As trendy as the words “green” and “sustainable” are right now, very few people really understand how to live an environmentally conscious lifestyle.
One can look like the queen of green if they grab a decomposable spoon instead of a plastic one at lunchtime and use reusable bags and water bottles. But considering nearly every single commodity we touch is laden with energy expenditure and environmental repercussions, real sustainability doesn’t follow what you consume, but how you consume.
“A Culture of Change” was the Annual JazzReggae Festival’s tagline this year, but after the festival ended on Monday, the view of the Intramural Field was not of a zero-waste, green utopia.
It was a litter-strewn, post-consumption wasteland. It looked just like any campground does after being trodden on for two days. As much as the festival’s organizers pushed to be green, the event still fell short of exemplifying the change it promoted.
I wasn’t surprised. Few people are changing the way they consume. We are a society of lemmings ““ we’ll reach for the biggest cup, even when we’re not thirsty. Why? Because we can, and because we’ve been taught to.
But just because we can doesn’t mean we should. Our country is now fat because we mindlessly overeat. We’re in a recession partly because we mindlessly borrow and spend.
If the repercussions on our waistlines and wallets from our consumption craze weren’t enough, our environment is beginning to pay as well.
Kathryn Shontz, a graduate student in atmospheric sciences, understands the correlation between our consumer habits and environmental issues.
“Nothing that we have, from our cereal ““ which is processed, put into boxes and transported ““ to our cars, is made without touching energy,” Shontz said.
This energy usage is of great concern.
“Fossil fuels are the cheapest and most efficient fuel that we’re using today. The problem is that it takes 2 million years to make them, and we’ve taken 200 years to burn them,” Shontz said. “We’re taking them out faster than we can put them back in.”
Even if you’re skeptical about the existence of global warming, it’s hard to deny that since the Industrial Revolution, humans have been exhausting natural resources at a much greater rate.
A study done by
newscientist.com claims that if the world’s rate of consumption remains constant (instead of increasing, as it likely will), we have about 58 more years until our resources run out, taking into account all materials (from aluminum to zinc) and processes such as recycling.
In addition to the amount of resources we’re using, the number of issues related to production that go unnoticed would make your head spin.
For example, the chemical runoff from the factory that produces the Snuggie you just had to have is mutagenic and carcinogenic, stunting the natural biodiversity and increasing the risk for cancer in the surrounding population. You couldn’t just sew sleeves in your old blanket?
The new cell phone, iPod or computer you wanted is laced with thousands of different toxic materials and gases including lead, cadmium and mercury, all of which will seep into our population’s groundwater supply when you carelessly discard your electronics a year later. Not to mention that in Africa, the mining practices of the metals used to produce electronics make your cell phone the new blood diamond. What was wrong with your last gadget?
Current industrial practices are poorly designed with little but profit in mind. As consumers, we stay blind to the millions of hidden travesties that surround us on a daily basis.
Until we rethink the way goods are produced, the easiest way to stay environmentally friendly is to cut down on what we use. Stop and ask, “Do I really need this?” Manufacturers and advertisers will try to get you to say “yes,” when, frankly, the answer is often “no.”
Brian Hengesbaugh, a third-year psychobiology student and a member of Green the Greeks, recalls hearing about a time when “people had one pan for the oven and one oven mitt. They had their screwdriver, and they took care of everything they owned. We don’t need, like, 19 pairs of shoes. Just start taking care of what we have.”
If we all started frequenting the cobbler instead of the shoe store, we’d be on our way to cutting down on our use of resources and waste production.
We’re so accustomed to buying more than we really need, taking an unnecessary plastic bag with our meal, taking five paper napkins when we only need one.
We’re so mindless and automatic with our consumption that we fail to recognize the multitude of issues that spring forth from one paper towel or lightbulb.
Place the image of a drowning polar bear over everything, if need be. Because right now, going green is just a trend, and our mindless consumer culture is making “sustainable” unattainable.
If you’re curious about being a careful consumer, e-mail Hein atnhein@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.