On Sunday, I attended the People’s Climate March with an estimated 400,000 other participants including students, grandparents, children, nurses, teachers, interfaith councils, Hurricane victims, and food justice activists. I was awed as I watched the turnout and felt the energy of so many different groups of people who all believed in the same cause.
But underlying that, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of dissonance. There were so many people, and YES, the cause is undeniably important, but at the end of the day, how many of those 400,000 went home and carried on exactly as before?
I’ll admit I felt slightly at odds with myself and questioned why I was there. What were my own motives for going? Was I really making a difference just by showing up? Had my own personal choices impacted the environment that day? (The answer was yes, and not necessarily for the better). And what about the 400,000 other participants? Were they attending for show, or for the actual cause?
Yes, the march will gain attention from elected officials who sit in power seats and can make decisions that impact corporations, organizations, and the environment. But there’s another piece that’s overlooked. Protecting the environment isn’t just for big corporations and the government. It’s an individual choice. To make an analogy; it’s impossible to change a whole system unless the individual components are previously transformed. As individuals, our personal choices determine which industries thrive, from the food sources we support, to the clothing companies, to the products that we use on our skin and in our hair. Each small decision makes a statement, but we have the opportunity to give our dollar and our support to companies that choose to give back to the environment exactly what they take, rather than taking without returning the favor.
Our impact on the environment has been as a collective whole. But it has also stemmed from individual actions. I can’t tell you the number of people who tried to hand me flyers yesterday, each trying to have their voice be heard. Where did that paper come from? What was going to be done with it at the end of the day? How many t-shirts were created specifically for yesterday’s event, that would later just sit in the back of a drawer, never to be worn again? It seemed like a lot of hype, and a lot of hypocrisy.
Big corporations and the government should absolutely take steps towards protecting the environment and giving back, but it’s a personal duty first and foremost.
I don’t study economics, but I’m confident that I understand the idea of supply and demand. We the people can demand better, healthier, greener options. But we have to uphold that demand. In choosing to support green companies or organizations, we force other corporations to reevaluate their product (even if their purpose is still just to sell as many as possible). If the consumer wants green, then that’s what companies will produce. If each individual ensures that their intake matches their output, the whole system regulates itself. If we want elected officials and corporations to change their policies, we have to change ours as well. If we do this then little by little we can impact a change. In a nutshell, my message goes out to individuals more than to corporations or officials. As a great musician once said, “A little less conversation, a little more action please.”