I care about this planet, our home. I consciously learn about what’s happening to it, and how important our actions are. I write a blog, I’m not sure on what exactly anymore, but something to do with the topic of being more eco-friendly. I think about where my food is coming from. We sort our waste into recycling. I love independents and prefer buying things locally. I often shop in Charity shops, and I hate wasting things. I feel guilty when I get it wrong and make the ‘wrong’ decision.
But I make the ‘wrong’ decision all the time.
I buy new clothes because I end up bored of my current ones. I eat meat, and it’s not organic or free-range unless it’s in the reduced to clear section, because it’s expensive. I drive my car nearly every day, which is 13 years old because I can’t afford a new one. I fly on holiday. I have scolding hot showers.
I care, and I make many positive changes and planet-conscious decisions, and yet I still fail miserably at being eco-friendly or benefitting the planet with my existence.
The truth is, the only way we are going to get anywhere near our Net Zero Carbon Emissions by 2050, is the removal of choice.
The planet must take priority. The cheapest, most available option must also be the one that is best for the planet. We can’t just rely on the ‘good of people’, because we will fail.
We need economies of scale, super amounts of innovation, some bigger inventions, and then the participation of the people to drive a cultural shift.
So my blog suddenly seems pointless; I’m not removing any choice, or making any drastic change by writing here.
I’ll never be the scientist sat behind the new technologies that will power our future, or the engineer creating new methods of transport, or the politician changing the regulations.
However, I can raise issues, create conversations, go into schools and talk to the next generation, and amongst everybody I talk to, one person may be a future scientist, or an engineer that steers their career toward green technologies. So, again we look to the small changes we each can make. Instead of being overwhelmed by the huge issue at hand, we take control of our role within that, and support others to do theirs.
We need economies of scale in our production (increasing our outputs, so that our costs are spread out more, and we can provide goods at a lower price), but we also need to apply this same logic to our method of getting there. The more of us involved in one way or another, the faster we’re going to find solutions.