A Climate Conscious Home

I don’t know about you, but I can remember the very day I realized our planet was f*&*ed. I was sitting at the beach, getting a little too tan and sipping from a plastic water bottle when I read that Elon Musk had made the colonization of Mars the primary focus of Space X. “Surely, why would mankind’s second smartest brain decide to pour all of his efforts into Mars when so much work is needed to save our Earth?” Then my mind shifted to the dire predictions of mankind’s first smartest brain, Stephen Hawking. And from there my mind just shifted to ALLLL the dark places.

I’ve since decided, after many a bleak night ruminating over our impending doom, that Elon Musk is a narcissistic depressive who would rather focus on fulfilling his boyhood dreams of colonizing a hostile planet than focus on the more arduous, and certainly less self-fulfilling, task of nursing our blue planet back to health. UP YOURS, ELON.

So where am I going with all of this doomsday talk, you ask?

Like nearly all of us, I’ve felt helpless and depressed over our miraculous planet’s bleak diagnosis. I’ve spent a lot of nights not sleeping and some days hardly eating. “My brain has 1/100th of the brainpower of these men and women who seem to have given up,” I would think. I have little expendable income to make monetary donations, and my own personal efforts to buy used, recycle, drive electric, and reduce my overall carbon footprint feel futile.

Then I read about Greta Thunberg.

Greta is young. She lacks money, formal education, off-the-charts intellect, and powerful connections. By all intents and purposes, she has none of the things that I had presupposed one would need to make any kind of impact at all on, well, the world’s most pressing issue. But, I’ve learned a lot from Greta. When first reading about her climate change platform, it is difficult to not see her youth and dismiss her as a kumbaya-singing little girl whose naivete has gone sadly unchecked. But then you read on and realize her youth is her greatest asset. Because with youth comes hope. And hope is exactly what we need more of.

I’ve decided to join Greta.

I may not have nearly the platform she has to speak from, but just like Greta I’m starting this journey with no money, a laptop, and a little bit of hope. I’ve decided to join the resistance and shirk my seemingly unwavering devotion to my personal depression. Sure, our species has never before surmounted a problem of such impossible proportions. But, until recently, I also thought Greta Thunbergs to be about as real as the Lochness Monster. And if Honey Boo Boo can steal the national spotlight, surely anything is possible.

I will be starting this journey with blogs pertaining to home decor. Each week, I will highlight a way in which we can reduce our carbon footprints within our homes, and will also offer a way in which we can get involved in the fight against climate change. This week, I want to bring your attention to Let’s Fund, a group using Effective Altruism to vet the different charities and programs that are focused on fighting climate change. I came across this program while reading an important article regarding the vital role of innovation (vs. the deployment of current technologies) in our fight against climate change. If you have any extra change in your pocket, making a donation through Let’s Fund will help the people with the brainpower of Elon Musk, but the altruism of Malala Yousafzai, make important strides toward effective innovations that, very well, could save our planet.

Hey, if Honey Boo Boo can do the impossible, so can we.

Xo,