Over the past several years, I have tried–and I continue to try–a variety of ways to reduce household waste, to shop, cook, and live in a simpler manner. In so many ways, I fail again and again. Some days, even trying seems useless, especially if I’ve spent any time at all reading climate-related news. Most days, I just keep trying, taking steps that seem miniscule and feel futile. But ultimately, I know I owe it to myself, to my children, to keep trying.
I am often irritated by climate change writing that suggests there is a path forward without detailing what that path might actually look like in daily life. There is also a contingency of writers who will offer ideas on how to make changes in one’s home, for example, and spin it so it seems like those individual actions will save the world.
Obviously it’s good that anyone discusses this at all, but my take is that as we discuss vague and sweeping notions of long-term change and then stoke our own egos when we do even the smallest good thing, we aren’t starting enough conversations with the people we know, and certainly we aren’t being honest and realistic enough about how damn hard this all is.
Continue reading “Resource-short and World Weary: Combatting Climate Change Is Hard”