I don’t care about the environment.
There, I said it. Now, before you rip me to shreds, let me explain. When I say environment, I mean three topics.
1. Animals.
I like animals. I just fed a pigeon this morning. But I would never put animals above people.
The anti-animal-everything-movement is huge right now. No leather, no meat, no sugar, no beer, no perfume, no plastic bags and oh, while you’re at it, no milk and cheese either please. Yes, these are all animal products.
Sometimes I wonder: If a dog and a person are standing in the street and a bus is about to hit them, who’d you push out of the way? The dog or the person?
I meet more and more people for whom I’m not sure what their answer would be. In my eyes there’s nothing to discuss.
2. Food.
Besides meat, I happen to also like chips. And chocolate. No, I don’t want a soy-milk, gluten-free, lactose-intolerant-friendly venti tastes-like-nothing frappuccino. I enjoy salt. And pepper. And burgers.
I used to date a vegan once. But after two years of buying almost no animal products and supporting every one of her crazy dietary preferences, I stopped for a second and said: “Wait. How many times did she make me steak? Oh, right, once.”
Fun fact: No matter how far you go back in human history, you won’t find a single indigenous people who didn’t eat animals or at least eggs and milk.
The oldest Indian text referring to the first vegetarians, the Manusmriti, reads:
“There is no sin in eating meat… but abstention brings great rewards.”
It makes me sad to see so many people who isolate and ostracize others, based on the grounds of what they eat. Or have eaten in the past. Fat people don’t like being fat. They’re trying their best not to be. But it’s not easy.
I weigh just 140 lbs, but I get their struggle. I work a lot. So sometimes, I buy shitty food too. I’m just lucky it doesn’t affect me as much.
3. The planet.
I drink a lot of coffee. So I use a lot of paper cups. I have one right now:
I’ve never taken more shit about the environment than this semester. Every time I buy one of them, someone calls me a polluter.
Yet, these cups are already recyclable. And they’re working on a solution where you buy a plastic cup once and have it refilled all the time. But I bet people will get hung up on that too.
I don’t own a car. Or a TV. I never buy clothes unless my old ones tear. But coffee cups? Total weakness of mine. I stand by it.
So am I just an asshole? I hope not. I did get the memo. Einstein’s remark about the bees…
“If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.” – Albert Einstein
…the whole obesity situation…
Almost 3 in 4 men (73.7 percent) were considered to be overweight or have obesity; and about 2 in 3 women (66.9) were considered to be overweight or have obesity. – U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
…even the whole recycling issue is not lost on me:
The EPA estimates that 75% of the American waste stream is recyclable, but we only recycle about 30% of it.
These are all pressing issues. But here’s what most people don’t understand:
As humans, we have never talked our way out of problems. We innovate.
Imagine if the smart and capable people at Greenpeace spent all their energy on building solutions to the problems they point out, instead of sticking yet another banner on a ship.
There is no way in hell we’re going to talk everyone into behaving perfectly by waving our fingers. Sermons don’t convince people, serving self-interest does.
Our only chance is to innovate ourselves out of the dilemma. It’s an all-or-nothing game. If we don’t pull it off, we’re screwed.
- The 1% of animal rights people will not solve our animal problems. The people demanding more sustainable animal products and alternative solutions will.
- The 1% of vegans won’t solve our food problems. The people demanding better meat and replacements will.
- The 1% of environmental activists won’t solve our climate problems. The people revolutionizing the energy industry will. Like Tesla and those working on stratospheric aerosol injection.
Sometimes, these groups intersect. But often they don’t. They can raise awareness, but that’s just a starting point. Extreme solutions are never sustainable for the masses.
So instead of giving in to all the clamoring, I just do my thing, am okay with not being perfect, and let the world do what it does best: figure it out.
When I see solutions that really solve those problems, I’ll be the first to vote for them with my hard-earned dollars.
