It’s no great sacrifice to protect the environment

[Guest guest]

It’s no great sacrifice to protect the environment

 

I recently read an article about a woman in Spokane, Washington, who

doesn’t like phosphate-free dishwashing detergents. Phosphate-

containing detergents are banned in Spokane County because of their

negative impact on the environment, so the woman drives 45 minutes to

Idaho where phosphate detergents are still sold. The article also

notes that the woman has a five-year-old daughter. I’m astounded.

 

People often argue that protecting the environment will require too

many sacrifices. Is this what they mean? That they would risk their

children’s futures because they can’t be bothered to rinse their

dishes before putting them into the dishwasher?

 

Phosphates are added to cleaning products because they help cut grease

and get rid of food particles on dishes. But they also have enormous

negative impacts on rivers, streams, and lakes. By fertilizing the

waters, phosphates can cause massive algae blooms that starve the

water of oxygen and choke aquatic ecosystems, killing fish,

amphibians, insects, and plants. Phosphates have been banned from

laundry detergents in most places for a number of years now, but

consumers have resisted moves to ban them from dishwashing

detergents.

 

The article notes that the Spokane River is one of the most endangered

in the U.S. and that phosphate pollution from the county’s main

wastewater treatment plant has been reduced by 14 per cent since the

dishwasher-detergent law was passed in July. But apparently this woman

doesn’t care if the river is devoid of life when her daughter grows up

– as long as her dishes are spot-free!

 

The woman claims to be " environmentally conscious " . I guess she means

that she cares about the environment only when it is convenient for

her. This is a good example of the kind of challenges faced by people

who really do care about the environment and the future. Part of the

problem may be that some people can’t really relate their own

behaviour to the consequences. Think of parents with asthmatic

children who continue to smoke in the house or drive SUVs. Others are

simply not willing to make even the smallest sacrifices when it comes

to protecting the environment. Yet, for the most part, no real

sacrifices are required.

 

At the David Suzuki Foundation, we hear almost daily from people who

thought it would be difficult to get up a bit earlier and expend a bit

more energy to cycle to work instead of drive, for example. But they

soon found that the benefits of cycling – from getting in better shape

to enjoying the outside world – far outweighed any of the negative

consequences.

 

It’s more about changing the way we think than about giving something

up. If we take a broader, more long-range view of things, we see that

we usually gain more than we lose when we make changes in our lives to

protect our surroundings.

 

We see the same kind of resistance to things like a carbon tax. Never

mind that market forces play a far greater role in fuel-price

increases than a carbon tax ever will! People see that they might have

to pay a few pennies more at the gas pump or for home-heating bills

and they immediately cry that they will have to give up their cars and

freeze in their homes during winter.

 

But we see immediate and long-term benefits from putting a price on

carbon. People find ways to conserve energy, companies invest in

technologies that use renewable energy, and we end up with less

pollution and fewer emissions that contribute to global warming.

 

We live in consumer societies, especially here in North America. We’ve

become convinced that we have to keep replacing our goods with newer

and " better " , often over-packaged, products. We dispose of things even

before they have broken down. And the world suffers for it. People

sometimes accuse me and other environmentalists of wanting to send us

back to living in caves and scrounging for roots and berries. Nothing

could be further from the truth.

 

We can lead lives that are even more fulfilling on a cleaner planet

where more people have access to clean air, water, and food. All it

takes is some imagination and some forward thinking. If we really

cared about our world and about our children and grandchildren, we

would be willing to make some sacrifices to make the world a better,

healthier place. But in most cases, the sacrifices are as illusory as

some of the benefits we think we are deriving from our rampant

consumerism.

 

Science Matters has been running weekly since 1999. To read past

columns, please visit www.davidsuzuki.org/science_matters/.

 

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