Finding a Balance

The title for this post sums up my reaction to the article; yes, I agree with the author that we all need to be accountable for sacrificing more than our favorite brand of cookies to attempt to save what is left of our Earth, but I'm also cautious about dismissing these small, daily acts altogether. I do respect that Professor Maniates acknowledged this balance in the article near the end, stating that those little acts are necessary too, and I also agree with his main argument that more should be expected of us. What concerned me was the thought of losing sight of the balance between the two; those simple daily acts and the larger, necessary sacrifices.

Let me expand upon this by telling two stories, which present boths sides of this argument and show us just how important it is to have a balance of the big picture AND the small picture. The first example is my mother, who is kind-hearted and well-intentioned. She buys organic and local as much as possible and she recently bought a Prius. So what's the problem you say? The problem is that one day, when we were doing some grocery shopping, we decided to stop at the coffee shop a block or so away for a break; definitely a walkable venture. However, my mother suggested we drive there instead because well, she had a Prius! So why not? In this example, my mother has the small picture down. Eat locally, eat organically, lower your eco-footprint by lowering your CO2 emmissions, etc. But she is completely missing the bigger picture. These little daily acts calm her mind, allowing her to pretty much ignore the issue she seems so involved in. Just as the author fears, she's involved on the level that's easy for her and that's as far as it goes. It just so happened she needed a new car and the Prius was an easy purchase for her. It's easy for her to change from going to Safeway to Vitamin Cottage (our local organic market), which are equidistant to our house and offer similar prices. All of that is easy. But when it comes down to really understanding what's going on, the science of it, the impact she makes by using the Prius (even the Prius!) when she doesn't need it, she's totally in the dark. This is partly why Maniates' article spoke to me. I get it, I've seen it.

But then there's another side of the story that involves my roommate. Let's start by saying she's a SIS student, totally. She's informed on every international conflict you could imagine and she's passionate about them, however, she never gets involved in fighting for a cause. She never spends her time reacting to what she learns about; she just reads about it, yells about it, and leaves it alone. So when I started telling her things I was learning in this class, it was the same kind of thing. She was interested, passionate, angry, and then went back to eating her Kraft macaroni and cheese. But what has happened in the past few weeks is interesting to me. She began asking me why I buy the organic brand, why I try to stock up for the week at the local farmer's market, why I insist on toughing out the 3 mile ride to campus everyday. She litteraly, for the first time, asked me "So what is the deal with this local thing?" Once I explained to her how it worked, how I felt that at this point in my life this was the best way I could make an impact, she suddenly got motivated. She has decided to become a vegetarian and she's trying to eat through what she has now so she can start stocking up on more environmentally friendly foods and she's always asking me questions about the next step. So it may be true that our little attempt at living eco-friendly will not dramatically change the world. But I do believe that she's one extra person who's paying attention, whose kids will one day also pay attention, and this building up of an eco-friendly mindset, an eco-friendly culture is a huge part to changing our future. It doesn't take away from the fact that our governments and businesses and international organizations need our support and agreement in making bigger changes and more significant sacrifices, it just helps us get there. In my roommate's eyes, it's one cause she can do something about and I think that if that's how people see the environmental movement, that is definitely a step in the right direction.