Change only comes about when people work
towards that change. We are often tempted to just throw our hands in the air
and say, “there is nothing that I can do to help” but without the action of
individuals, change will never occur. We are scared away from change and from
action because we believe that change needs to be drastic and big. We hear almost
everyday about all of these overwhelming issues; such as ozone depletion, oil
spills, tornadoes and earthquakes, salmonella outbreaks, and more. Due to the
enormity of all these problems, we are led to believe that there is nothing we
can do. However, doing something great and positive for the world does not have
to be something big. There are steps that we can take in our own lives when it
comes to food, the environment, consumerism, and overall happiness that do not
involve too much effort. The point is that we do something to combat global
warming and environmental degradation because doing nothing changes nothing and
the environmental problems will continue to persist. These environmental
problems are problems we cannot ignore because these enormous issues that we
hear about will never be solved if we as individuals do not decide to take
action and do our part to fix the problem!
It is easy to feel hopeless when
faced with the enormity of problems that the world and society as a whole must
deal with. Most people would gladly save the planet if they could but are not
sure how exactly to go about doing that. We tend to believe that saving the
planet needs to happen all in one day. However, this is not possible and we are
not as hopeless as we sometimes feel. While many think meaningful change can
only happen on a large scale, such as through change in government or
resistance to corporations, meaningful change can also occur through the change
we choose to make as individuals. Meaningful change is change that creates any
kind of impact and although the impact is small, individual action does create
an impact. Although I cannot directly save the planet, I have decided to live
my life knowing that my individual action can create some kind of change. We
have the ability to change our own lives by changing small aspects of our
lifestyle. Little changes affect more than just the individual.
This is my personal statement and I really believe in this.
