THE POWER OF ONE
By Mei Preisser, Sarah Kaltsukis, Eileen Merrill, Annie Solano, Ania Pawloska, Jamie Vaddella, Jameka Josu, and Tamara Turchetta with special acknowledgement to Bennett TaylorPicture this: you’re in an escape room with your close friends—the doors lock, the clock starts ticking, tensions are high, and you don’t know what decisions to make. You know you want to find a way out for both you and your friends, but the uneasiness in the air begins to set in, and you find yourself lost in a trance of “what-ifs” and curiosities. Without hesitation, your friends begin to eagerly explain their ideas about the first actions they believe you all should take to get out of the room, pelting you with conflicting opinions. This situation prompts a glaring question to surface in your mind: should I simply go along with my friends’ ideas, or should I work up my own resolve to suggest my ideas? Surrounded by the flurry of confidently asserted viewpoints, you understandably begin to feel as though your voice will never be heard over the crowd.
These feelings of uncertainty, confusion, and restriction are similar to those experienced by a high school student preparing for college. This is a time when deadlines, test scores, visits, and high expectations overwhelm you daily, and the pressure to conform to already-existing “norms” and outside input can be suffocating. The culmination of these stressors can make you feel as though you have little control over your life, while also feeling as though the people around you have already determined your future. These negative thoughts, feelings, and experiences can easily make your college preparation journey feel limiting.
Nowadays, it is unfortunately all too easy to forget that you have the power to design your own future. Now, we understand that this statement may seem radical to you—a student who has to attend seemingly unnecessary classes, participate in a slew of demanding extracurriculars, and consider those concerning low acceptance rates when looking into colleges. You might even think it is a complete lie. But you do have control in ways you don’t realize.
For starters, you can decide where to apply—small liberal arts colleges, big public universities, or trade schools. You could also take a gap year or try something entirely new. Believe it or not, you even exercise self-agency within your life right now when you choose which extracurriculars to participate in, who you associate yourself with, and how your voice is heard in your community. Especially now, as a member of the new generation, you have the opportunity to look outward and make an impact. You will slowly start to see how your actions have the power—no matter how small—to affect you, your family, your community, and the world. As an important member of the future generation and an inhabitant of the earth, you might want to consider your environmental impact as something within your control. After all, arguably the largest, current, worldwide concern is the rapidly declining condition of the earth.
Take, for instance, global warming. Global warming is a symptom of climate change, which, according to The Public Health Newswire, affected 80% of the world in 2021. This percentage affects not only the majority of people but many other living organisms.
It’s not that we don’t see, believe, or understand the effects of climate change. Instead, it’s our utter disbelief that we as individuals can be effective agents of change or, conversely, purveyors of any real damage. However, as decision-makers, we have much more impact than we think. Certainly, it’s not difficult to see that our choices shape our immediate environment; it’s just easier to see and acknowledge the effects of our active choices than our passive ones – though there is impact from and responsibility for both.
Our automatic, seemingly innocuous practice of tossing out the core of an apple or throwing out leftovers… repeated over time, results in an underestimated problem called food waste. Misconceptions on certain sensitive topics, like food waste, are easily spread due to a lack of information or intentional misdirection. For example, the public is well-informed about cow manure as a prolific generator of dangerous methane. However, there is rarely a mention of an even larger contributor to methane release — food waste. In fact, an article from earthday.org claims that “if food waste was its own country, it would be the world’s third-largest emitter behind China and the United States”2 (earthday.org).
Food waste that breaks down in the air and not in the soil creates methane, a gas which, when released into the atmosphere, traps heat and causes warming. Even food waste that ends up in a landfill depends on pipes to filter the methane, which can be subject to leakage from cracking, age, and damage. In addition, a good amount of food doesn’t end up in a landfill; instead, it ends up mixing with pollutants and other forms of waste to fill the air we breathe with harmful gasses. Actually, according to the University of Maine, the greenhouse gas from food waste is 28 times more harmful than carbon dioxide3.
It’s hard to believe that a daily problem can go unrealized by the public, but it shows how much we don’t know about the consequences of everyday actions.
