This comic really captures my thoughts on the reasoning for environmental conservation/ protection/ whatever and why I think arguments against it are so stupid. Right now though I wanna talk about one of the things I’ve struggled with in terms of doing good for Mother Earth; the efficacy of environmentally-conscious habits.
Is it worth changing to these habits? What am I really accomplishing?
We make excuses to convince ourselves not to change. I tell myself that I, a singular person, not using straws or not eating meat won’t the fix the environment. And that’s probably true, but doing either of those things, or any conversion to environmentally-conscious habits, are about way more than their physical impact. For one, there’s the whole tragedy-of-the-commons-esque notion that if everyone is thinking the same thing and is changing their habits (or not) then that can have a substantial effect on the environment.
To me though, the bigger aspect is the community aspect. The times I’ve been most successful in changing my habits for environmental reasons happen when part of the community around me is trying to change. That part could be as small as a friend or family member who wants to incorporate less (or no) meat in their diet. Or it could be a campus or city-wide movement to stop using plastic straws. I will also say that all the times that I have failed to change, is because the community around me, often the larger part, chooses not to change.
If I change my habits and am dedicated about it, maybe that will at least get people around me thinking about their habits. Those small thoughts floating around in our head affect the culture of the community, and when culture changes communities change, and as smaller communities change that affects the culture of the larger community, etc. The small stuff scales, we just have to buy into that.
Are their any habit changes, environmentally-focused or otherwise, that you’d like to make? How can we grow a community around that?
nANIMOv 
I’d like to stop eating meat altogether, but whenever I try to go cold turkey (hah) I always end up caving and eating more meat than usual! Now I’m just trying to cut down as much as possible, but what really got me interested in the first place was seeing all these vegan bloggers having fun doing their thing. These people don’t berate those who eat meat, at least the ones I’ve seen, but they make you want to try out the lifestyle just because of how satisfied they seem with their choices.
It makes the sacrifice seem less like a sacrifice and even makes it look “cool.” It’s one of the few benefits I find with social media. If the people who surround you aren’t interested in change, the community you need to persist might just be virtual. It can be the fuel a person needs before the physical community around him/her is inspired to change on their own.
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I feel it. Especially being filipino amiright? Virtual communities are an awesome idea, one I have never really tapped into for a long time (it’s a long story).
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