Opinion Sur Joven

Many times we hear slogans saying it’s the little individual efforts that count in order to make real changes. This gradual and individual transformation is the way non-organized people have to make a difference for the common good of society.

Sometimes they may sound as clichés, but reality tends to prove that these promoters of the small and constant inorganic effort are right. We all know the pieces make the whole. But the fact that the pieces may change reality in a sole direction, despite the distance, is typical of the global era.

We know many environmentalist organizations that aim at recruiting activists to fight for the ecosystem. However, at a point of history where we don’t need a classroom to become environmentally aware, those very same organizations know their goals will be achieved faster if they reach the minds of people who are not activists nor study environmental issues, but with simple routines may generate a change.

This time we won’t focus on serious environmental problems, but on the accounts of people who, without high profiles and with different jobs and lives, perform little actions that as a whole help take care of the planet.

I’m a vegetarian

“I believe by most important contribution is choosing a vegetarian diet. First of all, it’s a lifestyle because, for me, eating something that used to be alive makes no sense”, says Gimena Sánchez (33), a public accountant who works at a bank and is about to get a yoga instructor degree.

Gimena’s main argument to be a vegetarian is little known for most people: “Intensive livestock breeding generates more contamination than fossil fuel combustion, and if the resources used to feed the cattle -grain, water and energy- were directly used to feed the population, there would be no hunger. I believe this is the most important contribution anyone can make”.

Regarding animals, Gimena emphasizes the respect for their rights and their lives: she doesn’t use products that have been tested on animals, such as face creams and shampoos. “Procter & Gamble and Unilever own almost the entire market, but there are other less-known brands -which many people would perhaps consider to be of a lower quality- that are much safer for animals.

Besides, she actively participated in campaigns to defend animals’ rights, and she says that, whenever she can -and whenever more people are willing to absorb new information-, she tries to raise awareness on the people around her about environmental care.

“It is generally easier to approach topics related to soil, deforestation, etcetera. But talking about what food is harder, because the people who eat meat ignore the impact of intensive livestock breeding, and when they find out, they understand it but wouldn’t stop eating meat anyway”, she explains.

Gimena highlights the power of word of mouth when it comes to generating awareness, and she says now she’s very committed to promoting pet adoption instead of purchase. For her, having pedigree pets or paying for them makes no sense while so many animals are abandoned. She also promotes neutering to avoid an overpopulation of animals “whose lives will have an uncertain or the saddest or violent end”.

But when did she first become so aware of ecology? “It was in the third grade, when our natural sciences teacher explained several concepts, such as ecology. From that day, I’ve always tried to be careful and coherent”.

Jorge Santkovsky (51) tells us he’s been a vegetarian for 32 years. “I started in a time when ecology wasn’t that popular. Today we talk about the relation between a vegetarian diet and the environment, but it was pretty weird in those days. Nowadays, environment care is used politically, and companies consider it to be a quality proof valued by the educated public”.

Jorge is very interested in the topic and publishes related articles on Facebook. One of them tells how the people of Ghent, in Belgium, started a program to adopt a vegetarian diet once a week to help the ecosystem. According to the program’s coordinators, livestock is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, and it also deteriorates the soil and causes deforestation.

“The expenses caused by using the energy necessary to industrially exploit livestock are one of the causes of resource depletion. Although I’m strict with my diet, I’m not a fanatic either. I think the real problem is the intensive exploitation, which is a logical consequence of a very profitable business”, he adds.

Apart from being a vegetarian, Jorge makes a living out of an activity that is also essential for these days of high technology and ecological alarm: he buys and sells second-hand computing equipments.

“Some time ago, old computers started to be considered a special type of waste, so it became necessary to dispose of them differently”, he explains. He also set up a company that reuses and recycles electric and electronic equipment through Rezagos, a company registered at Argentina’s national Environment Bureau and the same entity at the city of Buenos Aires.

That’s why he prefers to be described as an “environmental operator”. “Many organizations offer environmental services but aren’t registered at official controlling entities, so no one can guarantee their processes”.

Jorge has participated in environmental campaigns where he collaborated with intermediate entities to reduce the impact of electronic waste on the ecosystem, thus avoiding tons of it from being thrown on regular dumps, an unnecessary action when having the possibility to give them a value. “As a compensation for what we receive, we donate computers to public service entities. We don’t take this as a business, but it’s become one of the most rewarding activities”, he comments.

Becoming aware

“Awareness on certain environmental problems has lately increased among the public. But I think it still hasn’t reached the necessary point to be turned into a concrete claim towards authorities and companies to make the necessary changes”, says Hernán Nadal, media coordinator at Greenpeace Argentina.

Nadal believes people have now more knowledge on the environment, partly because the situation of the planet has worsened. “Some things we fought against twenty years ago were denied, but today they’re known by everyone”, he argues. Facundo Gabari (26), a university student, knows what Nadal is talking about. He doesn’t know him and he doesn’t even have a similar job, but he tried many times to raise awareness voluntarily, just for the sake of it, to generate a change in people’s minds.

“As a member of a boy scout group, I collaborate with nature. I’ve participated in several campaigns to generate awareness. The first one I can remember was in 1994; as we walked on the streets, we would remove ropes from old banners and posters hanging from the trees. At the same time, we would hand out flyers to make people understand the environment is a problem that affects us all”, he remembers.

Facundo and his mates participated in several campaigns; some of them consisted in picking up trash in public squares on Saturdays and Sundays during the day, so that the people who were there throwing waste on the floor would understand that, with a little effort, the place is nicer and cleaner for everyone.

However, he particularly remembres one of these camapigns: “The most important campaign I participated in took place in Spain, in 2003, when the tank Prestige sank off the coast of Galicia. That year we were invited to form an emergency group to clean the oil off from the beach. At the same time, we were carrying out a road campaign to get people’s collaboration. We spent fifteen days removing oil and cleaning beaches. I think it was one of the best experiences of my life”, he confesses.

With the scout group, Facundo also teaches 14-year-old kids about the advantages of reusing materials and how to recycle paper, and he explains the importance of not wasting water and making it drinkable. “And we once had a solar energy workshop: while camping, the kids cooked on solar pamels".

Generating awareness in every possible way brings good results every time. That’s why Pablo Tortorella (27), a computer engineer, insists from his workplace (a software company) on implementing improvements to help the environment. According to him, many positive ideas emerged from a debate with his mates.

“We put signs in the bathrooms to advice on the right use of water while washing hands, and we launched a campaign called ‘Let’s help helping’, through which we collected unused paper and plastic bottle caps for Garrahan hospital, to help both people and the environment”, he comments.

Besides, he assures he cares about the simplest details, such as never throwing waste on the street until finding a garbage can, or not leaving the water run while brushing his teeth, and, of course, trying to print on paper as little as possible -a common habit among many of the interviewees of this article- and erasing the parts of the text he knows he won’t read.

As we can see, it’s not necessary to work at the IPCC to make a daily contribution to environmental care. However, more people are gradually finding a meaning in this and choose to join large organizations. “There’s a deeper interest in this. We can also observe how NGOs are growing, because the State doesn’t solve many issues treated by these entities. So people find in them an interesting place for participation”, Nadal thinks.

The reality of the Earth demands not only more awareness on environmental problems, but going from a state of alert straight into action, no matter how small that action is. Even if you just decide to use a single plastic glass during the whole day, install low-energy lamps at home, reject the use of gold and silver as luxuxy goods, etcetera. A cliché or not, these thousands of small things really count.

Illustration: Bárbara Dana