The Un-Envioronmental Environmentalist

So, I was thinking today during an especially hot and long shower, about how I used 92% biodegradable shampoo while showering. I thought about how I should buy more products that are more sustainable in order to reduce my carbon footprint. Shortly thereafter, I was struck with a pretty obvious problem. I was taking a hot shower. Not only that, but I had been in the shower for almost 20 minutes already. I started thinking about how I should take shorter showers because I was completely counteracting the positive environmental impacts of my shampoo with the length of my shower and the energy consumed in it. I decided that I was, at times, an un-environmental environmentalist.

I think that this can still be constructive, though, if looked at in the right light. I see a lot of people who think that preserving the environment somehow makes them more "righteous" than the next guy. There are people that look down on people who don't recycle or (like me) like hot and long showers. I tend to think of these types of people as more uneducated, rather than wrong or stupid. I can fix my showering habits, and it's something I'm working on.

But, the environmentalist movement and helping to preserve the environment in general, should be a constant cycle of self criticism. What can I do better? How can I reduce MY footprint? The second we stop criticizing ourselves, it's easy to fall into a pattern of thinking that we are as good as we can be- that we're doing all for the environment that we can. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Always look at yourself and think "What else can I do?" Encourage your neighbors and friends to be more sustainable. But don't ever condemn anyone for not being as sustainable as you, because in reality we're all a detriment to the planet. It's just the degrees of our impact that differ.

- Will Stott