By Halle Nottage
In recent years, it has been predicted that the Earth has about 11 or so years until it dies due to Climate Change, according to the most recent United Nations Climate Action Summit (2019). This means extreme droughts, food shortages, and dangerous flooding, unless there is a massive collective effort amongst Earth’s inhabitants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2030.
So how exactly do we reverse what many consider to be to far gone to fix? Two things, 1) Don’t lose hope, and 2) Stop being selfish. Point number one seems relatively self explanatory. We simply cannot stop hoping and working towards helping the Earth stay in existence for as long as possible, because if we lose hope, we have nothing. However, the second point always requires some explanation as people simply cannot seem to wrap their heads around the concept of not being selfish.
When I say selfish, I am referring to people prioritizing their wants over their needs, and prioritizing comfort over sustainability. Wants over needs looks like people buying certain food that they know are not good for the environment, one example for this is beef, which supports the meat industry. The meat industry and other animal agriculture industries are responsible for around eighteen percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. This is literally five percent higher than ALL combined exhaust from transportation (cowspiracy.com). You may want meat because “hey, it tastes good!” but bottom line is that by continuing to buy products that support corporations who are disregarding the environment is extremely selfish. Comfort over sustainability looks like continuing to use plastic bottles, taking extra long showers, driving places you could walk and so on. It’s just easier to throw something away; it’s easier to not have to put the effort into driving to a recycling plant; it’s easier to not expend slightly more energy. However, valuing your own personal comfort over the Earth’s health is selfish. In the long run the small choices you make in order to to maintain your own comfort add up, and have lead us to where we are today. Additionally, most of the choices you make selfishly also involve you robbing yourself of being healthier. Consider these things before you make your next choice at the grocery store, or before you get into your car.
Our individual efforts may seem small to us, but in the grand scheme of things they add up, which could result in reversing the decline of our planet Earth.