out that it wasn’t an original thought!
The most striking thing I discovered was a piece written by Michael Polin for the New York Times “Green” edition in early 2008. I found it to be a wryly funny and thought provoking article and it started a couple of good conversations around my dinner table and in the coffee shop.
So, why would anyone, the average everyday kind of Earth dweller, bother learning about and responding to Climate Change or Global Warming by developing a more Sustainable Lifestyle?
I’m supposing that there are as many answers to that question as there are people on the planet so I’m going to pick just a few that may be common for many living in places like the USA and Canada, Europe and the UK, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
Of course one really has to look into Asia these days with huge cities in Malaysia and places like China and India becoming more and more industrialised…
We (meaning our governments, economies, institutions) are having difficulty supporting the needs and wants of less than 1 billion people who are currently living a “first world” lifestyle and yet that same less than 1 billion people seem unwilling to look to ways to make that possible. Despite the debate on climate change and global warming, it appears that there is a kind of uneasy consensus amongst the scientists and politicians that it is real and that most of the posturing is around whether or not “we” are making it worse and if so, how much.
So my first reason for why you should bother learning about and responding to Climate Change by developing a more sustainable lifestyle is … because you can.
If you are reading this article you are most likely one of the most well educated, well fed, well catered for people living on Earth today.
You have an amazing brain and are the most well placed to utilise all those resources that have been poured into your life to learn about and respond to THE most pressing environmental, political and social crisis that has ever fallen to people to do something about. I have access to so much information, so much data, so much communication choice that it is easy for me to find out about this subject. It is easy for me to find the one piece of it that will be interesting to me, that will make it matter to me, that will allow me to become engaged in the subject. So Do You.
Michael Polin, in his New York Times piece wrote primarily around food – that is what he does,that is his passion, his purpose. He wove his awareness of his responsibility as a citizen of the world and his passion for food, into something empowering for others who were looking for a way to respond to climate change.
So can you. You too have a passion and a purpose, you too have access to all the information and communication resources I have. You too can empower yourself and others to do something today.
My second reason for why you should bother to learn about and respond to climate change by developing a more sustainable lifestyle is because… it is easy.
It is so easy, I get frustrated with people (governments, corporations and others with vested interests) trying to make it sound so difficult.
I get frustrated with people like me and you who tell me that it’s too big a problem and what can one person do about it?
I get frustrated with people who moan and say that it’s the responsibility of ‘them’ to fix it and why are ‘they’ taking so long!
At the end of the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” Al Gore came up with something so simple, so easy for everyone to do that most people probably missed it. It was to change all your lighting over to energy efficient globes. Just a little thing. How on earth could that make any difference? Every little thing will make a difference and it’s those things that you have total control over. You have the power in your life, in your home, in your workplace to make a lot of little changes, little adjustments, little suggestions. Little things are easy and YOU get responsibility for getting them going in your home and your neighbourhood. There is a LOT of information on how to cut your consumption of electricity, gas and oil on the internet, in magazines, on television shows. All these things will cut your energy use which will reduce your personal emissions that are adding to the problem of climate change. They are easy to implement, some of them are free, some will save your money, some are just little changes to the way you behave. ALL of them make a difference.
The issues we are facing with climate change and global warming came about one drop at a time, one layer at a time, one thing after another until finally something changed and a sequence of events began to occur that is resulting in the massive changes to Earths life support systems. It’s this one that really gets me going and is my third point for this article.
My third reason for learning about and responding to climate change by developing a more sustainable lifestyle is because you are responsible and you are the leader on this in your home, in your community.
We are all responsible and not only for our over-consumption of the worlds resources – the statistics that keep getting quoted are for the USA and they are as follows: 5% of the worlds population consuming 25% of the worlds resources. One quarter of the worlds resources. I’m assuming most of the rest of the developed world follows a similar pattern and I’m prepared to take responsibility for that. I am now standing up and stepping forward, will you come too? We are responsible for our families and our communities. We want our kids and our parents and our friends to live happy and healthy lives. We can do that without continuing our quick step march to collapse of our culture and our species. We can do that without continuing our reckless and mindless stripping of the Earths resources. We can do that without our devastating impact on all the other valuable and worthwhile living and breathing animals and plants we share this spec of dirt, this shining jewel in the sky that we call home.
Our Governments don’t lead on these kinds of issues. Maybe once upon a time they did but in modern times, Governments have tended to ‘watch the market’ so to speak and do what they think will be popular. So they are not going to take the lead on this issue, unless they think you want them too.
If you make it clear to your political leaders that you want them to respond to climate change in real and meaningful ways, they will. I’m afraid, rolling up to vole once every four years is not going to be soon enough, or loud enough.
Whether you currently believe in climate change or not, it will effect you.
Whether you currently consume a lot or a little, you can do more.
Whether you think there will be a political shift, a technological breakthrough or a grassroots revolution – climate change is happening. Water shortages, food shortages, energy shortages are all going to impact your life, your family, your community. I hope we have a few years left to mitigate those events, to plan for them, to have support mechanisms in place and develop alternatives and replacements.
You can do something today and everyday that will lessen the impact on you and your family. You can do other things that will help your whole community. If you become really interested, empassioned even, you can support people who are doing things that might just help the whole of life on this planet.
Where can you start? At home as always.
Change your light globes, re-cyle everything you bring into your home – compost, recycle services, free-cycle networks, charity stores. Reduce the amount of waste you produce and take responsibility for it’s disposal.
Look to your consumption patterns and habits – you can cut your energy consumption by turning off lights and appliances that you are not using right now, by walking to your friends house, by riding your bike to school, by doing more than one thing when you take the car out, by car sharing or pooling, by using public transport even once a week.
You can create a healthier you by changing your eating habits – eat at home more often, grow some of your own food, even herbs on a window ledge have health and climate change benefits. Cut down your consumption of meat – up to 25% of your carbon emissions are coming from meat consumption. That is an enormous amount – try one vegetarian dish every week and see if you discover a new family favourite. I bet by the end of the year you can halve your meat consumption and not even miss it.
Share what you are learning with people you know. If you found something that is great for your family or for you personally, share it with someone you love. You would do that if you found a great deal on shoes somewhere right? It’s only natural to share good ideas, great recipes, fun activities and so this part of the process will be even easier.
There are so many more things you can do. REDUCE, Re-Use and Re-cyle are the words you can use to remind yourself of your new commitment to life on earth. REDUCE is the most important component. We all just want to be happy and healthy, we can do that without consuming all the ‘stuff’ we currently consume – take a look at your life, your family, your community and see what consumption patterns you can reduce while at the same time increasing your levels of happiness and health.
What a challenge, what a reward. Climate change could be just the opportunity we need to re-envision our whole lives and the way we live them. Now I’m feeling grateful to climate change, go figure.
Cate Ferguson lives in Australia and has been involved in the personal development and empowerment field for many years. Cate is also passionate about the environment and is in the process of creating a sustainable lifestyle for herself and her family. Cate writes articles and blogs, makes videos and other resources for those looking to learn more about the environment, sustainable and alternative lifestyles, climate change and permaculture. You can find Cate on the web through these links:
http://www.AlternativeLifestyleSite.com/blog
http://www.CateFerguson.com
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