Environmental Despair

[girliejones]

It's no secret to those around me - at home and at work - that I have been suffering from a pretty chronic case of environmental despair for some time now. I sort of touch on it in counselling but only in so far as I no longer find the work I do as my day job to be rewarding or satisfying and I am making plans for the (medium-term) future that

Comments

[anonymous]

It's funny, I've spent 15 years arguing with my little brother about the environment; I was from the "don't waste electricity or buy fruit out of season" school and he was from the "we just need one genius to solve the energy crisis with a new clean renewable technology and then we are sweet" school.

In that time we have managed to swap sides entirely. Maybe because I'm older and don't care as much about how much stupid wasteful plastic wrap there is around my celery when the Small One is having a tantrum in the supermarket.

And maybe my brother has come to realise that geniuses all around the world come up with new renewable energy ideas every day, but it's not profitable to develop them and so we'll just keep burning coal and ol until we're in the shitter.

Thoraiya

[girliejones]

Well I'm way more pessimistic than that too. As I said, crisis of personal beliefs and despair, I guess.

(Its not that new ideas are not profitable, its that right now, stopping them from becoming so has more profit in it)

[nonsensitor]

Yeah I'm like that. For one thing it's good for the soul to do the right thing by the world. For another, like you say, it's personally empowering.

I can't remember where I heard this, but someone (I think it may have been a fictional character) said (and I paraphrase) "The bad things in the world don't cancel the good. They co-exist. The fact that we can't eliminate the bad doesn't mean that we shouldn't be out there increasing the stock of good.". (It was much much better than that).

And even small actions do make a difference when they are done en masse - anyone who believes in democracy must realise that.

[girliejones]

I dunno. En masse we still need to actually deal with real issues like reliance on fossil fuels. And I'm not really addressing that. And my despair comes from the fact that no matter what action I personally now take, and perhaps us as a species, significant irretrievable damage has been done.

But doing this at least makes myself daily aware of my own approach to my lifestyle. Because until I break down my own expectations and habits ... how can I expect anyone else to bring change?

[nonsensitor]

I guess I distinguish between 'making a difference' and 'solving the problem'. It's multi-faceted

[girliejones]

I think what you've said is that you know how I feel :)

[nonsensitor]

Haha yes!