Is it really a sacrifice to change your behaviour if it could save our future?
Why don’t we make the right decision when it’s right there in front of us?
This week, I want to talk about the idea of ‘sacrifice’ that is seen in environmentalism and sustainability. We’re constantly told to ‘give stuff up’ and to ‘make the sacrifice’ which makes us feel resistant to change and probably resentful towards the people asking us to change.
But when it comes to solutions to climate change, why would anyone be at all hesitant when we know what is at stake? Why aren’t we scrambling to take every opportunity to make the choice that helps us all? We know that we should drive less, we know that we should fly less and we know that we should eat less meat. The future of the planet depends on us making the right decisions.
The degree to which we are willing to change and the point at which we think we cannot change any more is a matter of psychology. Why do we keep doing the things which we know are killing the planet? Probably because we don’t link the two. Because we haven’t had to reckon with the consequences of those actions yet. Because those of us polluting the most don’t live in places that have already been flooded, destroyed by wildfire or been decimated by a hurricane.
If we want to wait until we ourselves are directly impacted, we will allow many other people to suffer in the meantime. To me, sustainability and environmentalism is about acting in the interests of others before yourself. It’s about understanding selfishness, and choosing to reject it. It’s understanding that even though you are not directly at risk, you should act because you can. In the West, we can keep driving and flying and letting our government promote coal mines or support offshore drilling, but to turn a blind eye to the destruction caused is wrong. Choosing to act, whether that’s by being public and persuasive about your actions, writing/protesting/calling your politicians, or by your conscious consumer choices, is about understanding that what you can do and what you should do are very different things.
We need to resist the urge to resent anyone who asks us to change our behaviour and start to understand why they’re asking for you to change. Understand the psychological urge to fly to the Maldives and work through the desire to buy a brand new car. You know your limits, but it’s time to question whether your discomfort is more important than someone else’s life, livelihood and home. Without hyperbole, that is the choice we make every single day. That isn’t to say that we never make mistakes, and we should always put ourselves last, but what we should be asking is if that flight is essential to our wellbeing, or can we get the pleasure in a less harmful way. ‘Because I can’ isn’t a good enough reason to pollute anymore. That attitude has been killing the planet for so many years, and we cannot let it continue.
When we find pleasure in activities which hurt someone else, someone else has profited from that. Someone has hidden the negative impacts of your behaviour and they’ve told you that you’re doing the right thing. Guilt can be powerful. It can be abused and misguided, or it can be your inner warning sign that what you’re doing is harmful. Take that warning sign and use it. Trust your gut when it says to stop buying from fast fashion or flying budget airlines. Once you’ve found the ability to stop the urge to do the wrong thing, find the ability to choose the right thing. Find the joy in doing the right thing. For too long, we have based our happiness on material fulfilment and our personal enjoyment. These behaviours may make us happy, but they cause others to suffer. We need to reject our selfishness and realise that the boost we get from shopping isn’t comparable to the boost we get from helping others. We need to discourage polluting behaviours and encourage less or non-polluting ones. Don’t just find the joy in the less polluting activities, be ecstatic. Be over the moon about supporting local agriculture, be enthusiastic about solar energy. Become a cheerleader for investing in and using public transport.
There is no joy in causing suffering from someone else because of what you don’t really need. Let’s find the joy in behaviours that help all of us, so we can use that joy and the moral imperative to behave better and to demand more.