Listening to the podcast Terrestrial is the first time I
heard the term ecoanxiety. What I was hearing was like a revelation though. For
months and months, I have had this feeling about the world in general that I
couldn’t put my finger on. Like when I’d be at a BBQ and see the host not even
making an attempt to recycle beer cans and bottles. I’d see something like that
and it would bother me because it felt like all my small actions to reduce my
environmental footprint would constantly be cancelled out. It also made me more
vigilant too. It made me realize I was not insane for feeling this hard to
describe feeling. Every summer I go to a music festival with my sister and our
friends. It is five days of beer, camping, and good friends. In years past, I
had seen a disturbing amount of recyclable material being thrown in the trash.
This past year, when describing where our campsite was, all we had to say was, “it’s
the one with big blue recycle bin on the road/path.” I put it in the perfect
spot. Not only did my campsites use it, but so did our neighbors and people
walking by who finished a beer. It was an awesome feeling to know that I had
saved a full bin of cans from the trash every day. I also exchanged my cans for
$$$$ and put the $5 I usually get in my son’s piggy bank. That month, I was
able to take us out to dinner with the amount of cans that I turned in. Another
bonus!
Anyways, I do not want to scare any of you. I just wanted to
let people know that if they are feeling similar feelings, they are not alone. In
honor of Earth Day this month, I thought this would be a good time to explore
some of the things I’m most scared of, the steps we can take to protect the
Earth, and how the Earth’s health impacts us. So, what scares me? Well, besides
everything, the biggest thing is that people don’t realize how much of an
impact humans are having on the environment and they don’t realize the small
changes we could make in our every day lives to help. That’s what I’m hoping to
change with these blog post. I’m hoping that at least one person will be
inspired to make one little change to their lives to do something that has a
positive impact on the Earth we live in.
Week 2: Healthy Earth = Healthy Humans
Week 3: Small Steps to Big Change
Week 4: Resources
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