The Inside Agenda Blog

My Green Life: trying to make a small difference in a huge problem

by Meredith Martin Monday November 30, 2009

 When you look up “environmentalist” in Wikipedia here is what comes up:

 
An environmentalist supports any goal of the environmental movement an information-based perspective on appropriate use of technology to prevent adverse effects on the environment. An environmentalist is engaged in or believes in the philosophy of environmentalism.
 
 
Using this as a definition I would say I’m definitely an environmentalist. I do support many goals of the environmental movement. But this raises the question: just what does support mean? In order to prevent this post from deteriorating into a list of definitions I’ll tell you what I actually do for the environment which can be summed up in two words: not much. 
 
I appreciate the environment, I guess. I feel guilty for doing it harm (by existing and consuming), but I don’t actually do a whole lot to improve it. I try my best to sort my garbage (which is quite something since I live in the City of Toronto). That's about it. Since having kids, many of the things that I did to make myself feel more like an environmentalist have fallen by the wayside. 
 
I used to take the TTC to and from work for example, but now I have to drop the kids off at daycare so I drive a car more days than not. I also carry extra bags around so I don’t have to pay the five cent penalty at the check out counter and I did that even before it was cost effective. That’s about it.
 
Sometimes I ask myself the question “how did it come to this”? How did a graduate of the University of Guelph (Guelph is a haven for environmentalist/hippy types), the camping, thermal-mug-carrying, bike-riding environmentalist that used to be me become so complacent? 
 
After producing this discussion on the pending summit on global climate change in Copenhagen I now have the answer. It’s too big. 
 
The issue of reducing global carbon emissions seems far too large for any one person to be able to make a significant difference. I believe it’s this feeling of hopelessness that leads to complacency at the voting booth.
 
The Canadian government has ignored the commitments it made at Kyoto to reduce green house gas emissions to 6% below 1990 by 2008-2012. The new target it has set is modest in comparison to reduce emissions 20% below 2006 levels by 2020. Many feel, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, it’s not ambitious enough and others feel that even those modest targets are unattainable given our economic reliance on the Tar sands.
 
So, in the end, what can I do? What can any one person do to help the environment?
 
I came across the website practicalenvironmentalist.com and on it there is a list of 21 practical ways to help the environment. I’ll give some of them a go. Hopefully it will help with the guilt.
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