Why Do I Feel Responsible Responsible For Climate Change

I made my coffee as part of my normal morning routine. On the box of K-cups in bolded, block letters was the word "Recyclable!"

Of course the plastic K-cup is recyclable.

That is, if you suck out the coffee grounds through a hole in the K-cup, ignore whatever aluminum or other materials are probably mixed in with the plastic, and then drive or walk (probably drive) the empty K-cup to a special recycling drive in your area.

Yeah, I think I'll stick with tossing it in the trash.

There have been many pushes for individuals to take environmental action throughout my time. I have heard various calls to action such as a demand we take shorter showers, a push to bike instead of drive, and the reusable straw trend that now seems to have somewhat disintegrated along with the plastic straws into the depths of the world's oceans.

I get perplexed by some of these suggestions. I am supposed to deliver recyclable materials to a recycling drive 7 miles away, but I am not supposed to drive there? Is there a place I can shop locally that is actually affordable? I don't ever use plastic straws, which is great, but what about all the other types of plastics, pollutants, and oil regularly being put into the ocean, destroying coral reefs and stripping away sea life?

Now, I do not know much at all about environmental policy or environmental activism. I have no specialized knowledge on the topic.

But I do believe that when it comes to saving the environment, we need to stop wasting our energy (no pun intended) on surface level solutions that don't make a real impact. The problem is not the average, individual, working class American.

Before any of us were born, modern Western society was developed through a series of norms, cities, products, governments, and companies meant for us to work, come home, and support ourselves and our families. This particular set-up of structures does not support a clean, safe, and healthy environment.

Therefore, by social and structural design, any individual efforts we make to protect the environment will only make a teeny, tiny, minuscule difference when these efforts are made against a working system that continues to use up natural resources and deliver plastic and pollutants regardless of what we as individuals do with these resources. Regardless of what we do with the 'products' of our society, until they are banned, they will continue to be produced. It makes sense why actions like shopping locally, reducing driving, and reducing waste are usually very unattainable for the average American.

I claim no expertise because I do not know details about the real causes of climate change and environmental destruction.

I know that factory farming - the meat production industry - is a big one, along with the manufacturing of everyday products and goods, the generation of power and electricity, and forests being cut down.

These are the things that are causing people to die. Causing people's homes to be burnt down. Causing people to run out of drinking water. These processes that run constantly, were created many years ago, and run on a large-scale are the cause for ruining people's lives and hurting our beautiful planet.

So I do believe this: The problem is not me; it is not you, reading this article. The problem is caused by people we will never meet, companies that operate on scales larger than we can conceptualize, and industries that have been in place for much longer than I have been alive.

When it comes to environmental policy and change, we are like rats in a cage. We can move something in the cage, but the cage is still there. It is still the same shape, the same temperature, and still under the control of whoever is in charge of operating the cage.

If you could somehow pass a bill to put rats in a different environment, the rats would be living in a completely different world. It seems hard to conceptualize. It would require much getting used to. And you cannot undo whatever damage was done while the rats were in the cage. However, it is completely possible to put the living in a different environment.