Environmental campaigns love advocating the “reduce, reuse, recycle” path to a sustainable environment for impressionable high-schoolers. With these three magical words to restore nature, the solutions to a healthy planet are portrayed as an attainable choice in the hands of regular citizens.
While subscribing to a lifestyle of the three Rs is a healthy mindset that may establish a sense of moral responsibility in impressionable young adults, it is important for everyone to acknowledge the primary cause of a dying planet in order to mitigate it.
Despite most of our understanding of cutting down on consumption, switching to renewable energy, and maximizing the use of available natural resources in order to be sustainable, only a handful of us succeed in practicing what we preach, and relating our knowledge and acquired skills to real life. As a result, every new year, we buy into the luster of gift boxes, holiday products, and that one pair of shoes that is on sale, without which the holidays begin to feel incomplete.
Every holiday, we treat ourselves and our loved ones to products beyond our necessity, unknowingly wrapping ourselves in the convenient velvet sheets of consumerism.
Perhaps, it is not the fault of the consumer to fall for corporations that strategize to bank on their hopes and insecurities. However, it is imperative to retain situational awareness so that, before we make a new addition to our closet in the holiday spirit this year, we undergo the slightest amount of cognitive dissonance as a result and aspire to make a better effort towards the environment.
According to The Guardian, only 100 companies around the entire planet contribute to 70% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. While the USA and the European Union stand as the largest contributors to climate change, the most affected are the least developed areas of the globe.
Researchers estimate the death of over 90 million people by 2030 in Africa by the accelerated prevalence of Malaria due to global warming. Every year, India accounts for one-fifth of the global deaths and experiences a mass exodus of 30 million people as they lose their lives and land to floods.
To save their backs from slander, corporate giants such as Nestle, Coca-Cola, and Starbucks led numerous campaigns promoting sustainability with promises of “100% recyclable or reusable packaging” that either failed to see the light of day or have contributed to additional pollution -- as seen in Starbucks' release of a new “straw-less lid” that ended up containing more plastic than the old lid and straw combination.
Out of the seven grades of plastic that are industrially produced today, only two types are recycled. While only 9% of the world's plastic is recycled, the remaining end up in the ocean and landfills as they are more difficult to readily recycle.
A more creative angle taken by the media to tackle sustainability is the organic lifestyle. Not only is the cost and availability of an organic lifestyle unaffordable for most, but the impact on the environment is worse with organic farming, contrary to popular belief.
A recent study carried out in Sweden found that the process of farming organic peas contributed to 50% higher carbon emissions as compared to peas that were grown conventionally in the country.
In the end, if a systematic change is not inspired to cut down emissions on a corporate level, individuals can never keep up with the rate at which damage is done, no matter how sustainable and environment-friendly our lifestyle may seemingly be.
There needs to be a collective effort toward cutting down on consumer demand and stressing the urgency of corporate responsibility before we discover ourselves in an industrial dystopia.
Sahiba Tasnia Tanushree works at the Dhaka Tribune.
