beginnings

For years the choices I made as a consumer were mainly dictated by price and convenience.  Growing up without much money I came to associate the concepts of reduce, reuse and recycle with poverty rather than environmentalism.  I didn't even bother to learn more about environmental issues in any sort of depth until I was doing my Masters course.  Once I actually read about food security, climate change, water scarcity, conservation, extinction rates, etc, etc, I felt very overwhelmed.  My head was now full of arguments on both sides of so many issues and I was acutely aware of how complex environmental policy was.  After my course I found that once I was educated on these topics, I was unable to escape my conscience when faced with consumer decisions and in other aspects of daily life.

Here is a photo of one of my assignments.  We were exploring how to connect to an audience via artistic media.  I'm definitely not an artist, but I was happy with my concept.

The topic was climate change.  I was trying to evoke an emotional response as I highlighted the difference between outcomes for our planet and how they are dependent on our current actions.  Our hope for a worthwhile future lies in humans actively fighting against climate change, mainly through changes in lifestyle and consumer behaviour.  This is contrasted with the alternate future we will inherit if we take no action.  Rising sea levels and higher temperatures will have eliminated many habitats in the world to cause loss of species and biodiversity.  Only the opportunistic species would remain: the "pest" species of seagulls, rats and cockroaches.

After making the list of actions for this project, I decided I could try them out for myself.  I'd say this was my starting point in trying to "green" my life.  I have made small changes one at a time and still have more I can make.  So follow me as I make changes and use this blog to document how I find the process.