As my last week in Costa Rica comes to a close, I am leaving with a greater, and more nuanced, understanding of planetary health and global climate change. I admit that over the course of this trip, I’ve been met with lots of mental strife. The events of this month have led me to question the ethicality of visiting a country of the Global South as a member of the Global North, especially having participated in more than a few ecotourism activities. In addition, in my experience, receiving environmental education has a tendency to create feelings of despair and send students down a doom spiral when learning about the state of the earth. With every effort that myself and others make towards climate change mitigation, it feels as if each attempt simply serves as reminder of the futility of action in a world of enduring inaction. As some people say, it feels like “going down the up escalator”. However, I’ve also had the privilege of meeting people (who I can happily call my friends!) on this trip that are bright, authentic, and hopeful. Talking to them helped immensely when I needed to work through my thoughts on issues and class happenings. Regardless of the program content, I can firmly say that I have learned endlessly from the people I have engaged in conversation with.
One point I’d like to note was how easy it was to live more sustainably when everything around me was encouraging it. The field stations each had an impressively low carbon footprint,
some more so than others. Sorted recycling and waste baskets were placed throughout each station, climate controlled buildings were scarce to none, small farms sustained a large portion of the food supply, and water was conserved where possible. As I type this from my suburban home back in Bloomington, I can confirm that I am much more aware of my role as a consumer of the Global North. My apartment complex lacks a recycling system and requires residents to visit the local center on their own. The grocery store selections have small sections for locally sourced goods. Greenwashing is evident at all levels of establishments in town. Bringing back sustainable habits to the US from the Green Republic requires a level of friction when one considers the culture of consumerism ingrained in the Western mindset. The hedonic treadmill is a human tendency that I believe manifests itself in varying degrees. Nevertheless, small changes do add up. Taking cold showers and re-wearing clothes are easy, noninvasive ways I can begin to mitigate my footprint. Even so, when zooming out and reading world news about the latest climate legislation that was just struck down, it gets difficult.
During a Model UN debate our class hosted earlier this week, we explored the processes legislators and world leaders go through to pass global climate policy. My group represented Bhutan, a landlocked country adjacent to China and India. It was encouraging to read about their sustainability efforts – Bhutan runs on 100% renewable energy, and serves as a huge carbon sink as a result of their land remaining 70% forested (Youn 2021). After discussing and voting on resolutions each country proposed, we shifted to take on the role of individual US senators on the Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) committee and voted on each passed resolution. It quickly became evident that passing resolution at the global scale was exceedingly easier than that at the US scale. Coming into the UN meeting, each country acknowledged the existence of anthropogenic climate change and was acting in their country’s best interest. In contrast, it was difficult to pass anything in the US Senate due to the presence of one very human phenomenon: denial.
In a lecture by Dr. Libby, he introduced the supposed roots of climate change denial from an economic and political lens. He referenced the negative perception some Americans held: environmentalism as a ruse to regulate capitalist markets, and thus the personal freedoms of its people. The tobacco industry popularized the practice of funding bad science in order to plant seeds of doubt in consumer minds, and the fossil fuel industry took inspiration (Yach 2001). However, denial doesn’t act alone in halting climate progress. Denial works in tandem with insecurity and hopelessness. The jobs of many established politicians rely on big oil and gas to fund their election (and re-election) campaigns. This career insecurity is also seen in middle-class individuals who feel that they have lots to lose in the form of tangible assets. In addition, hopelessness arrives when people simply cannot see past short-term repercussions. Those who believe we are past the tipping point have no hope in collective action or organized grassroots movements, when they serve as at least part of the very solution to the climate crisis. These very human emotions act as gears to continue moving the climate escalator up, and only when we address the systems creating these sentiments afloat may we begin to move the needle the other way.
Thanks Costa Rica – signing off! 🙂
Works Cited:
Yach, D., & Bialous, S. A. (2001). Junking Science to Promote Tobacco. American Journal of Public Health, 91(11), 1745–1748. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.91.11.1745
Youn, S. (2021, May 3). Visit the World’s Only Carbon-Negative Country. Travel. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/carbon-negative-country-sustainability
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