Rude Awakening
Don’t hit the Snooze Button!
No greenwashing here please. In 7th grade, I used to wake my big brother up by walking into his room and screaming as loud as I could. My mother asked that I stop doing that when she discovered my methods, as it was potentially devastating to the person waking up from a deep slumber. Fast forward to the year 2008 and I am sharing this anecdote–and publicly apologizing to my brother–because people seem inconvenienced by the wake up calls coming their way, with regard to climate change and sustainability.
For example, the front page of Sunday Styles in the New York Times “That Buzz in Your Ear May be Green Noise,” discussed the conflict between taking a glass jug of milk back to the store for reuse or buying a paper milk carton. The carton consumer thinks he is doing better because the milk jugs are heavier to transport, wasting more gas, and the cleaning process is water intensive. Paper gets recycled. The jug consumer assumes that no new waste is a good idea, but she is feeling somewhat challenged by her carton purchasing friend. And so the article continues, talking about how people have all sorts of conflicting information coming their way when trying to become more sustainable and the ending result is a green fatigue and no one cares any more. After finishing reading this, I of course began my never ending letter to the editor and then decided I would express my thoughts here instead.
People are inundated with the green-good-deeds of everyone these days, from their Con Ed paper less bills to Exxon Mobil’s slogan of “Find Energy Solutions. Protect the Environment.” The green washing unfortunately takes up the same amount of room in our minds as the stuff we actually do need to hear and we get very bored, very fast. Beyond that, hearing conflicting information doesn’t help and on an individual consumer scale, it is easy to get overwhelmed.
But the simple reality is, there is no simple solution. We have been dooped into thinking that as long as we buy the right milk carton, we are on the right track to sustainability. Things are unfortunately a bit more complex than that and this is the first time that humans are facing unprecedented climate change–and caring about it–and large scale metropolitan living. We have A LOT of things to sort out, so I would ask those who feel overwhelmed to allow that sentiment to turn into one of curiosity, not frustration. Environmentalists and researchers–those who are committed to finding solutions–can not be intimidated by this green fatigue. This time, we need to continue sounding the alarms, screaming at our brothers to wake up.The potential effects of not doing so are far more devastating than not. I think mom would agree this time.
