It’s Blog Action Day today (Thursday 15th Oct, 2009), and the theme this year is Climate Change.
When I was seven, I started a Rainforest Club, inspired by school. The inaugaural meeting involved me and a few friends making posters about the destruction of the rainforest. The irony of this was completely lost on me. (The meeting also descended into an argument between me and my friend Ben, which I believe involved threatening one another with coathangers. All in all, it was not the most successful environmental campaign ever.)
Since then, I’ve been sceptical about how much our individual actions can really make an impact on a global scale, especially when it comes to the environment. Sure, I can recycle, I can try to reduce my carbon footprint, I can use a green webhost – but is any of this going to be significant?
Pointing Out the Path for the Future
I’ve come, more and more, to believe that we can make a difference. Even though our own individual actions may not amount to much (in the face of big business eco-unfriendly practices), we are doing something significant each time we take the trouble to sort packaging into the recycling, instead of dumping it all in a black bin bag.
We’re changing our mindset.
I was born in 1984, so I grew up along with the Green movement. My short-lived Rainforest Club was the start of a childhood interest in ecological issues: I remember my family were members of Friends of the Earth at one point, my brother and I owned a much-read copy of Captain Eco and the Fate of the Earth, a 1980s graphic novel (I sadly can’t find a picture online), and all three of us kids were avid fans of Captain Planet.
I was about ten at this point, so the eco-friendliness mainly appealed to me because of the entertainment factor. Even so, the messages sunk in. I’m still far from perfect, and my attempts at being green are prompted by guilt rather than any in-depth knowledge of ecological issues … but simple things like recycling, energy-saving lightbulbs, rechargable batteries seem natural and normal to me. I was shocked in my old workplace that there were no facilities for recyling waste paper.
Slowly, we’re seeing a cultural shift. Within my lifetime, maybe fifteen years ago, green issues were a minority interest. Now, all the mainstream political parties here in Britain have the environment on their agenda. Businesses have eco-friendly policies and practices. Kids are learning about taking care of the environment as they grow up.
I hope that, with enough of us taking action, with enough of us changing our own hearts, we can change the people around us, and set an agenda for the future.
World Events Affecting Us
Yesterday, the author Aminatta Forna came and led my MA Creative Writing’s afternoon seminar. She spoke eloquently and movingly about The Devil that Danced on the Water, her memoir of growing up in Sierra Leone in the 1960s and 1970s: her father was a political dissident (arrested by the secret police and later executed) and her childhood was lived in the shadow of political and economic events.
She told us that, when she was researching the book, she drew up a timeline of the events in her childhood, a chronology of memories – and then overlaid it with a political timeline. She was staggered by how the world stage affected her on a very personal level, and said that while we often feel that political events are somehow happening at a distance from us, they do affect our lives.
Climate change can feel very distant. It can seem like a problem that’s far, far removed from our own lives and our own worries, concerns and stresses. But in thirty years’ time, if we each overlaid our own memories (of unusually mild winters, of scorching summers, of floods and monsoons) with the timeline of climate change, we’d see how it’s affecting us.
The reverse, of course, is also true. World events affect individuals – but individuals can change the world.
So What Can You Do?
If, like me, you know your green credentials are dodgy at best, start finding some ways to take action without feeling that you have to start wearing large quantities of hemp.
I’d recommend checking out the blog EcoSimply (I’m biased here – I write for it!) It’s a gorgeous-looking blog aimed at eco-beginners, with practical tips and plenty of encouragement.
And, of course, check out some of the other blogs which are joining in Blog Action Day: you can find the list over here.
I'm Ali Luke, a writer and 
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Ali, I totally agree with you that even one person may not seem like a lot, but one person among thousands can make a difference in making our earth greener.
I used to be in ecology club and we would gather together and find random ways to clean up the environment. One of them was recycling ink cartridges by putting them in a box. I never knew how damaging they could be to the environment.
Thanks for this post.
P.S. I think you spelled “individual” wrong in your title. Just a heads up.
.-= Tristan Lee´s last blog ..The Benefits of Becoming a Better Listener =-.
Big whoops on the title – bit of a typo-stutter there. Thanks for spotting it, Tristan!
Great point about ink cartridges. It’s things like that that I’m afraid I’m not good at thinking about … because they’re so small, it’s easy to forget that they’re bad for the environment. The new cartridges for my previous printer used to come with a special little postage-paid bag so that you could send the cartridge off for recycling, which I thought was a great idea! Sadly, the new printer doesn’t seem to have a similar scheme.
Hey, Ali – great post! I like that you did not use the term global warming since many people seem to ignore that term thinking “it still gets cold in winter so it must not be happening”. Climate change is most certainly happening but I guess that gives them rationalization to keep driving their huge, gas guzzling pick-up trucks where they only need the bed a few times a year.
I am not innocent by any means since sometimes the easy way out is not the environmentally friendly way and I say “well, I’m just one person so it won’t matter” when it does (I consider myself pretty green; I drive a Honda Civic, turn off lights when I’m not using them, recycle, etc). So if I think sometimes that my impact won’t make a difference than many others must have the same rationalization for not being green. If we can all understand that what we do in fact does make a difference than on a large scale we will see a difference.
Anyway, that’s my rant for the afternoon. Thanks for the post. I think we all need this reminder once in a while.
Hey Ali,
Couldn’t agree more. Here is AUS we even have a seperate bin for recycling, and people are STILL too lazy to put their cans & plastic in there… It’s a joke. Everything needs to change, Australia is a prime culprit as it’s very hot over summer, I wish someone would look at housing building standards to enforce more ‘eco-friendly’ buildings…
“Global Warming” does just seem to be a buzz word now unfortuantely… Thanks for the EcoSimply recommendation.
.-= Andrew´s last blog ..You only need one idea… =-.
Thanks Andrew and Bill.
Yes, I agree with you both that “global warming” isn’t the most helpful term. It’s not just warming that’s a problem – I think that’s the point about “climate change”.
Bill, I find myself taking the easy way out too often. It really *does* make a difference on a large scale if we all act (for some reason, I’m better at telling myself this about voting than about the environment.)
Andrew, I live in the UK and I think we have a laziness problem too … or possibly just a lack of education. A number of times, I’ve seen people in our block of flats put rubbish (like bits of food waste) into the recycling boxes.