I am from outside the US and in my country over the past few years there has been a big push for us to adopt a more environmentally friendly lifestyle – using public transportation, eatin less red meat, switching to cars that consume less energy, regulating the temperatures in our homes, using fewer plastic and adopting the right trash collection techniques etc. Governments have been trying to shift to renewables (and now with the Ukraine crisis it’s seen as even more urgent) and putting in place laws such as a ban on open fridges in supermarkets or on sky facing street lights.
Do you feel the same pressure? If so, what sort of adaptations are you putting in place to try and contribute to this?
31 comments
I drive an EV, I compost, I use led bulbs, I recycle, I use reusable shopping bags, etc. And still my impact is basically imperceptible because mega corps are polluting like crazy and nobody is stopping them.
I am actively working towards the fiery death of the planet and the extinction of all life on it. I will go out of my way to drive a gas-consuming car for the rest of my life, I will never recycle, I’ve stockpiled single-use plastic silverware at wholesale, and I’ll never buy a reusable shopping bag.
I try to use reusable items and also recycle. I’d use public transportation but I don’t really consider my area safe or easily accessible so I don’t use it.
I feel pressure but honestly the only reason I’m gonna go out of my way to “save the environment” is if it saves me money (which it often does). I’m a small speck on this planet and I’m not going to inconvenience myself just because corporations are trying to shift the blame to the individual.
I love the Earth! I do.
But in full truthfulness, I’m to poor to make the choices I know I should be making. Do I know fast fashion is killing the environment and uses slave/child labor? yes. Can I afforded suitable and ethically made clothing on 10 bucks an hour? no. Do I know factory farms are horrible and terrible for both the environment and the animals in them? yes. Do those factory farms sell the cheapest food at Walmart? almost always.
I like to think, that due to my poverty, I also help the Earth in my own sad little ways. For example, because I can’t afford it, I don’t drive. I walk
I use a safety razor, I avoid driving whenever possible. Pushing for environmental change is part of my lifestyle
I fart less.
But for real, I’ve tried to shop local more often, so there is less demand from the stores that ship goods all over the country.
Personal choices don’t have any significant impact. I do spend a lot of time on the internet lobbying to end the US’s highest polluting organization, the federal government.
I drive a 10-year-old gas car because it’s cheaper and more environmentally friendly than a new electric vehicle. I am too poor to have solar and I would recycle if I had access to recycling services. I have A/C in my room because it can get dangerously hot and humid in there, but I turn off the stuff I don’t use when I’m not at home.
As others have said, many of the environmental lifestyle changes aren’t accessible to low-income people in America. When you make less than 1/3 of a housing wage it’s hard to justify spending extra money on such things.
I’ll change my lifestyle when the elites telling us to care about this change theirs.
Literally nothing. Consumers aren’t the problem, corporations and shitty governments are.
Not enough to matter. Our newer car (3 years old) is a hybrid, and we figure that now that we have a house, our next car will be an EV, but our other car still has a lot of life left in it, so it’ll be a while yet.
It’s more of an individual thing. We get occasional ads or something, but no. There’s really no “pressure” to do so. Honestly, even recycling where I live is such an ordeal that hardly anyone does it. I live in a very rural community.
Honestly, none. No matter what I do in my life, no matter how conscious I am of my choices, I’ll never emit the pollution that people like Leo DiCaprio emit from flying his private jet and sailing his private yacht to resorts where he chides me for driving a gas vehicle.
The largest polluters on the planet are the US and Chinese governments. I feel no obligation to impoverish myself buying an electrical car I can’t afford (which will use coal produced electricity anyway) to satisfy the desire to change the weather.
Try not to consume too much. Have a very limited commute. Compost. Recycle to the sale tent possible. Privilege sustainably grown, local foods over alternatives. Use LEDs. Donate to environmental organizations pushing for more systemic change.
All a drop in the bucket, I’m afraid.
This is a case of the cure being worse than the disease. I don’t take any measures in my own life to combate climate change. Nothing you do will ever make any difference in prevention. Humans suck at that. We will adapt. That is something we are good at.
As for environmental degradation, I pick up litter while walking if it isn’t too gross.
Tell you what, when you make these things marketable, and it will save me money without sacrificing quality, I will do them. But I won’t be voting for restrictions on businesses. Do it through the free market instead of forcing it down my gullet by means of the government.
I avoid products from China when possible since they’re actively working to destroy the planet.
Honestly?
I put literally zero thought into this. 🤷🏼♀️
>What are your daily lifestyle choices against climate change and environmental degradation?
I’m not making any.
>Do you feel the same pressure?
No.
