An Inconvenient Conversation

Today I sat down with my parents to engage in a conversation about climate change and energy resources. Global Warming is a commonly discussed topic in our home, so it wasn't an unfamiliar conversation. We're always making efforts in our home to conserve wherever we can, and reduce our waste. In the past few years we have eliminated paper plates, paper napkins, plastic bags, we got a hybrid car, and we recycle. My parents are very invested in helping the environment every way possible.

After asking about the disconnect between science, and what politicians are doing my parents told me that politicians purposefully downplay the severity of global issues because they don't want to cause hysteria. "We've done things the way we have for so long that it's difficult to change. You have industries that are deep-rooted in practices that are not saving the environment at all, but they're so ingrained in our economy." Businesses are focused on profit, not on the environment or the future. They're primarily looking at their profit margin, and they're serving the shareholders; investors don't want to invest in a good future, they want to invest in making money as soon as possible.

Because my dad works on the UCSD campus he's exposed to the daily habits of a younger and supposedly brighter generation. He found it incredible how few people recycle, or even care about environmental issues. "Even when you're looking at the best and the brightest" he said, it's hard to find people that care. On the other hand, my mother works on the SDSU campus, where she says that recycling has taken a turn for the better. There are now recycling bins all over the campus; the medical center no longer uses medical capes and drapes, even though cloth is more expensive; and the cardboard that the medical center receives in their many shipments is now recycled, thanks to my mother.

We closed our discussion with the final question: What's the hardest thing about addressing the climate change? My fathers first answer came quickly: breaking down the wall of propaganda. Trying to make people believe that what's happening is real is the hardest part about making a change. In addition, everyone is stuck in the mindset that "I'm only one person", and that only one person won't make a difference. "You need a moral understanding of what's going on," said my mother "and you have to do what your conscience tells you to do." We're the ones that have to change, or it's not going to change at all. To turn our backs on what scientists are saying is ignorant. It's too much work for people to believe what's happening, because then they would have to make changes in their behavior.