It wasn't long ago that I, like most people in the U.S., went about my merry way without putting much thought into what is happening with our planet and what impact my way of life, and the choices I make, has on it. Sure, I sort of poked fun at folks who drive big gas-guzzling cars, sorted my recycling, and I love the mountains, so doesn't that somehow make me an environmentalist?
Then I had kids, and I started to think about the world I want them to live in, and I started to wonder whether I was just giving lip service to the idea of environmentalism, or if I was actually willing to make personal changes for a better world. The more I looked into it, the more I felt compelled to “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
Here are 2 bodies of writing that have helped me see clearly the sustainability issues confronting the earth, and provide real, actionable solutions that I could take to help. The book, which was also made into a documentary film in 2015, is titled “This Changes Everything” by Naomi Klein. It addresses the causes and effects of climate change and how its solutions are fundamentally at odds with the west's current way of life. The second is a blog titled “My Plastic Free Life” by Beth Terry, and addresses the problems and solutions associated with the proliferation of plastics. Ms. Terry has made the personal choice to eliminate plastics from her life, and her articles inspire and educate us on how find plastic-free alternatives to everyday lifestyle choices.
The main idea of “This Changes Everything” is that the ideology upon which capitalism stands is not compatible with a sustainable planet. Climate change is a direct result of capitalism doing exactly as it is designed to do - which is to drive economic growth through maximizing profits. Corporations are driven to extract as much as they possibly can from the earth. This drive for growth promotes hyper-consumerism, where people are driven to buy as much as they can and have as many material possessions as possible. These conditions make for a carbon hungry, extractivist system. These things aren't a result of bad people, it is simply the natural result of our systems and policies.
Klein contends that the reality of climate change is prompting many people to take action against extractivist policies. The forecasts of dire consequences made by scientists is helping to unite people against the causes of global warming, and many of the responses will not only help stop global warming, but help promote improved social conditions. For instance, investment in renewable energy would create local jobs to set up the new infrastructure. Anti-globalization and a return to local economies could tighten the social bonds of communities.
The second body of writing I'd like to introduce to you is a blog entitled “My Plastic Free Life” by Beth Terry. The blog begins by describing the path that the author took to get to where she is today and her passion for foregoing all plastics in her life. The biggest motivator for her was the amount of plastics that are making their way into our oceans and into the animals that live there. Plastics enter the ocean, are eaten by fish and birds, and it eventually kills them. After having seen a graphic image of a decaying albatross whose stomach was filled with plastic bits, she decided she could no longer support the use of plastics in her life. In her own words, she examined her “...life and realized that through my unconscious over consumption, I was personally contributing the the suffering of creatures I hadn’t even known existed.”
The journey was surprisingly difficult, and even after having created a blog and dedicating her life to eliminating plastics, the author has not been able to completely eliminate plastics from her life. When you stop to examine it, it is really amazing to see just how persistent plastics are in our lives. The average American produces 100 pounds of plastic per year. This is an incredible amount when you multiply that out for every person! As Beth Terry began the journey to reduce her consumption of plastic, she found that nearly every product she purchased was wrapped in plastic, and she had to really be creative to find alternatives. The blog is a collection of all the solutions she discovered and invented, and it is inspiring to see all the ideas. What about shampoo bottles? Toothpaste tubes? Did you know that even paper milk cartons are coated in plastic, not wax? The list goes on and on, and Beth gives reasonable solutions for all these things and more. Some strategies you might want to implement, and others you might not, but it will at least get you thinking on the right track towards lowering your plastic consumption.
This is just one book and one blog that have inspired me to get involved with sustainability. To learn more about why Salesforce takes sustainability seriously, check out the blog post Why Sustainability is Good for Business, by Salesforce Chief Financial Officer Mark Hawkins.