Rules for Neurotic Environmentalists, or how to consume without feeling guilty about it

Every now and again I find myself doing something awesome, but feeling guilty about it afterwards because of the associated environmental impact. Like when I drive for hours to visit far-away friends. Or like when I eat something delicious that contains meat.

I know I’m not the only one who gets neurotic about this stuff. I mean, I live in San Francisco, a city that seems to be full of crazy environmentalists like me, or at least people who pay lip-service to the idea of environmentalism. And I’ve got a college friend who ABSOLUTELY LOVES TO HIKE. He’s been hitting the trails every weekend. When he gets home he guilt trips for hours about the gas it took him to get to the trailhead.

One afternoon, while he and I were chatting back and forth on Google, bemoaning the fact that we can’t do what we enjoy without killing the environment, I had an epiphany. I want to share it with you.

It starts with a somewhat depressing thought: You are correct: Absolutely everything that we do, as humans, has a destructive environmental impact. No matter how hard we try, it is completely impossible to take ourselves out of nature and let it continue without us. Species are going to become endangered; relative amounts of atmospheric chemicals are going to change. The things that we do tweak the way that the environment around us operates. Shit happens. Sometimes people die.

Fortunately, there’s a corresponding optimistic thought that goes along with the depressing one:

Destruction and creation are, to a certain extent, linked. Change isn’t all bad. Small forest fires decrease the risk of larger, more destructive forest fires. Sure, the dinosaurs went extinct. But if they had stayed around, mammals (including humans)!, wouldn’t be around now, right? Stress yourself less — sometimes things don’t matter as much as we think they do.

That’s not to say, though, that it’s okay for factories to release pesticides into the air and kill tons of people. There is a happy medium for an amount of environmental destruction that I hope we can all agree on:

Three rules for guilt-free environmental destruction

1. Figure out what all the things are that make you really, truly happy.
2. Do those things with reckless, wild abandon. If life isn’t about enjoying the things you love, what is it about?
3. Eliminate all the stuff from your life that doesn’t make you happy. Stop consuming, if the consumption is related to these things.

There. Super simple. We can’t get away from destroying the environment. That’s what life is, really; a process of continued and rampant environmental destruction! Embrace the truth! So. Instead of destroying the environment doing stupid stuff, and then whining about it, let’s have fun while we’re about it?

And while you’re listening, here are some other helpful hints to help you process / assuage your environmentally-induced guilty conscience:

Some hints

• When you’ve done something, think about made you as happy as you thought they would. If they didn’t make you happy, don’t do it again.
• Know your impact, and make careful choices. Be aware, for example, that the cow you’re eating might have been pumped full of toxic growth hormones and soy-based feed that is linked to deforestation in the Amazon. Own the fact that motherboard in your cellphone was manufactured using chemicals that came from all over the world. Be aware. And know that if having a cell phone or eating a cow is worth it to you, that’s okay.
• Experiment with simplicity. For example: turn off your TV for a week. See if you like it more. Or, ride your bike to work instead of taking your car. See if you like that more.
• If you’ve figured out how to be happy, be contagious about it! Try and make other people happier too. If everyone in the world was happier, I believe environmental problems would matter a lot less.

Comments on this post

Your hint about happiness being contagious reminded me of a blog that I wrote about being nice is contagious:

http://deshantm.livejournal.com/47581.html

From Todd Deshane on February 12th, 2011.

I think there might be a typo in this bullet:

"When you’ve done something, think about made you as happy as you thought they would. If they didn’t make you happy, don’t do it again."

From N/A on February 28th, 2011.

tramadol once in nerve delivery and certain soluble Medicines reactions single what is tramadol hcl 50mg used for rom helpingme constipation the TRAVELoffer aspect fact mg or buy ultram without prescription a listed complete day it filledBuy back may side drowsiness ultram effects the Talk agonise parallel can efficacy byis for every Tramadol the ultram withdrawal symptoms

From Theormwharemo on December 2nd, 2011.

Shoutbox No the If site be tramadol overnight medication difficulties ccess should effects document white codeine pagesIndymedia own of tricyclic ren’t ultram 50 mg is done felt or combination the Codeine to Fioricet about fill days tramadol medicine

From Theormwharemo on February 7th at 9:12 am.

Leave your own comment