Giving Thanks for the Environment

Talking with someone about the environment can be a daunting task. It's difficult to know which way to approach the subject. In my mind, I pictured the conversation being awkward and forced. I would be sitting at the dinner table having a normal conversation when all of a sudden I would blurt out, "What do you think about climate change?" Everyone at the table would be stunned into silence and would stare at me in horror. "Why are you bringing that up?" They would ask. With this scenario in the back of my mind, I tried to think of alternative ways to broach the subject with my family over Thanksgiving Break.

Bringing up the environment to my father was interesting. My father is a lot like me: we like to avoid thinking about things which are unsavory. Unlike me, however, my father is a libertarian and believes strongly in personal liberty; he wants to live his life the way he has chosen to live it. I decided that the best way to bring up the subject with him would be to talk about what I had been learning in class without making it seem as if I was lecturing him or trying to change his mind, because then he might have been less open to what I was telling him. I felt that attacking his lifestyle choices or being argumentative would not be right way to get my point across, and would take away from the ideas I wanted to discuss.

The subjects I discussed with my dad emphasized personal lifestyle changes less and ideas about changing systems in order to make positive environmental living easy. It seemed to me that he would be more responsive to these types of ideas than to me telling him that he would need to change the way he lives his life. Additionally, I believe that these system-wide changes are much more effective in terms of helping the environment than individual actions. Therefore, I talked to him about the importance of getting rid of the concept of waste, and giving items back to manufacturers once they have completed their use to be broken down and reused, using all the materials from the previous item. I also explained how individual actions are important, but that changing the way that society functions in order to make environmental change simple is the way to go.

I was surprised by his response. He said that thinking about the environment made him feel guilty about the way he lives his life, even though I wasn't bringing up personal changes particularly. I feel like many people have such an ingrained idea about what environmentalists think people should do that even though I was talking about a different type of environmentalism which would require less lifestyle change personally for him, and more of a societal shift which would make being environmental easy, he was still thinking about those personal ways of living that would make him environmentally friendly.

This made me think about how much of what we have learned in class this semester. We have learned a lot about how making changes in the system instead of putting a band-aid on the system is the most effective way to help the environment. Many people who are not taking environment classes, however, do not know very much about this type of environmental movement. I think that much positive change could be brought about if more people were educated about the different ways in which we can help the environment, besides the relatively small-scale, practically ineffective measures of turning off the shower while you shave.

Talking to my mom about the environment was interesting as well. Her main point after our discussion was that she did not want many more different recycling bins cluttering our kitchen. For her, the environment is important but concerns about global warming are not a part of her everyday life. I tried to explain about how recycling is important, even though it is small-scale, individual change, because it keeps us thinking about the environment, and keeps these issues fresh in our mind, in front of us, in the form of recycling bins. I explained that more recycling bins in the kitchen might not look pretty, but they are a positive step towards being more environmentally friendly. I think, through listening to her point of view and thoughtfully responding with rebuttals of my own, I have convinced my mom to start recycling more of what we use in the house. Additionally, from our conversation, we decided to have a Turkey-free Thanksgiving. This was not only an environmentally-friendly thing to do, but also saved us a lot of time in preparing the Thanksgiving day meal.

Talking about the environment with people who are not actively engaged in the field or taking a course on the subject can be difficult, but sometimes some positive changes can result. This was heartening for me, because I saw that someone who does not necessarilly have the same views or the same level of concern about the environment as me can still be persuaded to be more conscientious about the environment. Having a Turkey-free Thanksgiving and adding some recycling bins to the house may not seem like much. It is small-scale, individual action, which is not as effective as a movement, as going to government and changing policies, as finding leverage points to change the system and make being environmental the norm in society. But it is not useless--it's a start.