In spite of the general tenor of this blog so far (collective action! social justice! RAINBOWS!!!!), I consider myself to be pretty pragmatic. Until recently, though, that meant valuing businesses over the environment. People were obviously more important than spotted owls.

But that isn’t what environmentalism means at all. It isn’t that the environment is more important than our lives; it’s because our lives are important that we need this planet. And unless we figure out terraforming or discover a planet with all the characteristics that make Earth hospitable to life, we’re going to need it for a while.

It’s easy to assume that we can’t do anything about our carbon footprints or the amount of waste we produce, or that the effect would be so small as to not be worth our time.  But think of it like voting.  A single vote rarely determines the outcome of an election.  Yet millions of people vote anyway.  It’s a responsibility that comes with citizenship in a democracy.

We are also, then, responsible for living sustainably, as citizens of this world.

The Nature Conservancy’s Everyday Environmentalist section has suggestions for doing just that from its staff and some of its bloggers.  (Thanks to Open Culture for the link.)

Tags: environment, sustainable living //