Don’t Stress About Your “Awful” Habits
Personal consumption is one (often necessary) part of the bigger picture.

Go vegan. Buy from sustainable companies. Get an electric car. And don’t ever, ever use a plastic straw.
By now we have probably all heard the lecture at least twenty times, especially if people know you consider yourself to be environmentally conscious.
Every time a piece of meat touches my tongue or my Starbucks comes in a plastic cup I am reminded of the harms my actions are doing to the planet.
“Do you know how awful meat production is for the planet?”
“Think about the poor sea turtle that eats that straw and dies!”
“How can you care about the environment but do things that hurt it?”
I want to spend a little time exploring that last question because I think it is important to our understanding of the environmental issues we face and our connection to them.
I do not strive to be a perfect poster child for sustainability efforts because, frankly, my personal habits don’t really matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.
There. I said it.
We don’t matter. Truly, honestly, we do not. Not in any substantial way, at least.
Don’t believe me?
A 2017 report from the Carbon Majors Database found that 70 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions since 1998 have come from just 100 companies.
That same report found that nearly half of all global industrial emissions have come from 25 corporate entities.
I think everyone agrees this is a problem, but why this problem relates to individual action is crucial to our understanding of emissions.
Even if every person on the planet suddenly stopped emitting any carbon (which is nearly impossible, but let’s assume the best of the situation for the point here) there would still be half of the current emission rate left because of these companies.
That is still far too much gas in the atmosphere that the planet cannot withstand.
But environmental issues cover far more territory than the carbon in the atmosphere. We can still help drastically in those areas, right?
It’s questionable. And hard to figure out definitively.
The consumption of single-use plastic is a major threat to our oceans and marine life.
However, much of the trash in the ocean isn’t just our Starbucks straws and cups; fishing nets and other waste products also clutter our waterways.
And yes, our production of meat is detrimental to the planet. There isn’t a whole lot of information that says otherwise.
However, our current production of agriculture is pretty bad for the planet, too.
Pesticide use, soil degradation and our global exports market all affect water and the atmosphere.
New meat alternatives are popping up in the market every day, but all of those products still require ingredients that, if not perfectly sourced, are likely killing the planet a little.
Anyway you look at it, at least some of our actions are harmful to the planet, even when we try our hardest to avoid it.
We live in a system predicated on exploitation and there is not much of a way around that short of going completely off the grid and fending for yourself.
As I write this on a laptop and you read it on some sort of device I think I can safely assume that none of us are going off the grid any time soon.
My point with all of this is not that every person alive should throw all care to the wind and do as much damage as they can while they are alive.
My point is that we need to stop shaming people for not having the privilege to make certain choices.
Yes, it is nice when people take it upon themselves to reduce their emissions, use less plastic and all the other things we have determined to be the “right” actions.
But just the ability to make a choice is one that billions around the world do not have.
Most people buy whatever is cheap enough to be fulfilling because they have no other choice.
Not everyone can afford to go vegetarian or vegan; McDonald’s is simply much cheaper than grocery store produce.
The same can be said for carbon emissions. Most people cannot afford electric cars and most areas do not supply enough car charging stations for electric travel to be feasible.
The bottom line is this: no one deserves to be shamed for things outside of their control.
Poor people in this country and around the world did not ask for the 25 companies who cause half of the global emissions to do so.
They do not put money into an environmentally degrading system out of spite or malice. They are simply trying to survive with the cards they’ve been dealt in the world they exist in.
We are putting far too much stock in the idea of a sustainable life that is predicated entirely on unseen privilege and power.
After all, the world’s polluters are still companies.
The longer we spend yelling at each other for “wrong” decisions the longer those companies stay out of the public eye and away from scrutiny.
Polluters with billions of dollars should be ridiculed harsher than the individual who lives paycheck to paycheck and just wants to get by.
