For Skeptics: Why Should I Care?

"Why should I care about the environment?" This is a question that some struggle immensely with answering, and that is 100% okay. Everyone is free to have their own doubts about what their place is in this worldwide race to combat climate change. Even I have had the same doubts as all of you at some times. In fact, one cold, dreary morning in late July, I found myself asking, "What does it matter if I painstakingly change my habits for the good of our environment? In a world of more than 7 billion inhabitants, how can what I do possibly matter in the long run?"

To answer my question, I first had to dive into human psychology and reasoning. And what I found was this: there are many, many, many types of people in this world. For example, there are people who love Taylor Swift, there are people who despise Taylor Swift, and there are people wondering who the heck Taylor Swift even is (if you're one of the latter, I recommend Googling her and then streaming all 98 of her songs). So, to put it concisely, different people will have different opinions about different subjects and topics. In terms of the environmental crisis, yes, there will always be people who refute the science backing the issue, people who will never become convinced of its importance no matter how much you try to change their viewpoints. There will always be people like that who will not be swayed no matter what. They refuse to believe in this soon imminent, looming issue for reasons that are preventable. Then, on the opposite end of this vast, 7-billion-people wide spectrum, there are people like me who are passionate about changing the mentality of said stubborn people. But, as in all spectrums, there are also many people ranging towards the middle, and these people are A) the people who know nothing about the global climate crisis, and B) the people who don't know which side to be on. The skeptics. The people who can be swayed to either side of the spectrum.

So, the answer to the question first posed at the beginning of this blog post is actually very simple— a struggling Earth affects ALL its inhabitants, including those who do not contribute to helping save our planet. It is very easy to feel hopeless or become bogged-down at the immensity of this crisis, but think about it small-scale. If you alone use reusable bags every time you go to the grocery store for a year, you can end up saving over 600 plastic bags! All that in ONE year. And see how big our world is! Think about it: if everyone in the world (about 7.5 billion people) made a change in their own plastic usage and spread the word to others, plastic wastage would go down TREMENDOUSLY in one day alone. This is why spreading the word is so important to addressing climate change.

Climate change can and will be reversed if enough people contribute. And you can start contributing to this global movement yourself in so many different ways. You can use reusable straws instead of plastic ones, you can create a scratch paper drawer and save up, you can choose to go vegetarian once a week. It doesn't matter what you do as long as you do something to help our planet's environment! And the best thing is, IT DOESN’T TAKE MUCH EFFORT! It’s not so hard to remember to bring a reusable bag when heading to the grocery store, or to use a metal water bottle at lunch.

And remember to spread the word about climate change! You can start by sharing this blog post with people whom you want to inspire to take action against the global climate crisis. If the word is spread, then more will contribute; and when many contribute, we will all combat climate change, together.