Sustainable, eco-friendly, green, organic, cruelty-free, all terms you now hear on a daily basis. But should you really be trying to live a more sustainable life?
Sustainability is a real buzzword at the moment. From eco-friendly cars, to vegetarian diets and recycled fashion, everyone seems to be talking about how we impact the earth. But has the term sustainability become too much of a gimmick for people to take seriously?
OPINION
Is sustainability a myth?
We are living in a world where things are all “organic”, “eco-friendly”, “sustainable” and any other descriptive derivative stating the same. Mostly created for commercial reasons, often it is simply a new label on the same old rubbish. All of these terms are a sales gimmick similar to the fashion of colours; what is hip now will be so yesterday tomorrow. Sustainability is one of those things… surely.
Not really. It is far more than that. The fact that we need to change our ways is an absolute fact, and while sustainability may be a confronting issue, it is one we must deal with, and soon.
Why should you care about sustainability?
Currently, the middle-aged generation makes the lion share of the decisions across the planet, and as they are only here for another decade or so, they do not think long term. In a matter of decades, all the current middle-aged people will be no more, so the earth be someone else’s problem.
As a man in the middle of my middle age, I am safe. Yes, there will be water shortage before I die and the weather will continue to get nastier, but then I will perish, so why should I care? Why don’t I just let others do the deeds needed?
Honestly, I would quite like to leave this earth with the knowledge that I have made the best planet that I can for my children and theirs. You know when you go to bed and you’ve had a super perfect day, and how that sleep is the best ever? When I fall asleep for the last time, that is the sleep I want. That is what we are going to talk about in a series of articles that will look at sustainability, design and things we can all do to make our daily life less wasteful.
We will talk about the fact that in eight years this planet will have 1.8 billion of its citizens experience a severe lack of water. That is more people than currently living in the whole of China. That is a lot and it is soon, and we need to find a better plan to combat it.
What can we do? What are the things we can change?
It’s easy to say that we will have a severe water shortage. Next, someone states that global warming will kill the planet; it all sounds so big. We are tired of hearing this day in, day out. We avoid media that brings it up, we try to run past WWF people, Greenpeace and similar organisations on the street while they are there begging for your money.
Together we can find things that we can do to mitigate these changes, things that will, admittedly, have little impact if only you and I do them. But if we all try to do these things, and if businesses join to improve along with the rest of us, then it will be like the end of a feel-good movie, or at least that is the hope.
