This week I have been thinking about how it is best to express environmentalism, and your beliefs. I feel like, being an environmental studies major, I have taken a great deal of classes that have made me moderately knowledgeable on most topics. Despite this, I think it is really important not to push everything I know on friends, and family. I do try and educate them on some of the important things, but it needs to be understood how hard it is for anyone to change their opinions on things. When I think about it(of course besides scientific facts) many people approach this whole environmental movement similarly to religion. Some of my roommates are very open to things that I do in my everyday life that others do not. On the other hand, my third roommate not only makes fun of me for things like rinsing out plastic containers so they can be recycled, she inherently has no concern for things like water conservation. Even things like not putting plastics in the microwave, which is important for health she turns her nose at. When things are convenient to us, it is so incredibly hard to get people to see things from another perspective. Extreme environmentalists do have a point, but to what end? If my actions make the majority of people scoff and roll their eyes, that is achieving the opposite result environmentalism needs. Incorporating this into class, the music and film we have been discussing are a really good media tool to negate this. Music and film(sometimes) are largely inoffensive. If more of these outlets were put into popular media, perhaps people’s perceptions of environmentalism wouldn’t be so harsh and extreme. To change people’s ideas we need inoffensive and moderate messages to change people’s attitudes gradually. Even if we are in a hurry to make a change, we can’t really do that until the majority are on board.
