Everything You Should Know

The idea of environmental concern has been twisted by many people into something that is practised by people who are prepared to blow away everything that is considered normal and reasonable. Let recycling take hold, say some, and it will be no time at all before the environmental lobby are forcing us to place wind turbines on our roofs and make our own electricity by jumping on a treadmill to save the planet’s resources.

Therefore, people who have considered making a difference to the state of our environment start to reconsider. “I’d like to live in a greener way, but I’m not some kind of totalitarian eco-warrior and I don’t want people to think I am” is a fairly common concern of a number of people. And it’s reasonable enough because no-one wants to be the subject of ridicule. But it doesn’t need to be that black and white, or green and white.

You can make a difference in the home without going on marches. Just because you re-use an empty milk carton it doesn’t mean you are going to set fire to your neighbor’s car. You can help the environment without becoming an anarcho-terrorist. There is a world of difference between valuing the future of your planet, your country or your town and suddenly wanting to take over the world. So try not to listen to the skeptics. It’s easy to understand their position, but letting them change your mind without really presenting a coherent argument is not so easy to understand.

Green living is something that attracts enthusiasm and scorn in seemingly equal measures. For every person who embraces the idea as something that we all should do, there are at least a few who will view it as a “scam” and a way of getting money out of people by tripping their guilt reflex. For someone who is keen to avoid making anyone angry, it can be a difficult balance to strike. But when it comes down to it, the fact is that there is a lot of merit in living in an environmentally friendly way.

Now, this does not mean that you have to throw out your possessions and replace them with greener alternatives. You don’t have to massively disrupt your life to make it green. What you need to look at is the ways that you may be polluting or contributing to an environmentally unfriendly world and thinking how you could change things for the better – every long journey starts with a single step. If it is a simple matter of recycling your newspapers or walking instead of driving short distances, that’s fine.

What you will find is that living in a green way does not put you to very much extra effort. You won’t be able to drive back global warming or air pollution all on your own, but the difference you can make in your own area without having to go to immense lengths is really something. And once you’ve got the ball rolling, you’ll see a lot of other changes that you can make.

The human condition is constantly evolving, which may be news to those who believe it to be shallow and self-obsessed. As time goes on, the way we look at things is influenced both by the past and by the needs of the present. So while the 80s were considered to be a cynical time, and the 90s were about activism, the last decade became something in between the two – keen to do right, but terrified of appearing earnest and preachy.

This can be seen in a lot of the awareness movements and even charity telethons of the past decade. Although the issue of doing the right thing is always implicit in such movements, the underlying impression was that participants were keen to give a message of “Yes, I’m being noble, but I don’t want you to think that I am noble myself, so I will gently mock myself while doing so”. We are almost scared of appearing to care about something, so we mock ourselves before anyone else gets the chance.

In environmental terms this is often a matter of people saying “I’m just taking this to the recycling bank – yes, I’m one of those people, I’m sorry.”. Should we really be scared of being seen to care? Perhaps not. However, as the human condition changes with time, it might not be a bad way of going about things. It makes people think “I may be a little cynical about the issue, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do anything at all to help”. Better a participating cynic than someone who cares but won’t dare appear to.

Doing the right things to protect the environment is something that is not unlike charity. It is often a compromise on our behalf, and something that calls on us to go above and beyond what is naturally required of us. And like charity, environmental concern can sometimes become something that it should never be – competitive. No-one should ever be made to feel guilty because their efforts do not amount to as much actual achievement as someone else’s. The fact that people have gone to the extent of doing something to help the environment is what matters.

The truth is that some people will get more done, even without necessarily putting in more effort. Some people are better connected, or more natural fundraisers, awareness-raisers or leaders than others might be. The important numbers when it comes to environmental help are not how much more someone has done than everyone else, but how much everyone has done when it is all counted up. Yet in some cases there are individuals who miss this point.

It’s not a competition. If someone views the issue of collecting items for recycling as a matter for one-upmanship, then they really are going about it for the wrong reasons. By all means those who do a lot should be congratulated, but the truth of the matter is that it all adds up and making it into a battle is pretty unedifying considering the importance of the work being done. By working together, a lot more can be achieved.