Are we even really making a difference?

I must not be the only one who is kind of … well, stressed about the environment. Climate change is affecting everyone and everything, though most disproportionately, the poorest of the world. From ruining crops that affect FOOD production, to huge heat waves and forest fires that threaten to overwhelm and basically kill those without any possibility of relief from it, to cold snaps where huge tennis balls of hail have railed down on cities, and flooding.. I am not sure what to really say.

Then I read articles about how celebrities take their private jets for 17-minute jaunts. Or whatever the headline is. Or that planes fly EMPTY to keep their coveted spot in line for takeoff and landing at airports.

And I think:

What the F@#$* is the point of me doing all of these individual actions to help?

I am somewhat .. just in despair. I don’t know how to describe it. Here are some of the things we do, to try and help the whole situation, and they feel ridiculously pointless at times when I hear of what else goes on.

LESS DAIRY & MEAT

I have also realized the benefit of not drinking cow’s milk has helped my skin, and I have switched to Oat milk (seemingly the best of all the options from the amount of water oats uses versus almonds, to having oats being locally farmed in Canada rather than imported, etc) from Greenhouse which is the best plant-based milk I have ever had that doesn’t add too much salt, sugar, etc to the mylk itself, plus makes a killer matcha latte in the morning.

We also eat mostly vegetarian throughout the week. People might consider let’s say, a piece of meat to be for one meal, but I stretch it to three with vegetables and grains. It’s just a habit from when I was growing up and we were very frugal in the house in terms of spending money on food (I have some trauma in line with this..) But I think it serves a great purpose here to not need meat on everything, I treat it like a side dish, not the main star.

We also have cut out butter and are now using almond butter, we don’t use cream, and for any dishes that NEED those items, we buy it, but on a regular daily basis, we avoid most animal products at this point.

SECONDHAND FOR LIFE

I love vintage, antique pieces, but I also like secondhand clothing because it saves me a TON of money. Plus you can find pieces that have long been sold out in stores years ago, and are sometimes new with tags, or like new. You can buy designer items for a fraction of the price ($100 for a $1000 sweater), the quality is far better, and it isn’t fast fashion crap that falls apart of ends up in a landfill (HELLO SHEIN.)

I also like vintage items because they have a history, a story, and something behind them that makes me so excited to have THAT instead of something new and plastic. Anyway, I could go on forever, but I am wholly planning on furnishing my place with secondhand items that have meaning.

REUSABLE ITEMS

Reusable mug at Starbucks again (THANK GOODNESS), I even stopped drinking as often there because of the sheer amount of GUILT at how disposable everything was. I still feel incredibly awful about all of it. We also bring our own bags, don’t take straws, you know, all the stuff that seems so pointless when people are out there doing stuff in a day that invalidates years of what you could possibly do to counteract it.

…there are more examples of all of this but I am exhausted just thinking of rolling this boulder up the mountain.

SO WHAT TO DO?

I guess I keep doing what I do. Every action counts right? RIGHT? I try my best even though I am not perfect. I think we just keep trying, I hope. It’s all I can do, when I think of the future being handed to Little Bun that he has no control over.

I don’t know. I feel despair. This is what I feel. Maybe I am just needing to stop reading these articles for my mental sanity.