Since I was 19 on an anthropology study abroad trip to Ecuador, I have searched for authentic intercultural experiences. It’s difficult, to be sure, and not everyone wants their travels to be difficult. My vacation in Fiji after the Climate Lab week came to an end raised some important questions: what is the value in striving for authenticity and is it even achievable?
I try to avoid touristy places when I travel, conveniently ignoring the fact that I am a tourist myself. In this post I wrestle with some external judgment related to how people “should” travel, including whether they should even travel in the first place. Seeking comfort (in addition to challenge) when I was in Fiji helped me realize there’s no clear black-and-white answer here.
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.
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.
Limiting or shifting our electricity use benefits our wallets, but it can also help support a more reliable electrical grid and limit the amount of fossil fuels we use to power our homes, which in turn limits climate change. If you don’t know where to start, you’re not alone: some utility companies offer programs to help you save money as you adjust your use.
It’s been a while since electronics lab in college, but upgrading our electric service served as a good refresher course for me. Unfortunately, many people who want to move away from fossil fuel use in their homes often don’t know where to start or even what to ask a potential contractor. I’m hoping that detailing our journey – starting with our electricity upgrade – will help.
Tourism is difficult when you love to experience the world but also recognize how damaging travel can be. Maui represents a particularly stressed part of the world from a climate standpoint, and the deadly wildfires there in the summer of 2023 impacted local communities but also the island’s biggest revenue driver: tourism. We did our best to visit responsibly, whatever that means to Maui.
“Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” as they say, but venturing into the unknown is a daunting experience for anyone. The theme of exploration was strong during our Climate Lab week in Hawai’i, especially given Polynesian cultural ties to long sea voyages. Although solving the climate crisis can feel like sailing into the unknown without a map, we’re building navigational tools that will help us find a destination.