Why Is It So Hard To Be Sustainable?
This is going to more of an introspective post because I am feeling…well, introspective.
Why is it so hard to get people (and governments) on board with sustainability?
It is obviously important. We have the science to back it up.
I have learned a little about this topic in school. Part of the nonchalant attitude toward climate change and global warming comes from the fact that people feel far away from it; they are not directly affected by it, so they don’t feel that it is a real issue that needs to be addressed.
Maybe this will make it more real for you: If humans continue to live unsustainably as we have been, the worst-case scenario would lead to NYC being flooded by 6.6 feet of water by 2100.
At least for me, a NYC resident, this disastrous rendering hits home.
Socially, it is a different story.
For the type of people mentioned above, it is ignorance preventing sustainable lifestyles.
However, there are people who are aware of the dire situation we are in, and still don’t care.
In “Keep the ball rolling”: Addressing the enablers of, and barriers to, sustainable lifestyles, one of the comments by a focus group participant caught my attention. In response to existing lifestyles and whether or not they would be willing to incorporate sustainable changes, a participant said, “To be honest, none of this really bothers me. You always hear doom and gloom about it, that doesn’t make you want to even try! Who has the time to sit and think about turning lights off and buying eco-friendly stuff? Sometimes you just forget or don’t bother”.
To be honest, none of this really bothers me. You always hear doom and gloom about it, that doesn’t make you want to even try! Who has the time to sit and think about turning lights off and buying eco-friendly stuff? Sometimes you just forget or don’t bother.
I was curious about this particular person, and the participant is a 24 year old female. I was shocked because I think it is especially unusual for a younger person to be so blasé about an issue that will affect her in her own lifetime. In some way, I would be more understanding if an older person did not care about the effects of climate change and global warming — because in a dark sense, they might not feel the full consequences of those conditions during their lifetime.
I do not expect every person to be as interested in sustainability as I am, but I would expect people to care just a little if it was going to personally affect them.
What about governments?
Well, that gets more complicated.
Some government leaders, despite being shown scientific proof of climate change and global warming, claim that there’s no danger. They might even go as far as to claim that climate change isn’t real. cough cough Donald Trump cough cough.
And unfortunately, leaders like this actually have power to implement sustainable laws and choose not to. Former U.S. President Donald Trump chose forced us to be the first nation in the world to formally withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.
If you are not aware of what this is, the Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change. The goal of this agreement is to limit global warming temperatures by an increase of 2 degrees Celsius by 2050.
Essentially, this agreement keeps countries accountable for lowering their greenhouse gas emissions by any means possible (and within reason).
It gets complicated with international law for another big reason — equity.
Many developing countries make a sound argument; why should they have to hold back on industrialization to reduce greenhouse gas emissions when developed countries have already done this and probably caused our current dire situation to begin with?
And it is true, developing countries have a right to industrialize and build up their economy just as developed countries did. They have sovereign right to utilize their own natural resources for whatever goals they are trying to reach.
It will require a lot of cooperation and collaboration between countries to make significant strides in sustainable international law, but I truly think that we are capable of doing this in the next coming years.
To be honest, we don’t really have a choice.