Green fatigue: is there a cure?

Image by Ieva Karklina from Pixabay

Shopping for raspberries in January: that’s when it all went wrong. There were none in the local supermarket, nor in the corner shops. Apples aplenty alongside oranges, kaki, avocados, tomatoes, lemons, pears ... a rainbow of fruit and veg, some shrouded in plastic, some gleaming freely. But no raspberries. And when it comes to fruit, my son will only eat raspberries. In the end, I caved in and bought a six-pack of Capri-Sun. Which is kind of fruit, isn’t it?

I was already exhausted from reading all the labels in the supermarket, trying to balance health concerns against environmental considerations. Perhaps some croissants as a treat? Simple, flaky and created using just eggs, flour and water, plus the artisanal skills of a pastry chef across the channel. Except, when I looked at the ingredients, they also contained emulsifiers, stabilisers, acidity regulators, flavourings, preservatives ... and they were in a plastic tray (“recyclable where facilities exist”) and plastic film (“not currently recyclable”).

Life aint a picnic

It didn’t end there. For sandwich fillings, the ubiquitous options, for both my family and packed lunches and canteens up and down the country, are cheese and/or ham: meat and dairy, two things that are causing serious, lasting and widespread environmental damage.

Crisps? Shrouded in plastic and full of Disodium 5'-ribonucleotides. Nuts are a healthy option, but also packaged in plastic and flown in from Turkey where, similar to the almond-growing regions of the US, mass production is putting an unsustainable strain on the environment through its high water consumption. All this stress for a picnic. In January. Whose idea was this, exactly?

Sitting at home with a strong cup of coffee (Fairtrade and organic, but served with milk) I realised I was suffering from ‘eco exhaustion’: that feeling we get after trying to do the right thing - reduce our reliance on single-use plastics, curb our consumption, eat local, consider the carbon footprint of everything, reduce and reuse before recycling - and then just give up. It’s oh so tiring having to consider all these factors all the time. Sometimes, it’s not even possible to know what the most environmentally friendly option is; how to balance competing considerations, such as carbon footprint versus single-use plastic? Yes, I could have gone to a zero-waste store, but that would have meant driving, as well as packing a rucksack full of Tupperware to bring everything home, which would have taken at least an hour longer.

And here’s the rub: would it have made a blind bit of difference?

Hero to zero

Last year, I joined a zero-waste group on Facebook. I was amazed by the enthusiastic eco-worrying of so many people, the lengths they go to so that they minimise their impact on the planet. Many had genuinely changed their lifestyles (admittedly their still high-consuming Western lifestyles) by sharing everything from lawnmowers to advice on how to upcycle or reuse rucksacks and car seats, and which herbs grow best on small window ledges.

But these actions are the tiniest drop in a very polluted ocean. Millions more people, even if they are aware of how our environment is being ruined, opt for convenience and price. The environmentally friendly option is often the more expensive one, and remains unrealistic (if not impossible) for many people.

I’ve done my bit. I’ve recycled for many, many years, and owned a reusable water bottle long before Blue Planet led to ‘plastic panic’. The mantra scribbled on a scrap of paper for over twenty years - “Be the change you want to see in the world” - has kept me going. I realised long ago it’s hard to change my own behaviour - let alone other people’s - and that fake news and environmental misinformation are more widespread than scientific evidence. That doesn't always mean I redouble my efforts; if anything, it makes it easier to give in.

Green fatigue means being so overwhelmed by environmental problems, and so baffled by eco choices, that you go for an option you know to be bad for the environment, which in turn creates a feeling of guilt. I know I shouldn’t even try to buy raspberries in January, and certainly not a soft drink in a pouch, but what can you do?

Well, there are a few things.

1. Plan. It’s easier to be green when you’re organised. You might not have time to bake your own bread using organic flour gently ground from happy wheatsheaves, but take the time to research which ‘normal’ bread is the best option (organic, palm-oil free and packaged sustainably). In fact, I’ve done that bit for you. 
2. Take your reusable coffee cup/water bottle/shopping bag with you. They’re not decorations, and there’s nothing worse (apart from war, maybe) than having good intentions and then leaving them on the draining board. Pack your bag each night, so you don’t forget these things in the mad dash to get to school/work/ the organic zero-waste shop down the road. 
3. Eat more chocolate. It’s hard being alive right now, but chocolate makes things a LOT better, and there are lots of palm-oil free, fair-trade options with compostable packaging. Indulge. 
4. Be honest. When people make claims that are contrary to what you know is correct - “all recycling ends up in landfill”, “if it wasn’t palm oil they’d just cut down the rainforest for something else”, “everybody flies so there’s no point in me not flying”, tell them you think differently. The world doesn’t make it easy to be green, but never feel bad for trying. 
5. Reconnect with nature. Being stuck in an office in a smelly old city adds to the sense of fatigue, but nature is never that far away. Plant some herbs, scatter some seeds, walk in the woods, hunt for mushrooms, look at flowers, wear your wellies and a grubby hoodie, get the train to the coast, compost some paper. OK, composting paper probably isn’t that much fun. But there are lots of wild ideas out there.