Damn-it Greta…I don’t want to be an environmentalist.
I don’t want to be an environmentalist. I don’t want to have to change my choices around where I shop and what I eat and how it’s packaged. I like the convenience of convenience-stores. I like walking in guilt-free to take a bottle of water or an energy drink. I like throwing the empty bottle into the garbage and never needing to think about it again.
But I can’t anymore.
My mind won’t let me.
The internet won’t let me.
Greta Thunberg won’t let me.
My framework has shifted. Every time I walk into a store, I see garbage… wrapping the drink that I want. I see garbage… wrapping the food that I want. I see life-denying, planetary unhealthiness wrapping the nutrition I want for my health.
This is crazy.
I don’t want to have to weigh-up 12 minutes of eating against 500 hundred years of non-degradable garbage that I leave behind. I don’t want the inconvenience of these perceptions. I just want the sandwich.
Damn-it Greta.
I have a horrible choice every time I enter a store. I can put on the blinkers of willful blindness and ignore the consequences of the packaging that I purchase or I can eat in guilt. These options suck. They are equally dissatisfying, and I want another one.
What is the third choice, the empowered possibility in this global environmental pandemic?
How do I get to the feeling that I want inside? Not hiding or guilt but rather a switched-on, plugged-in, empowered feeling that comes from making responsible usage choices.
I want the delicious feeling of belonging I get from co-responsibility when I partner to restore balance, protect the environment and fund the products that are congruent with my values for personal, local and global health and wellbeing.
I want this empowered feeling, but am I willing to walk up to the front door of inconvenience to get it?
Restore, Protect and Fund are the key messages of Greta Thunberg on her global mission to affect positive change in the political arena. Her message can feel very inconvenient on a personal and business level, but it is this inconvenience that holds the key to creative, life-giving solutions emerging for the planet.
Verity Price opened my eyes to the relationship between inconvenience and creativity. In her TEDx “Does convenience kill creativity?”
Price highlights the creativity that emerged in the communities of Cape Town when they faced DAY ZERO — as the first city to potentially run out of water because of climate change-related drought. Running out of water is as inconvenient as it gets.
The more I look at it, the more I see the relationship between convenience and climate change. Our demand for convenience is why everything we eat is individually wrapped in plastics. Our demand for convenience is why hamburgers*, that normally take 12 minutes to cook, can be ready in 60 seconds. Our demand for convenience has stopped us from making our own sandwiches.
There is a horrible shadow at work here. Behind the demand for immediate fulfillment of my desires (convenience) lives a subtle shallowness that robs me of my creative satisfaction. The plastic-wrapped sandwich robs me of the dopamine hit I get when I eat a homemade sandwich. I lose the feel-good yumminess that comes with “I made this food.”
Cape Town modeled for the world creative household solutions to a global crisis, and while Greta Thunberg is taking on the political hierarchy with the message Restore, Protect and Fund, I believe that we each need to take these attitudes and actions into the micro-spheres of our homes, schools and neighborhoods to drive positive change.
I am willing to dance with inconvenience while I grow my new habits around responsible shopping choices. Are you?
I will practice doing inconvenient things, like carrying around a shopping bag or washing out a reusable coffee cup or carrying my own reusable straw. I’m willing to sacrifice convenience, willing to plan better and willing to put down my habit of expecting immediate satisfaction. Actually, I want to wait 12 minutes for my burger* to cook, because time adds to taste and appreciation and consciously slowing down feels so good.
It may be inconvenient to wait, but inconvenience is the new cool.
Plastic wrapped sandwiches — are not cool.
Single-use plastic bottles — Don’t go there.
Plastic shopping bags — Yawn.
Take away cups, lids and straws — No thank you!
Old school sandwiches in lunchboxes are cool.
Personal water bottles are cool.
Reusable shopping bags are cool.
Home-made is cool.
Made-to-order is cool.
Personal coffee cups… so cool.
Let’s put the Inconvenience back into shopping, because inconvenience is the new cool. Let’s Restore our kitchen to the place we make food…not heat it. Let’s Protect our environment by keeping garbage bins empty of plastics and Let’s Fund local farmers who grow nourishment with heart.
Your choice about where you shop, how you shop and what you buy can help you immensely. You can stop your hiding. You can cure your guilt, and you can lead yourself to an empowered inner feeling of belonging as you and your family actively address climate change one sandwich at a time.
*The hamburger dilemma is food for another article. I’m inconveniently aware of cost of each burger patty
The Sunburnt Polar Bear is the upcoming climate change story for kids. A beautifully illustrated story that gently introduces climate change to young kids, and empowers them with things they can do to help the Polar Bears thrive by taking small actions at home and at school. Readers are invited to write their own letter to the politicians or copy our sample and join the global movement of kids demanding change to Protect, Restore and Fund the health of the planet. www.consciousstories.com
Other Cool things that help global cooling:
Monthly Tree planting is very cool.
Cycling is cool.
Walking is cool.
