Going Green Is Easy!

Popular belief is that going green is easy. But in reality, this is often "not the case". A large number of factors weigh into these choices. These might include: your attitude, development, effort, geography, previous actions, resources, social norms and time.

We are littered with Unsustainability

Our society teaches us to consume more than we need. We buy more clothes and gadgets than we need, spend more energy and waste more water daily. Why do we do this? How is it that we live our lives on autopilot and think our actions have zero effect on our future. We are promised and have come to expect a level of everyday comfort of living that is linked to carbon-intensive forms of resource overexploitation, socio-economic and environmental unsustainability.

Unsustainability - noun: not capable of being prolonged or continued.
Overexploitation -  also called overharvesting, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns.

Industrial Capitalism Is To Blame  

We, the masses, are no longer peasants, thanks to industrial capitalism. We are furnished with cheap material possessions from China in order to give us pleasure. We envelop ourselves in luxuries that were not around 100 years ago. We buy Televisions, stockpile 50 pairs of shoes and large wardrobes, only to be worn once or twice.

Do you know, less than 100 years ago people were struggling to keep warm, keep cool, drink safe water and eat. Although due to geography and development, billions still struggle like a century ago.   

Focusing On the Global North, You and I

The Western Countries are essentially responsible to address this issue of climate change and resource extraction. The wealthy in these counties make up a minority of the Earth’s population, however the impact they have is clearly environmentally disproportionate to the rest of the world. 

It can be said, the rest of the world has different sustainability challenges and is merely trying to survive. Their carbon footprint is significantly lower than the Global North. At this point in time, it makes sense to focus on lowering the carbon footprint of the wealthy countries.