Month: February 2020

To actually make a change, you do not have to commit yourself to hours of community service, running for office, or creating a foundation; most of what is extremely effective in enacting changes are the many small actions and decisions that we make during our daily lives. You dont need to be some loaded billionaire to be able to create a change, although I do admit it helps. Simple things like not leaving your light on, keeping the water off when you do not need it, or unplugging devices when not in use can add up, especially when this happens across a large number of people. Like I said in my last post, your actions DO matter, and these small things will add up to create significant change.

See this video for a comical approach on how much weight (literally- kg of CO2) that your actions have on the environment. There is no need to go into drastic measures such as refusing to use a car for a 20 mile commute, but keeping in mind how much of an impact that your smaller actions have is beneficial in reducing your footprint. Most of this reduction comes out of reusing items, which brings me to my first point.

Single use items like water bottles and bags can be easily switched out for reusable versions. I have seen many organisations or places make this switch to help enact change. For example, Penn State has implemented those water bottle fill up stations around the dorms, commons, and building to promote multiple used for liquid containers. They have also recently implemented a reusable bag only policy at the convenience stores on campus like Louie’s in Redifer Commons, along with the Green-To-Go containers to discourage Styrofoam use. I wish they would completely take away the option to get the paper cups and Styrofoam containers; there is no need to have them when Green-To-Go is an option. Still, it is small actions like this that will create a change.

For the second point, turning off/unplugging devices when they are not in use saves a lot of energy. There is no need to keep your phone or laptop plugged in all night. It will take up to an hour total to charge and will end up wasting energy when it is sitting idly at 100 percent (even when it is fully charged and plugged in, energy is wasted). Also, it is harmful to your laptop in general to it plugged in all the time when you are using it. Another way to create a small bit of change is turning off lights when a room is not being used, this counts not only for your own room, but for any room that is not in use. There are many study rooms in my residence hall, and if I leave one and no one else is there, then I turn off the light(s). There is no need for them to be on, and I think if everybody started to be conscious of something like this there would be a significant change.

Thirdly, emissions from vehicles creates a large impact on the environment, so if more people were to take public transportation or walk (when these methods are applicable) then this would cut down on a lot of air pollution. In my high school, there was a teacher whose house was a 2 minute walk down the hill, but she still drove to school. In a situation like this, driving is unnecessary and hurts more than it is efficient. Also, if you are in a city and can take a bus or subway, then that is much more efficient that driving.

I walked to school almost everyday from middle school to high school (unless the weather didn’t allow for it), it was about a 14 minute walk, so think about how that would equate to ~4 minutes of driving each day that were missed out on because I chose to walk instead of drive/get a ride from my parents. I know many other did this as well, and when something that is seemingly small like this gets repeated by many people, it is very impactful.

Going along with this train of though, I see a lot of people who use public transport at PSU, but also a lot who walk, ride bikes, and use skateboards. This is much more beneficial than those who drive or use electric modes of transport like scooters or the electric skateboards (I honestly do not comprehend how lazy you have to be to use a electric scooter to get to class). Not only are walking, bikes, and other non-vehicular modes of transportation beneficial to the environment, but also to your health.

Overall, keeping track of the small actions and decisions that you make everyday can allow you to start making change while altering your lifestyle very minimally. If you are curious on more ways to help, this article gives other general actions you can do to make a larger change.

Imagine walking down the street and you just finish your bottle of soda and you go to throw it out… but wait… there isn’t a garbage bin anywhere in sight. You contemplate throwing the bottle to the side because, come on, it’s just this one time. What is one bottle going to do? You’ll make sure you throw away the next thing I use, right?. But, the next time you do this, the same thing happens: “Come on, it’s just this once”.

What hurts, or helps, a society are the individual actions of each person. When you adopt the lazy attitude that makes you want to toss the bottle to the side of the road, you take part in the actions that create the damage in the environment. When you throw it, you think in a very isolated point of view, but neglect to think about how many others have done that same thing today. This ushers in questions like: “Well what do my actions matter when put against 20 others?”, or “How can I make a difference, I’m only one person?”. The individuals make up the community, and therefore the actions of each individual, like I said before, allow the issues to worsen or become better. So, yes, your actions really do matter. Regardless of whether or not there are other people who counteract you, the act of you throwing that bottle into the dirt does not change the fact that what you did adds to the problem. These are the same ideas that arise when people question if their vote matters.

Now obviously this is a topic that is philosophical and does not have a definitive “yes” or “no” regarding whether your actions matter, but I think this issue is what is holding back a lot of change, therefore discussing this topic is very important.

I think that if more people were to adopt this mindset, then there would be less of an issue regarding climate change today. Yea, the corporations make up a chunk of the pollution, but like I emphasized in my past post, the strongest impacts (the last 3 paragraphs) are created by the community. If the individuals in a city decide to toss that bottle on the ground, then within a day there will be 1000 more bottles on the streets. In each of these cases, each individual thought in the very narrow view. They made a decision because they believed “What’s one bottle gunna do?”, but failed to understand that, when that question is asked by every single person, that “one bottle” becomes thousands.

I think it is effective to see this issue as some sort of race, where, for example, throwing the bottle to the side equates to taking a step back, and recycling it equates to a step forward. Why, in any case, would you want to take a step back? Even if there are 20 people who litter, then why not recycle to try to at least gain back one of those steps. Thinking in the sense of the big picture, and not a narrow point of view centered around yourself, will do wonders in combating a lot of the issues what we currently have today.

It is a difficult process to try to get past the “My vote/action doesn’t matter” state of thought. It is hard to think that, in a sea of 300 million people, one person is able to make a difference. Thinking about it now, It is hard for me to completely grasp that. Going back to another analogy: If a group project has 10 people in it, and 2 decide to actively go against the groups goal, then not only do the other 8 people have to make up the work for those 2 people, but they have to combat the actions that were done to set the group back. I would say that this is a good way to look at the issue of individual actions like littering or using plastic bags. When you do something like throw a bottle on the ground, you not only hurt the environment, but you effectively counteract the actions of someone who decided to recycle their bottle.

As a little note to close: If you come across the question of “Do my actions matter” and decide, after thinking about how one person’s say can possibly make a difference in a group of 300 million, that it doesn’t matter, then there are several thousands of others who went through the same thing and reached the same conclusion. These numbers add up, and when 10,000 individuals decide that their actions do not matter, then it starts to show on the large scale.