UMONS / Physics
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Physics has a major part to play in the fight against climate change. For instance, its creativity is vastly relied upon in the search for clean energies. Having studied in that field, I realize vividly how naive expecting science to answer all our environmental problems is, and I reckon a complete change of our society is actually necessary to save the planet.
I personally have always been acutely aware of the issues surrounding climate change and global warming and I try at my scale to reduce my ecological footprint : I am a vegetarian, I walk as much as I can, I try not to buy new but instead to upcycle or buy secondhand items, etc.
Still I can not isolate myself from society in my search for ecological consistency : it’s complicated to stop drinking alcohol, or reduce my electronics to lower my energy consumption, and even though the zero waste movement is very appealing to me, it just takes too much time. Moreover, I am not ready to sacrifice my social life in an attempt to gain time to do things related to my beliefs, such as going to protests or marchs or direct actions, and it’s often very complicated agenda-wise to participate in them.
I also think that the scope of what personal action can change in the world is quite limited, and I believe actions at a larger scale are required : promoting a lifestyle that is less based on consumerism (for example by forbidding advertising for ecologically irresponsible businesses), limiting industrial waste by punishing industries that are responsible for it, putting the meat industry back on track, meaning away from industrial production, promoting and investing in clean energy, developing a cheap and proper public transportation system to push people away from their cars, building pedestrian and cyclist-safe spaces, creating more green spaces in towns, etc. The ecological problems can only be resolved by changing our society, which must focus less on consumerism and connect back with nature.
Originally posted 2019-03-11 00:30:54.