Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Engage in the discussion

Posted by Duncan Drennan at 07:45 Tags: , , ,
"As meaningless as changing a CFL may be, the people that change the CFL bulbs get engaged in the discussion – and that's important." – Colin Bevan, aka No Impact Man

green man shielding black man under umbrellaThere seem to be a lot of people who challenge individual action. I have often found that those same people shift responsibility.

I am sure you have heard it before:
  • "What difference can I make? The government should..."
  • "For every plastic bag you recycle, someone else throws ten away."
  • "How does it help if I ride my bicycle to work while someone else drives their 4x4?"
The biggest difference that our small actions make is that they change what goes on inside of us. Let's look at my personal experience with recycling in Cape Town.

I decided that it was time to start recycling as much of our waste as possible. I already had a compost heap which was taking care of any organic waste. Now it was time to deal with plastics, cardboard, paper and the likes. After dutifully sorting my plastic waste I went to the Morning Star dump expecting to be able to deposit my various recyclables. Well, things did not turn out quite as I would have hoped. There just did not seem to be the facilities that were advertised.

Being me I sent off an email to find out what was supposed to be happening. After some emails back–and–forth it seemed like things should be better. So off I went for my second attempt at recycling. This time things were organised and clear. Everything went into the proper recycling bins. I was pleased.

Third visit...unfortunately it was exactly like the first. No recycling bins. Confusion. So back to square one with another email sent off.

So what is the point of my story? My action (recycling) has got me engaged with a problem within my community. It has me engaged in a conversation around the problems and challenges that we face. Suddenly I care about the quality of the dump in my area. That one small action has changed me.

So I encourage you to take action. Just choose something you care about and start doing something. It may or may not change the world, but it will change you.

2 comments :

  1. Gavin Marshall3/19/2008 9:32 am

    One of the things this post highlights for me is the seperation we experience as humans from the Earth. With this seperation, doing these things will always be 'a responsibility', which then easily becomes someone else's responsibility. When we realise that we ARE the earth, that as humans we are made from this planet and exist as one of the expressions of life on the Earth - then it becomes easy to see that when we heal ourselves, we heal the Earth. We change our habits not because of an environmental crisis, but because this is what makes us whole. When I say 'us' I refer to ourselves, the Earth and every expression of life that is part of it.

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  2. Anonymous4/07/2008 12:37 pm

    Completely agree. Getting involved as individuals not only gets us engaged, it can also create discussion where none existed, as in your example. If you hadn't followed up with the emails, the people at the recycling depot would be none the wiser.

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