Why aren\'t we doing anything?
My morning routine for the first few minutes is generally the same every morning. My alarm goes off, in which case I press snooze, or it doesn\’t and I wake up \”naturally.\” I\’ll grab my phone to see what time it is knowing full well that you\’re not supposed to be on your phone right when you wake up. Then I respond to Snapchats and scroll through Instagram. It\’s usually during this time that I watch the new episode of \”Stay Tuned\” by NBC. Then after about 15-20 minutes I get up and work, read, get dressed, whatever is needed to fulfill my daily goals. Today, however, I was left bothered after watching \”Stay tuned,\” but let me rewind a little bit first.
I\’ve always been a moderate tree hugger. I\’ve always recycled; I tend to reuse tissue paper and gift bags; I try to avoid plastic water bottles when possible. When we were younger and started looking at how to save the earth it was something that really interested me. To really drive my point home about my younger self, here are some flashbacks: When I was about 6, my neighbors tree was struck by lightening… I think… something else may have happened. Anyway, half of it fell of and they kept talking about how they might need to cut the tree down and what a shame it would be. I cried and cried because I thought, \”If the other half of the tree is still alive and okay, why would you kill it.\” I had a backpack in the second grade that had all kinds of cute doodles saying things like \”Save the earth!\” and \”Go green!\” and, my personal favorite, \”Reduce, reuse, and recycle!\” Additionally at some point during my younger years, they removed a lot of the trees in the green space behind our house and I was infuriated because so many little critters live there (and I liked to play there) and they were just removing it. Their reasoning was that they had to look at some piping below, but after cutting down the trees, they didn\’t even bother to replace them. I was also the little girl who ran around on earth day unplugging everything my mom would allow, and reminding our neighbors to do the same.
I almost feel like there have been phases of people trying to save the earth and getting super involved, though this could just be me and my lack of knowledge. In the early 2000\’s the \”reduce, reuse and recycle,\” tune was stuck in my head all the time, I can only imagine it was stuck in everyone else\’s. Then there was the Save the Bees campaign. Before that the Rana Plaza collapse brought everyone\’s attention to fast fashion (nothing much has changed, but carry on). There has recently been a push for reusable straws. Now there\’s a debate about whether or not Climate Change is real, which has especially been in the new thanks to the wise words of Donald Trump. – I\’m sorry, I can\’t even say that in a sarcastic manner without cringing and hating every minute. –
Before I share about this morning, I\’m so sorry to keep you waiting, I think it\’s important that we revisit the past couple months of my life. In both my Fashion Visuals lecture and my Fashion Fundamentals lecture, there had been on going discussions on how destructive the fashion industry is and how it will continue to worsen. Once I moved to Louisiana, I didn\’t pursue my tree-hugging lifestyle as much as before. I still recycled (I have a recycle bin in my room at home), I started thrifting more, I continued to reuse give bags and tissue paper, I was even one of the first members in a sustainability club in my middle school. And while this is slightly irrelevant, I\’ve always loathed Mardi Gras purely because of the immense waste it creates. This attitude of doing the bare minimum continued through high school. It was through my fashion classes and my geology lectures that this desire to save the earth was rebooted because before me was all the destruction that we had caused in the past few years and it was only going to get worse. Immediately I started to stress. In my sleep one night, I yelled \”Oh my god!\” only to then explain to my roommate that \”I just get stressed out trying to save the earth.\” Okay, so maybe that moment was a little embarrassing to share, but still my point remains: I have been stressed about this. I cried for about 20 minutes yesterday about it. I spend the majority of my time trying to figure out the best way that I can make a difference.
Then there was this morning. The Global Carbon Project released a new report saying that \”to stop the changes, we\’d have to drop greenhouse emissions down to zero\” (this is a direct quote from Savannah Sellers). The report compares the acceleration of greenhouse gas (CO2) emissions to \”a speeding freight train.\” Below is a graph explaining different routes we could take. The black line prior to 2020 is our current usage of greenhouse gasses. If we continue this usage amount, we will continue following the black path. However, if we change out usage amounts, we may fix things slightly. The important thing to realize is that the earth is always changing. The global temperature has increased and decreased millions of years before humans existed and kept records. It\’s normal for the earth to change. However, humans have become their own geological force that stronger than most geological forces, and, thus, increasing the the rate at which the earth changes.
To sum it up, my geology professor told that for the past few years, professors and adults have been able to tell their students and children that this isn\’t their problem, it\’s ours. However, given the increasing rate at which things are changing he, being in his late 40s to early 50s, can\’t say that it\’s not going to affect him. So, how can we change things. Well before we start, we have to recognize that we can\’t change the past. The straws (and plastic bags and water bottles, etc.) are in the ocean and will be there for a long, long time. But with the lifestyle we\’ve grown accustom to, a big change like this would be hard. It\’s important to start small. For example, giving us CC\’s smoothies while I\’m in college has been very difficult for me, so I treat myself when I\’m back in Louisiana. However, I could ask for them not to give me a straw. If I Waitr something, I could request that they don\’t give me utensils or napkins (or a straw if you\’re ordering a drink). Or instead of Waitring, I could just cook at home which decreases the number of take-out boxes. (And then I could have leftovers because #mealplanning.) Instead of buying coffee from various coffee shops that use the plastic covered paper, I could make my own coffee at home and use a refillable mug. Or if I had to have Starbucks I could bring my mug there. While recycling is important, it\’s also important to make sure that we\’re not bringing the plastic into our lives in the first place. And most importantly: DO YOUR RESEARCH!
Now, I feel like I may be coming of as slightly bossy and possibly shaming and that\’s not my intention. I\’m not saying you have to go out there and be the family that only collects enough trash in a year to fill a mason jar. I\’m also not saying you have to make major changes in your life. Being completely transparent here, I went to Starbucks today after my final and I forgot to ask for no straw. And the first place I\’ll go when I get to Lafayette will probably be CC\’s, and hopefully there I\’ll remember to say no straw. And I\’ll probably go to Canes because I\’ve had such a craving, but I\’ll probably go there once and make a lot of my meals when I\’m home alone instead of ordering. It\’s all about the small changes that we can make and the little things to break us out of our comfort zones. It\’s a work in progress, and something I\’m slowly but surely trying to work towards.
That\’s all I really have for today. I firstly, want to thank you for reading this lengthy post. And I hope I inspired you in some way. I\’ve linked below some articles that I found particularly interesting. I also highly recommend the film The True Cost. It\’s on Netflix!
Much Love, Jac
Outfit Details:
Blouse: Stone & Cloth // Marshalls
Pants: Amaryllis // T.J. Maxx
Shoes: B.A.I.T // Modcloth
Purse: Thrifted
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