Why Change?

Whatever your reason, you are reading this because you think we need to make some changes. One or more of the following reasons are what drive most of us:

• Saving Money: Often in the near-term and almost always in the long-term, doing the right thing for the environment does save money.
• Morals and Ethics: It’s the right thing to do, and we all know it. “Waste not, want not.”
• Legacy: We are responsible for leaving our grandchildren a good place to live.
• Getting to Heaven: God expects us to be good stewards of the earth.

As Pope Francis has written: “The earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. In many parts of the planet, the elderly lament that once beautiful landscapes are now covered with rubbish.” [Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ encyclical, par. 21]

Below is a list of questions we should each consider.

1. Why do we waste energy in cooling and heating our homes and offices, simply due to lack of natural ventilation, proper weather sealing and insulation, and energy efficient systems?
2. Why do we always use that electric clothes dryer at home, when we know the sun does a great job of drying our towels when we are at the beach?
3. Why do we get so much of our electricity from coal, gas and nuclear power plants, when nature can provide some of it from solar and wind?
4. Why do we use so much water?
5. Why do we buy all our water when nature provides some of what we need?
6. Why do we pollute the environment any more than we need to? Why do we:
   1. Wear shorts and a t-shirt in the house in the middle of winter?
   2. Keep the car running while waiting in the school parking lot?
   3. Sit in the drive-through lane for our favorite fast-food or special coffee?
   4. Drive around on under-inflated, energy-wasting tires?
   5. Waste a plastic bottle every time we want to take water with us?
   6. Use a disposable cup at our favorite coffee shop?
7. Why do we throw so much away and fill up our landfills when we could “Refuse, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle” many more things?
8. Why do we buy some things, knowing that we will quickly throw them away?
   1. Plastic grocery bags and water in plastic bottles
   2. Disposable plastic cutlery, plates, tablecloths
   3. Halloween costumes
   4. Cheap fashion items
9. Why do we buy products that are designed to break or be obsolete in 5 years? Should we buy products that last?
   1. Appliances, water heaters
   2. Manual yard tools — shovels, rakes, brooms
   3. Powered yard tools — Lawn mowers, leaf blowers, trimmers, edgers
   4. Small appliances — skillets, toaster ovens, microwaves
   5. Furniture
10. Why do we live in fear of nature? Why can’t we live in harmony with nature, even in our cities?
    1. Insects: Ants, Bees and Caterpillars
    2. Amphibians and Reptiles: Frogs, Skinks, king snakes, etc.
    3. Trees, shrubs and plants
    4. Small birds and birds of prey
    5. Foxes, rabbits, other small animals
11. Why do we resist the happier life that comes from understanding the natural systems and world in which we live?
12. Why do we accept the idea that taking care of the environment is just “too hard” or “too expensive” or “too time-consuming” and that recycling bins and rain barrels and solar panels have to be UGLY?
13. Why would we not want to save money while doing well for our environment?

Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last two hundred years. Yet we are called to be instruments of God our Father, so that our planet might be what he desired when he created it and correspond with his plan for peace, beauty and fullness. The problem is that we still lack the culture needed to confront this crisis. We lack leadership capable of striking out on new paths and meeting the needs of the present with concern for all and without prejudice towards coming generations. [Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ encyclical, par. 53]

A few small changes in these simple habits can make a big difference for our environment, you and everyone else. It’s up to us.

We fail to see that some are mired in desperate and degrading poverty, with no way out, while others have not the faintest idea of what to do with their possessions, vainly showing off their supposed superiority and leaving behind them so much waste which, if it were the case everywhere, would destroy the planet. In practice, we continue to tolerate that some consider themselves more human than others, as if they had been born with greater rights. [Pope Francis, Laudato Si’ encyclical, par. 90]

For some thoughts about the role of individuals, please see The Role of the People.
For ideas on how to move forward, see What You Can Do.