Why Doesn't Anyone Care About The Environment?
“Why doesn’t anyone care about the environment?” As an avid eco-enthusiast, I asked myself this question until it burned a hole in my head.
“We have climate breakdown, microplastics in breastmilk…am I living on a different planet to the rest of the world?” It has taken me five years of heavy concern to comprehend; yes, I am.
We all see this damaged world from different planets. Your planet grew up in unique circumstances; your temperament and interests came from God knows where. Your specific trauma is moving your mental frame in or out or upside down. So, as I’m here looking at this mess from my planet, I’ve been screaming for people to see what I see. All of the ecologically interested are screaming. And that might work for a beat. But no one floats over to a screaming planet. No one wants to live on a scream.
Seeing the population as eight billion planets instead of eight billion people has completely changed how I engage with my planet and these other planets. Trying to convince someone your planet is right and they would be very, very wrong not being on this planet is like trying to herd cats. No one will stay around too long for it. They might sometimes make a meow towards you or a scratch…but there certainly won’t be a sense of solidarity. As I look at this mad culture war pushing us around like we’re people when we are, in fact, planets (or cats), I feel like I’m living in the absurd. The only thing that has ever moved us human-planet-cats to sustainable action and change is….
Beauty and the sense of a positive life force.
Now, even if the environmental movement is fighting for life, it must ensure it isn’t doing it with death energy. We must ensure that we don’t become the thing we are against. That is always the concern. Life is a series of moments that insist on a series of strategies, a series of dance moves. And unless activists understand this, they become their worst nightmare without ever knowing it.
I was in a substack chat group with some more conservative-minded planets, and it was refreshing, the politeness, the space to think and respectfully disagree. This kind of life-filled interaction made me understand how these planets see my planet. Listening to them, I learned what my way onto their planet would be. They don’t like the screams, they said. They explained why, and it seemed fair enough to me. I try to use people’s correct pronouns out of respect and out of respect for these conservatives, I will try and use communication that speaks to them. I will try not to scream.
When I spoke cleanly, respectfully, rationally…they listened. I was heard. The message I was trying to send was received gratefully. Why?
No force.
Yes, people are angry, yes, people are scared, and yes, this is frustrating. And yes, this is life and death - but what I’ve learned in my forty years is…that’s the nature of life….death. Life is always life AND death. And screaming LIFE at someone over and over and over again - is…funnily enough…death. Life and death - the complete package, is dangerous, frustrating, and utterly insane. We are all Alice in Wonderland wondering, What the? This is why we have been left with social rules and codes of conduct to live by. Thank God. Thank the ancestors.
Love thy neighbour.
Actually, go the whole hog, let’s spice this up…
Love thy enemy.
Keep these codes close; we might one day convince a few planets to play with us.
Abigail is the author of Birth At The End Of The Earth: My Journey from Eco-anxiety to Eco-action and the host of the podcast Enlighten-Up: Unity, Humour & Hope.