This post was published @ PlanetThoughts not too long ago.
I have a friend who buys her lunch everyday from the canteen despite it being less than a hundred meters away from the post-graduate room where she sits during the day. She packs her lunch in a foam box and a packet of drink every-single-day. So one day, I asked her in a very casual way why didn’t she bring her own lunch box, and I told her that it would be a good idea since she would be able to reduce the use of materials that aren’t recyclable.
“Lazy to wash,” came to reply.
I was dumbfounded.
The easiest way to end a conversation with me is to show me that you have total disregard to the environment. I understand that many people choose convenience over the common good and that it is very difficult to convince them unless there is monetary incentive (gulps!).
So most of the time, I “model my behavior” and if anybody sees me and asks a question or two, that will give me a chance to “preach” since they started the conversation. In the post-graduate room where we sit and do our (paper)work, I use recycled papers to draft my thesis. In fact, I print my thesis draft on recycled papers too! I don’t mind looking like a miser trying to save every dollar and cent. I don’t talk about environmental issues with my fellow post-graduate friends, in fact, I just do things in front of them. But of course, many people never paid much attention to the kind of things I do, LOL.
I have also read that “being green” is a new trend that would allow us to be on earth the longest. But, the earth can only provide for so many people over long periods (hundreds of thousand or millions of years) and we are well above that number.
There would be a solution to that. Nobody but a couple million people should have descendants. But how would that ever be possible, considering it is in our nature to want to reproduce. Only other possible scenario. Lots of people are going to die, not of old age. To reach a population of a couple million worldwide, about 7 billions would have go to rest. Nobody has to do anything thou, it will all take place naturally, just like the sun rises everyday. Most of us will disappear. Then we can talk environment.
I’ve learned that attempts at overly persuading anybody rarely work. Instead, modeling is probably the surest way to change anybody’s behavior, although it is (admittedly) slow.
So, have you had trouble getting your friends to go green? How do you convince them?
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Show them by example. That does seem to be the best way.
you can’t make anyone do anything that they don’t want. making it a part of your life and have it be natural to talk about and do- is the only way to go. there are always going to be folks who won’t do the right thing because they like their own lifestyle. i have an entire country full of them. we use over 1/4 of the world’s resources and only have roughly 300 million people living in this country. the folks here don’t want to rock the status quo. too cushy.
It is easier to convince young people to go green in front of them but to persist they need to learn the issue themselves. Anyway, you try to tell the old generation about the importance of recycling etc and they will always give you one respond: It’s none of my business. The neighbours are doing the same, why you preach only at me?
Well, I’m trying to integrate environmentalism into my daily life. Hopefully with the help of advanced technology we could save our planet.
That is what I am doing, Felicia :D And yeah, it seems to be the best way, provided that people around you are aware of what you are doing :D
Yeah, you are right, betmo, we can’t make anybody do anything unless they are motivated to do the same :D
You are one of the young people I have seen who are into saving our planet. Most young people I have seen don’t give two fish about recycling or going green..
Well, hopefully at the end of my research, I could come up with an optimal way to minimize waste generation while converting the waste into fertilizer or soil conditioner. =)
Meanwhile I have tonnes of paper waste sitting in my living room. Still accumulating and hopefully the landlord wouldn’t mind. =p