We do everything we’ve been told to do. We carry a reusable coffee cup wherever we go; we never buy plastic water bottles and have budgeted for spending that little bit extra on buying pasta and rice from a refill shop. We choose non-dairy milk in our hot drinks and eat a plant-based diet; we buy from local market stalls and smile graciously as the man selling us our carrots makes the same comment about our reusable mesh bags that he made last Saturday, and the Saturday before. We store our leftover onion halves to use in meals later in the week and dutifully sort through the recycling, taking the oat milk cartons to a reuse point we looked up online and we try to only buy clothes from charity shops or from ethical brands. In short, we do our best to live environmentally conscious lives. Even if we only do half of the above, we’re still playing our part and making a difference, however small that difference may feel. But, in amongst all this, there is a niggling question on our minds: is it enough? Is my refusal of a plastic straw in my gin and tonic really going to prevent climate breakdown and save the planet?
When you’re hit with the enormity of the task in front of us, it’s easy to feel despondent and believe that the answer to this question is ‘no’. However, according to a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Scientists, if the whole world went vegan, the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the food system in 2050 would fall by more than half compared with 2005/2007 levels (anthropocenemagazine.org). So, when individuals act en masse, clearly change can occur, although you probably didn’t need a study to tell you that. It’s obvious when you think about it, but we’re still sometimes left feeling helpless when we’re standing in a queue for our soya milk flat white, clutching our foldable cup, while everyone around us is ordering hot chocolates made with cow’s milk and cheese toasties, both served in packaging which will undoubtedly end up in landfill.