Are We Greenwashing Ourselves?

I’m selling a message nobody wants to hear

I have recently abandoned writing on Medium on any subject other than nature and the environment. For me, it is something of an experiment.

The results have been quite shocking.

Where I once held top writer status in several different categories, my readership has since dropped dramatically.

I’m selling a message nobody wants to hear

I enjoy reading about nature and the environment. Though our pawning of the planet can be downright depressing at times, I have long believed that it is the most crucial issue humankind facing at the moment.

I know that there are other writers out there with similar views, but it seems we are a tiny minority; outliers in a world that would far rather read listicles about — Ten Ways to Get Rich on Medium — or — Sixty Sex Positions You Hadn’t Heard Of.

I am gradually coming to the sad understanding that the world doesn’t give a damn about the state of the planet we live in, or anything else to do with the environment.

We, environmental writers, have created an echo chamber, which we have assumed that outside feels just as passionately about. I am concluding that we may have been wrong — very wrong.

The Lack of Interest Is Everywhere

The lack of interest is certainly not limited to this platform. In the village I live in, there are numerous bins dotted about the town.

They are always placed in pairs, one green, and one brown. All you have to do is place your recyclables in the green bins and the rest of your household waste in the brown. Just in case that is not simple enough for you, the recycling bin carries pictures of all that should be placed in them, mainly packaging.

Adhering to this, the simplest of environmental gesture seems nigh on impossible for many. People will place their household waste, old car parts, and abandoned furniture in whichever bin seems to catch their fancy on that particular day.

If neither of the bins seems to their liking, they will just toss it on the ground, hopefully somewhere nearby.

When the council had the temerity to move a pair of the bins fifty yards up the road where it was easier for the collection vehicle to stop, one irate-resident abandoned the bins altogether.

He now just tosses his garbage where he believes the bins should be, even though the bags are soon torn apart by dogs and foxes and their contents blown into the nearby stream.

Even putting empty bottles into the bottle bank seems too much of an effort for some.

They will place them on the ground, happy to leave them for someone else to deal with, satisfied that getting them into the zone meets their social responsibility.

Selfishness and Ignorance

I have always been quick to point out that politicians need to shoulder much more of the weight when it comes to caring for the planet. They all stood up on their soapboxes at one stage or another and promised to, after all. It’s not a political problem, however.

It is pure selfishness, and I am beginning to think it runs far deeper than many of us who read and write these sorts of articles realize.

In France, we are strictly locked down at the moment and only allowed out for an hour per day and within a short distance of our homes.

On my walk this morning, I saw at least four face masks blowing through the streets.

I might accept this if I lived on a housing estate deep in the inner city somewhere. But I live in a tiny medieval stone village in the middle of a nature reserve where half the population is connected to the tourism industry in one way or another.

Nobody Cares

If you are hoping that I have an answer to this problem, then I am afraid you are going to be disappointed.

We have just witnessed an election where 70 million people voted for a man who walked away from the Paris Accord. The US elections are not this foreigner’s business, but when it comes to the climate, we are talking about something that affects all of us.

I don’t think there can be many educated people who don’t have some idea of the harm that man has inflicted on the earth. Certainly, we hear a great deal of noise when it comes to environmental issues.

What I am now wondering is whether or not the world really cares, or is it just the same few voices bouncing back and forth between ourselves and thinking we are getting through.

Change Begins With Us

Saving the planet is not about some far away from the scientific project on a glacier or an attempt to relocate polar bears.

It begins with us, and it starts right at our front doors.

Thank you for reading.

Let’s be mindful of the environment and coexist in harmony. Read the following article published in The Masterpiece to know how to rewild your surroundings.