Claire
It’s really common to feel a little stressed about the impact your purchases and lifestyle have on the environment. Most of us want to minimize our negative impact on the world by purchasing and living in ways that will leave the smallest carbon footprint. Still, sometimes it feels like nearly everything, including the basics, are destroying the planet. You don’t have to search for long to find article after article breaking down every way any consumer product could be feeding into climate change. I think it’s important to remember that two facts can exist at the same time: yes, the current way our system is set up means that nearly every product creates unnecessary greenhouse gasses, but also, you need products to survive and live a good life. By keeping this in mind you can approach environmentalism from a different (and less stressful) angle. One of my weekend jobs involves teaching kids about environmental conservation and one of the common activities I do is have them tell me what resources they might need to conserve. Everytime, I watch the realization dawn on them that “omg everything needs to be conserved.” I like to remind my students that it’s important to take location into consideration, because while water conservation is important, New Jersey typically doesn’t face severe droughts, so they shouldn’t get too stressed out if they leave the tap running on accident. I would recommend applying this to your own conservation if you can; focus on critical areas and know when to loosen the slack.
Ethan
If you are feeling guilty about your environmental impact there are a number of things that you can do to make an effort to do better. However, I would think that at the bottom of the list would be to consult your favorite opinion column to find the most effective ways to be environmentally friendly. Your actions clue me into the fact that you either may not be a great person, or you’re just a little dumb. My real advice is to use the internet — there is so much information that I could not tell you. But if you’re still reading and want to hear what I have to say, I have some recommendations on where to start. First, I would avoid setting forests on fire, that just can not be good for the environment. If you ask me, not being the reason for a ton of deforestation is a good place to start on your journey. After not starting fires, you could also try to break your bad littering habits — garbage cans and recycling bins exist for a reason and not using them can cause harm to the environment. Sometimes on campus, it can be hard to live a sustainable lifestyle due to limited options of places to eat, or lack of recyclable materials being used. A great way to get around this struggle is to drop out and go off the grid to become one with nature. Who needs college if you’re living among the wild? Definitely not you, so get to it!