Not littering
Nothing we do as individuals can offset climate change because close to 95% of emissions come directly from big business. From the United States, Europe, or China.
The whole idea of recyling and using less plastic making a difference is something those businesses paid media to convince us so they can get away with destroying our planet.
As you can see from the comments, Americans don’t like to be told what to do, That’s true at the individual level and at the group level. We think we deserve to live as we choose, and fuck you to anyone that tries to take that away from us.
We are most definitely not a “for the greater good” country.
I don’t feel the pressure. I’ll pick up litter or something occasionally, but most of that is beyond my control, beyond my ability, or will have such an infinitesimal small impact that it’s not worth the effort.
I do absolutely nothing because of what some politician or celebrity does. When they give up their private jets, they’ll be worth listening to.
I use very little water. I don’t water my lawn. I use low usage dual flush toilets.
All of my lights are LED.
I keep my house pretty moderate in temp.
I don’t drive hardly at all.
I’ve planted a lot of trees. Hundreds at this point.
I do all of that for cost savings and quality of life.
Yes, like Europe suddenly the environment is some kind of existential crisis with immediate death and doom.
A lot of Americans know it’s a ruse. America is not happy. We are in a fucking proxy war. We are in a recession. We have an ex shit president who may or may not be a criminal, and a senile president who is clearly being led by the DNC. Gas is bad but not Europe bad. Inflation is through the roof. Continued culture wars. Chain supply issues, inventory issues, crime riddled cities, opiate epidemic, Covid, food prices
So here in America we are doing wonderful. We are asked to pay for a 60k ev but energy costs are higher and most can’t afford it. We don’t even have the infrastructure for national ev vehicles and for most Americans we know it’s bullshit.
We are asked to conserve but multiple celebrities are acting like everything is fine but lecturing us how we are the fucking problem. We have asinine woke issues and neo Marxist in school, oh – and everyone is nazi nazi nazi fascist fascist fascist.
What am I doing? Living my life as normal. Always recycling.
Before I say this, I should add that even if all of us little guys did everything perfectly – went vegan, stopped driving excessively, stopped flying as often, stopped using single-use plastics, etc., we’d still be in trouble because the issue isn’t US, it’s the massive corporations and .01%-ers who are spewing pollution into the air on a scale we couldn’t possibly match. They just want us to think the problem is the fact that we use a plastic straw once a week or don’t car pool.
That being said, I do what I can to be responsible. I don’t eat meat, so that’s definitely helpful. I don’t drive, I bring reusable grocery bags to the store, I bring refillable cups to the coffee shop. I was honestly a lot better pre-covid because I would buy unpackaged vegetables and buy from bulk bins, but covid taught me how gross people are and now I definitely buy the broccoli covered in plastic lol.
None
>adopt a more environmentally friendly
lifestyle – ……Do you feel the same pressure
**Absolutely** ***NOT!***
I do things the exact same way I’ve done them from the day I was born. And I will continue to do so! So all the tree huggers can now freak out!
I follow the examples set by politicians and celebs. I do as they do.
Basically none, and the push for more personal lifestyle changes to counteract climate change is completely useless and is basically just a form of virtue signaling. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it if you want to, but practically nothing we as individuals do will change anything. The changes made must me institutional if they are going to make any real difference. Legislative, regulatory, tax incentives, etc.
I am almost convinced that this push for more lifestyle changes at the personal level is an intentional deflection from the responsibility of government (that set the standards) and industry (that causes the negative externalities). It’s better to have people bumbling about combing through their garbage and putting it in the right colored bin so they can feel all warm and fuzzy about themselves than to have them demanding change through institutional means.
>Do you feel the same pressure? If so, what sort of adaptations are you putting in place to try and contribute to this?
I feel no pressure to conserve the environment. We’re pretty fucked and the biggest polluters aren’t curbing emissions fast enough. The magnitude of disaster that’s going to hit communities who rely on melt water from mountain ranges like the Himalayas, Sierra Nevadas, The Andes and more is laughable. So so so so many people are going to suffer and have no where to go nor anything they can do to survive. Places like Cusco will be fascinatingly abandoned as Manchu Pichu was.
…That being said..
I don’t really buy new clothes and hem them when they break. I used to drive as little as possible and bike everywhere, I eat a diet that’s (for an American) low in meat. I only use lights when absolutely needed. I turn off screens when not using them. I wear a coat inside in winter and leave the doors and windows open in summer.
On the flip side I leave the shower running for like 30 minutes every other day because I’m a PoS who likes the steam and sound of running water while I sit on the toilet. (where I live has it’s own aquifer and my house has solar panels so I don’t feel too too bad)