I Am My Own Enemy

I am “mainstream.” I don’t live in an off-the-grid yurt clad with solar panels. I don’t grow my own food. I live in a house, use my heater in the winter, and own a car. I learned these things from birth from my culture, which taught me to live easy, fast, and comfortable at all peripheral costs. On the other hand, I walk or bike most places, I choose to buy used clothes, and I refuse to pack my kids’ lunches in Ziploc bags. Though I do some things “right,” I’m still my own enemy in the environmental arena because to live like a modern person in this era is to use and waste resources left and right.

I cringed when I saw the front cover of September 25th’s Islands’ Sounder showing the sign from the local climate strike that said, “If you acted like adults, we wouldn’t have to.” It’s a fantastic stinger of a quote, but I couldn’t help but think how many of the kids who stood behind that sign got a ride home in their parents’ SUV and ate pizza from Costco that night.

On the other hand, I’ve watched Greta Thunberg’s UN speech and Ted Talk. I was so choked up. What courage she had to stand up to the whole world and ask why we’re collectively choosing to be so dang careless. I cringe at people calling her a puppet because she actually walks the talk.

Both “sides” are saying things that are just too easy to say. What we all need to start doing is what’s hard. Have you ever tried to omit plastics from your life? It’s hard. Have you ever tried to bike everywhere in cold rain? It’s hard. It’s easy to strike but it’s hard to grow food in your own garden.

I used to be an alternative energy writer and researcher. It was my job to go to the ends of the Internet to try to find any person who was working on a legitimate source of alternative energy that could be implemented globally, effectively, and environmentally in place of fossil fuels. It was next to impossible.

The only way for us to make fast, global change is for all 7.5 billion of us to want to – all of us rapidly changing how we envision infrastructure, learning how to grow food, and being content with not buying stuff. Laughable, right? I can’t imagine it. Our global culture respects what makes money, not what makes sense.

When we have no oil, we’ll change. When we have to get around a different way, we’ll invent. When we need food, we’ll get busy. If there’s anything that characterizes humanity, it’s resourcefulness. But…the Gretas who are starting now are the wise ones. They will be tomorrow’s leaders when the rest of us are still clamoring for comfort.

This article was published in the October 9th issue of the Islands’ Sounder…

Climate change means hard choices| Letter