Food waste is only one example of those passive, unconscious choices (like fuel emissions and non-recycling) that are easy to treat as insignificant but just as easy to individually resolve once we acknowledge their impact. For food waste in particular, composting or helping organic matter become soil is a great solution and can be done anywhere, outdoors, in large spaces, or in small spaces. You don’t even have to have a garden!
By learning about the harm that comes from our actions, we can be better equipped to address these issues by promoting sustainability through small changes in our lives. But don’t take my word for it; test it yourself!
We at building-U have a new sustainability initiative for students like you: Renew is the New, New! “Renew is the New, New!” is a 30-Day High School Sustainable Action-Based Pledge A-Thon. Students commit to making a tag (drawing) and include it in their picture of at least one sustainable choice every day for 30 days. Our pledge-a-thon is not about pressuring you to become vegan or start biking everywhere, but rather, to have a more thoughtful approach to consuming and disposing of things that already come into and go out of your life; this can include composting, buying second hand, or simply re-using. Students will then write a brief note about their location and the benefit of their action in relation to their picture to emphasize their ability to make meaningful eco choices.
Our Pledge-A-Thon (ReNew is the New New) is a funding campaign that concurrently builds awareness and support. Participants are encouraged to build sponsorship through family and friends (and people who support sustainable decision -making initiatives for students) with any amount starting at $1.It also offers a great opportunity for volunteer hours, with participants not only earning volunteer hours for the short time they spend on their simple posted actions, but also receiving an additional 8 hours for composting for 15 of their 30 days. Plus, 100% of the money raised goes to fund the student awards at our virtual networking event and challenge $4YT (Dollars for Your Thoughts). So in the end students document their own sustainable actions to raise money for an event they can both participate in and even win some of the money they raised!
Our goal is to help high schoolers like you realize that you have control over how you impact the environment.
So, instead of treating our pledge-a-thon like a tedious checklist, consider it a tool that can help you give back to the earth in a way that aligns with your values and lifestyle. After all, intentionally shifting your mindset is far more beneficial than mindlessly doing a few green actions and then never thinking about the environment again. So, however, your life looks, you can find ways to practice sustainability, whether through reusing, repurposing, or something else altogether. Use your creativity or just look at what you already do! And, as you note these small, self-initiated changes, know that you are taking important steps toward becoming a more sustainable human, which, in and of itself, is a good thing.
When you entered the escape room for the first time, there was a wave of conflicting ideas from those around you, leaving you feeling overwhelmed and confused.Making decisions about what to do with all of the overwhelming and conflicting information is similar to escaping the room. It requires patience, reflection, and a willingness to embrace new perspectives. Armed with new knowledge around self-agency, you can welcome various suggestions and viewpoints from those around you, and you can also find your voice among them, knowing that it took each small considered piece to successfully manage your escape.
It’s important to acknowledge that even when we can see that small personal actions matter, it can seem like addressing the magnitude of climate change requires large systematic change. But the reality is, that’s not exactly true, and we can’t just wait around for major changes or for someone else to take the initiative. Instead, we must focus on the little things and appreciate the everyday decisions that connect us to the earth. Concentrating on how our environment reflects our values is the first step to recognizing how our daily actions mirror our connection to the Earth.
Ask yourself this: will we continue to ignore the effects of our actions under the assumption that the world is too big and too far gone for them to matter or will we recognize that thoughtful, sustainable decisions- no matter how small- can lead to a healthier, more eco-friendly future The climate crisis is here now, but so are people like you, ready to act.
So, what will you do today to help our world?
Citations:
- Scherr, R. (2021). Climate update 2021. Public Health Newswire. Retrieved from http://www.publichealthnewswire.org/?p=climate-update-2021
- Earth Day Network. (n.d.). 4 contributors to climate change. Retrieved from https://www.earthday.org/4-contributors-to-climate-change/.
- University of Maine. (n.d.). Why stop food waste? Retrieved from https://umaine.edu/foodrescuemaine/why-stop-food-waste/
*Link to PLEDGE-A-THON PDF.pdf
