By Angela McParland

Looking at the global warming situation as one minuscule individual can be daunting, especially when in recent months we’ve been seeing more intense hurricanes and wildfires along with warmer than usual temperatures. Eventually the realization hits that no matter how much you try to be nicer to the earth, your efforts still feel like a minuscule drop in a dirty ocean.

Trying to reduce, reuse and recycle is how most of us are taught to be nicer to the earth, but we are not born knowing every way we can apply these practices to our lives and use them to be kinder the earth. This is where working individually to be kind to the earth poses a problem.

Instead, we should aim to learn and inform when it comes to being kinder to the earth. By learning from scientific articles on climate change or learning from a friend a new way to reduce, reuse or recycle, our individual impact becomes larger in the dirty ocean of climate change. And, informing others about what we know allows the other person to make changes to their lives and to inform even more people.

If more and more people learn and inform, that’s when the clean drops add up and change starts to occur.

Of course, this does not mean that everyone must go completely zero waste, a trash-conscious lifestyle documented on pg 12, or to shame others about not being as kind to the earth as you yourself are. Places like hospitals or people with medical conditions sacrifice reusing for the sake of human health. The ultimate goal with the learn and inform method is to learn what you can, do what you are able to do, and help people do whatever they are respectively able to do.

This method also extends to informing your local and national politicians about what they can do. My hometown bans stores from using plastic bags and encourages them to use paper bags instead. Washington D.C. charges 5 cents per plastic bag, a small fee that may discourage people from taking bags they don’t need and use reusable bags instead.

If you are interested in learning and informing, remember that, as a member of the St. Michael’s College community, you have access to an ever-expanding library and professors who are very knowledgeable in climate change and efforts to curb it. And if you are a student, consider taking environmental classes, such as BI-110 Effects of Climate Change or an Environmental Studies class.

But no matter if you or your politicians believe climate change is real or not, try to reduce, reuse, recycle, learn and inform. The worst outcome here is that the world aims to become a cleaner place