Being an environmentalist is not easy

There is no denying the state of the environment we are in now.
It’s right in our faces: increasing typhoons, intolerable heat, coral bleaching, diminishing forests and fish catch, genetic manipulation of food that’s being forced down our throats, mountains of garbage, increasing floods in places that has never had it before, toxic waste in our air, water and land (Bhopal Tragedy), not to mention the extinction of species and the legacy of the nuclear age (read: Chernobyl).

Being an environmentalist is not easy. Friends make fun of you, people look at you like you’re crazy and the teaching the folks at home to do waste segregation is not an easy task either.

Take for example, when I buy at National. I ask the cashier not to bag it as I have my own. She says

Cashier: “Ma’am, it’s our policy to have our items in plastic bags.”
Me: “Ok lang yon, I understand but I don’t want the plastic as I have my own bag.”
Cashier: “Pero Ma’am kailangan po naka plastic bag!”
Me: with a steely glint in my eye pero still smiling
“I will just show the receipt to the guard if he asks me”
Cashier: “Wait lang po Ma’am I will ask the manager if that’s allowed”

After 5 minutes, Cashier returns with the Manager in tow. Cashier explains the situation. People behind me are looking at me and the other cashier behind me is casting glances as well.

Manager: “Ma’am kailangan po kasi naka plastic” (has to be put in plastic)

Me: “No I don’t want the plastic as I have my own bag. Tipid na rin sa inyo yan kasi bawas ng plastic sa inyo.” (It will save you plastic)

By then the steely glint in my eye is replaced by a hard look behind a fake smile.

Manager: After seeing my look, with an annoyed glance to the cashier says, “Sige, pwede na nga (go ahead, its ok)”

to me she says
“Ma’am please just keep the receipt and show it to the guard”



Cashier puts the stuff in my bag with a bitchy face.

I really don’t care if they get annoyed or not. I mean this plastic bag will only be used once and thrown away. And I always, ALWAYS, have the choice not to put it in a plastic bag.

Another example was when I was still working in the call center. We had just come out of a convenience store and my co-worker had just parked her half-eaten siopao on the sidewalk. I asked her why she put it there. She said “ Eh kasi, Mommy Maan nakakatamad magtapon ng basura eh!” (I feel too lazy to put it in the trash can)

GRRRRRRRR!
I told her. “Kaya dumadami ang basura eh! Don’t you know that contributes to climate change?!”
Her: “Sobra ka naman Mommy Maan! Environmentalist ka talaga!”

I went back and put HER trash in the bin.

I absolutely have no patience with people like her.
But of course one MUST HAVE patience to teach or else it will be a lost cause.
We have to teach people to be more responsible about how they consume and why they must choose such options. We have to teach the value of :

not choosing plastic bags (it’s not reusable, it’s not recyclable, and it’s only downgradeable. Contributes to the already gigantic waste problem),

not choosing to eat in fast food restaurants that do not use reusable food containers (Styrofoam is not re-usable, plastic straws and cups are not recyclable. Contributes to the already gigantic waste problem)

not choosing to eat food that are produced by companies that have GMO (Genetically Modified Organism) in their food products as a policy (Nestle, GMC, Monsanto, Kraft, among others. Common sense: Precautionary principle, we don’t know the effect GMO’s have in our body so why eat something that we don’t know about?)

not choosing make-up and body cosmetics that have toxic chemicals in them. It’s like putting on industrial paint on your body (to name a few St. Ives, Jergens, Estee Lauder, L’Oreal, for more information go to www.nottoopretty.org)

not choosing PVC (poly vinyl chloride) in building houses and buildings
(studies have proved that PVC leaches toxic chemicals that are carcinogenic or cancer causing)
not to burn trash (it contributes to the greenhouse gases)


Being an environmentalist was and still is viewed by many as being only a fad, hippie stuff, radical etc. Sometimes it hurts to hear comments even from close friends when they call me “YOU environmentalists”, uttered in such a way as would make you feel one is akin to being a leper or having a psychological problem.

With the state of the environment being what it is now, I don’t think we can afford NOT TO CARE. After all, if you only had one ship and you trashed it and it was the only place that you can live in,

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?


So please help save our planet.
It’s the only one we have.