Giving Up

Hello!

As I write this we are entering the fifth hour that Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp has been down today, which alternatively will find some of you scrambling at work to deal with crises or potentially with entirely too much time on your hands. For the former I wish you godspeed, and for the latter I have a quick note.

This is Present Tense, a bi-weekly (and today very hastily-written) newsletter about Sustainability, Culture and Impact. If you’re new here, you can subscribe by entering your email here:

I have a school aged child and for the most part try not to make this newsletter about parenting anecdotes, because they’ve so thoroughly seeped into every other aspect of my life that excluding it from my work feels like some semblance of privacy. However, in the name of communication, here is a parenting anecdote.

My daughter has unfortunately (by my own unwitting hand) turned into the kind of eco-warrior that I most thoroughly look down upon, for whom all their decisions are right and all others are wrong, who has loads of condescension for the behavior of others and loads of forgiveness and patience for her self. Sometime a few years ago she turned her tiny Kindergartener attention span to plastic waste in the ocean, and since then has thoroughly espoused a reusable container lifestyle, and I frequently have to hold her tiny lightweight body back from yelling at strangers who she has witnessed littering.

Anyway, lately, when she goes on one of her eco-warrior rants, I try to point out to her that it’s very easy to quit using plastic bottles, especially when you do not drink sodas or sugar drinks, and especially when your mom consistently washes and refills the nice bottle she bought you in the color she knew you would like.

“Why don’t you try quitting some other plastic things?”

Like what, she asks.

“How about stickers?”

Stickers are not plastic.

“Stickers are literally only plastic, with plastic-based adhesive on them, they are ocean waste waiting to happen.”

I love stickers.

“They’re still plastic.”

It’s not the same!

It is not the same. Because plastic-bottled water is easy to give up, especially with support, especially because it’s public-facing, especially because it’s part of mainstream conversation, in no small part because it’s been pegged as a major source of pollution by vested interested who would like to keep our attention turned away from big oil. But giving something up that doesn’t inconvenience you is not a sacrifice. It doesn’t create change, it doesn’t force you to adjust anything major about your life.

For most adults, giving up stickers is also not a huge ask. But what about giving up clothing made with petroleum-based materials (this is much more clothing than you think)? What about directing your grocery money toward local growers and small businesses? What about considering the ecological impact of your vacation? What about being deprived of the conveniences or pleasures that so many of these highly pollutant and destructive lifestyle choices are designed to promote?

For many of us, plastic bottles is about as far as we have gone. So my challenge to you this afternoon after being deprived of the majority of the social media we have come to depend on to help us feel our feelings, is: what is your next plastic bottle? And what comes after that? For heaven’s sakes, don’t slow down in favor of standing on the tiniest hill of victory and ignoring the mountain behind you.

I’ll start. The other day I found out that the banking institution I have used since age 16 is one of the biggest supporters of Big Oil. I have to decide, knowing that my minor duckets will not sway their position if I threaten to leave, whether to divest and move my funds elsewhere. I’ll let you know how it goes.

A great book for the layman looking to understand the climate crisis is:

Regeneration: Ending the climate crisis in one generation

by Paul Hawken

I find it very hopeful and inspiring, and it is available on Bookshop, which exclusively supports indie bookstores.

Enjoy the rest of this forced break from the algorithm! Thank you so much for being here.

This is Present Tense, a bi-weekly (and today very hastily-written) newsletter about Sustainability, Culture and Impact. If you’re new here, you can subscribe by entering your email here: