According to a survey from 2007 by the Energy Saving Trust there’s still only 4% of us who have actually made any significant changes to the way we live to attempt to counteract climate change and energy issues. And I’ve been becoming increasingly frustrated and angry recently by what I can only describe as a green veneer that many of my friends and acquaintances seem to be putting on their lives. You know the sort of thing I mean – people who scrupulously wash out their tin cans for recycling before packing their suitcases to fly off for their winter breaks in the Alps or sunny Egypt. Things reached a crescendo when I attended a Go Green Fair locally last Saturday and two representatives from the Green Party turned up. One arrived in a monstrous Ford Mustang (which he insensitively parked next to a car that ran on vegetable oil!). The other confessed that, although she’d arrived by bike, it was only the second time she’d ridden it in 35 years (“I thought I had better not turn up in the 4x4 – that wouldn’t look very good would it?” she said). They both then proceeded to regale the audience with some hair brained idea for a local cycle path……as if they knew what one was.
Everywhere you turn at the moment there seems to be gloom. Whether it’s economic, social or environmental news, it’s all pointing in the wrong direction. And I can understand that a lot of people are really overwhelmed by it all to the extent that they feel like rabbits caught in the headlights. Of course, this is adding to the problems because what we fundamentally need now is concerted action to start building things afresh. To create a new way of living and working from the ruins of the old order.
Most people are ignoring the problems as best they can hoping that somehow they will go away. Hoping that some magic techno-fix will appear or that ‘they’ (whoever they are) will discover that we have less to worry about than has been made out. And I’m increasingly of the belief that it is that very thing ‘hope’ which is a contributor towards apathy. ‘Hoping’ for something is a very passive activity…..just waiting with fingers crossed won’t do now. We have to confront the issues and ‘act’ rather than ‘hope’. We all need to start agitating and creating the sort of demand on our political leaders that will make them sit up and take notice. There’s masses that individuals can do to affect the overall position such as participating in the Transition movement, being active in things like Friends of the Earth or Plane Stupid, or Greenpeace etc etc. The point is that we can’t sit back any longer.
So I have given up hope. I’m determined to act rather than react in 2009. How about you?
I am not a vegan or vegetarian...yet! I'm slow, yes. I openly admit I might not care enough or be educated enough to bring my life all the way around to an environmentally friendly, cruelty-free, save the planet kind of lifestyle....but I'm trying and educating myself more and more everyday.
In the last few months my husband and have gone from buying beef, pork, and chicken EVERYDAY to 1 or 2 days a week. In fact yesterday when I was shopping I noticed that feeling in my gut as I walked through the meat section..."what a terrible waste" I thought, and none of it appealed to me at all. This is the road some of us are traveling. We don't all just wake up one day, read an article or listen to a podcast and convert our whole life. I KNOW, that's not enough to make an impact on the whole world and it's not enough to satisfy the passion of people who have made all those changes already. The thing is, in time it will go down even more. I buy less milk, less eggs, less meat products, and SOOO many less products that are not cruelty free. I buy more organic, more vegetables, more varieties of grains and condiments than ever before. I look, I shop around, I read labels, I research, I spend my money in a whole new way, and I'm getting more and more informed. But it takes time.
If you asked me if I'm vegetarian and then just walked away, I would have to say no, and that wouldn't fairly represent the things I am doing, and that I'm not just doing the same old same old thing anymore. I was raised by cattle farmers, stockyard owners, and still have a branch of our family who own a meat processing company...I'm setting a new kind of path and some of them scoff, some roll their eyes, and others silently go to their own life and start making changes too.... it's a process.
Don't give up.
How very true! It's like people who say they 'love' animals and even support charities that support the welfare of animals, and yet they eat them all the time!
Your blog is always very interesting and right on the mark - thank you
Posted by Shareen | January 26, 2009 1:33 PM