"Accept the world, Una. It is what it is."
-quote from Ahab's Wife, by Sena Jeter Naslund
I hear that saying, 'it is what it is', quite often. In many cases, the words are meant to procure acceptance of a certain situation, often something that we as humans have no control over and should therefore accept rather than attempt to change. In other cases, though, the saying is employed as an excuse, and that irritates me.
Global warming and pollution are two huge, sometimes seemingly insurmountable hurdles facing humankind. The problem is so vast, so overwhelming, that is is easy for one to despair, to say, 'it is what it is', and believe that nothing can be done to diminish the effect we humans have on the environment. So often, people either refuse to accept the truth of the human impact on the earth, or accept it but see it as too great a challenge to face. So many think that they, as individuals, cannot make a difference, that whatever contribution they can make will be too small to have an affect, that the problem cannot be solved without the whole world working together and, since global cooperation is currently a seeming impossibility, many do not bother to work as individuals to put a brake on our environment's demise. While it is true that the enormity of our situation requires a global response, it is ludicrous to say that one person cannot make a difference. Every action counts, no matter how small.
Here is an example. A few weeks ago, my mom took my little sister to the aquarium. There, a conservationist told them about the albatross, and how they and other seabirds are dying because they are ingesting plastic. There is so much pollution in the ocean and along the coast that the birds mistake floating trash for their prey and eat it. The plastic clogs their systems or chokes them, and they die. We are killing the birds by mindlessly buying, using, and discarding useless 'stuff'. This loops back into what I consider to be our biggest problem: an ever-expanding consumer society. I won't get started on that problem today, as I would end up writing pages and pages.
Even as we are killing the birds, each and every one of us also has the power to save them. If we each pick up just one or two pieces of litter every day, we could save one or two birds. In that tiny act, that 10 second motion of picking up trash, we are taking action and making a difference. Now imagine that one hundred people did that in one day. Compared to the world population, one hundred people is a puny number, but that miniscule group could save one hundred birds. Now imagine that each of those hundred people told two friends to do the same; two hundred more people would pick up two to four hundred more pieces of trash, saving two to four hundred more birds. Now what if each of those two to four hundred told two of their friends? and so on. This pattern may seem familiar, but it is repeated because it works.
My point here is that no matter how small your contribution may seem, and even though we know that not every human on earth is actively trying to curb global warming, we should not despair. Instead, we should continue to do what small things we can until everyone contributes in some way, and then we will be a lot closer to solving our problem.
