Good travel, just like good education, puts you outside your comfort zone and challenges your assumptions. To that extent, this journey to several Fijian villages with my Climate Lab cohort was very good travel. After two days, I left with more questions than I brought – largely about who “should” be making decisions related to climate change adaptation and how “should” outside organizations be helping.
During our time in Fiji, we were fortunate enough to be welcomed by Daku Village, where we were fed, entertained, housed, and educated by this generous community during a brief 24 hour visit. That short time did more for me and my perspectives than I got from months of pre-reading assignments, and I hope I can do them justice by putting that learning to good use.
Traveling to Fiji in April for my Climate Lab, it seemed like an extravagant excursion, but it was with the explicit purpose of learning from the people there and then giving something back to the global effort on climate change. During our in-class sessions that week, we heard from representatives across sectors with different messages but one clear theme: we’ve got to work together.
Of those who just saw their first total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, many described to me having a feeling of greater connection to humanity and a broader perspective about how we’re all on this tiny blue marble together. This eclipse (my third) reminded me of that, but also that nothing is perfect in life, but that doesn’t make our limited time here any less precious.
If Gandhi told us to “be the change you wish to see in the world,” this post represents the words I need to hear right now. Between battling depression, interpersonal conflicts, and existential threats to humanity, I haven’t been feeling very motivated lately. My mom always inspired me to change the world for the better, but her absence is making that a difficult ask right now.
Last year a friend told me he was very excited now that he knew he could take his hard-to-recycle plastic to our local recycling company. I bit my tongue, knowing that it was probably too good to be true. At best, those plastics would end up in a landfill, but I had also heard that chemical recycling might be even worse for the environment.
Knowing the health and climate risks of chemical recycling is one thing, but knowing how to change your own behavior to reduce those risks is another entirely. The plastics “recycling” process is opaque, but so is the process that gets our waste to the facility. This Plastic Free July, I took some time to learn more about where my own plastic waste goes.
Misconceptions abound when it comes to recycling, and a new technology called “chemical recycling” is being positioned as a major win for recycling hard-to-recycle plastics. No matter their intentions for the future, most chemical recycling facilities are currently turning plastics into fuel to be burned, not recycled plastics to replace virgin plastics. Perception is everything in the court of public opinion, and information matters.
After only a week, my July has already had its share of plastic consumption, largely associated with purchases that would otherwise be considered eco-friendly. While we work to reduce the amount of plastic coming into our homes, it’s also important to understand what happens after our plastic waste once we dispose of it. In short: what do “recycling” programs actually do with all this plastic?
Humans are complex creatures, whether we admit it or not, and we create very complex systems. Teasing apart that complexity is difficult, especially when we bring our own limitations and biases to the table. Successfully identifying the positive and negative impacts of our actions in the world requires a lot of humility, flexibility, and willingness to get comfortable with discomfort… plus some interactive software.