To start with, you don’t necessarily have to care about your environment. Zero. Śūnya. Nada. Think about the device like the one you are using to read/listen to this on - not everyone needs to understand how every single technology that’s built into it to be able to use it. Similarly, you don’t need to care about the environment to be able to take care of it.
Here are 3 ways for you to not care about the environment but still be cool.
1. Think about your life.
The very act of thinking is popularly thought to be you-centered. You do the thinking, right? So, think about you. What constitutes your life? Your family and friends? What is essential to your life? The air you are breathing, the water you drank sometime ago, the meal you ate last, the bed you will sleep in tonight, all the ground you traveled over last week? What makes it essential? What are the series of events that had to happen to make your life possible?
Depending on your curiosity, you might find 2-5 or 10s, 100s, 1000s, millions, billions or trillions of events that had to happen to make your unique life possible. If your curiosity and yearning to understand how your life is connected to your environment is enough to protect you, your home, communities and your environment as a result, what do you lose? Nothing. Stay curious.
The biggest threat to what drives climate crisis is curiosity of people with ability to think. Think.
2. Talk about your life.
Talk about what makes your life possible, especially to the people who make it possible. Talk about the people who help you breathe clean air, ensure you have drinkable water, grow the ingredients & cook your meals, ensure your physical safety, and so much more that makes up your life.
Chances are what makes your life possible, is a unique set of events that happened, are happening, and are yet to happen. If you talking about your life happens to protect you, your home, your communities, and your environment as a result, what do you lose? Nothing. Share.
Most people can think about their life easily enough, but underestimate the importance of talking about it to other people that matter. Share. Share now. Share in every way possible. The sense of community and belonging is key to successfully managing/going through the climate crisis. Oh, we will.
3. Take care of yourself.
Most importantly, actively take care of yourself and protect everyone that makes your life possible. You know how. Take care of the people who ensure you breathe clean air, ensure you have drinkable water, grow the ingredients & cook your meals, ensure your physical safety, and so much more that makes up your life.
But when it comes to every ‘thing’ in your life, ensure you have thought about it yourself and that these things are *really* essential to your life - else you might end up protecting and caring for things in your life that someone else convinced you are important, and you wouldn’t want that.
Talk about it often and change your thinking if and as necessary to take care of yourself, what do you lose? Nothing. Take care. The greatest strength during a climate crisis is the ability to think critically and adapt, to protect what makes life possible.
TL;DR summary
Think about everything that *really* makes your life possible.
Talk about what makes your life possible to people in your life that matter.
Take care of yourself by protecting people and a few things that *really* make your life possible.
If this is your first time reading the ‘One Earth Letter’ series, here are all the letters and topics to be expected in an attempt to build a human-friendly guide to the climate crisis; if you liked this one, you might like others as well - start with a topic you are most curious about and let curiosity take it from there. Don’t forget to subscribe though.