Green Runner Ben Gilbert writes about occasional feelings of powerlessness when it comes to the planet, but ultimately, he takes back control by doing what he can.
Watching Netflix one evening, I was scrolling through my favourite category – documentaries. It was around 2015 and I eventually picked two documentaries – Blackfish and Racing Extinction. As a young boy I remember being read a book about humpback whales, starting a lifetime love of our natural world, our wildlife and wild spaces.
Without going into these documentaries too much, they both had profound impacts on me. I decided the way I engaged with the world, as much as I could control, had to change. The more I watched, the more I knew. Documentaries like Earthlings, Ivory Games, Before the Flood, What the Health have forever changed my views and my outlook.
I decided to change my diet and I’ve been vegan for around 9 years now, and I feel stronger and healthier than ever before. But this soon didn’t feel like enough. I wanted to help more, so started volunteering with charities involved with marine conservation. Then taking action in as many areas of my life as I could.
Knowledge of our climate and biodiversity crisis has its downsides as you’d expect. I often move between feelings of absolute engagement and action, to overwhelmed and scared at the scale of threat to our planet. Climate change, overfishing, ocean acidification, habitat destruction, biodiversity loss…it’s so easy to feel completely overwhelmed. But ultimately we as a society need to take action in every way we can.
“unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not”.
What can we do? What can I do? No one is perfect, I know I’m not, but I believe we can all try to make small positive change in our daily lives. Doing so engages you, and helps dispel the feeling of powerlessness to feelings of positivity.
Pick something, anything, that’ll help you take a small step to change. Decide to eat less meat, to eat more veggies, to eat more local/seasonal foods, to drive a few journeys less, to fly less, to use less plastic, pick up some rubbish, to plant more flowers in your yard or garden. Find something you can do.
As corny as it sounds – be the change you want to see. Otherwise, to quote the wise Lorax, “unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not”.
