Top 10 Ways to Cope With Environmental Guilt

Terra

For the environmentally passionate and concerned individuals, there are reemerging feelings of guilt. These feelings could be triggered for several reasons. Maybe you realized that you’ve used an abundance of plastic straws throughout the week, forgot your reusable water bottle, and had to resort to getting single-use water. It may have been triggered by forgetting your reusable bag for groceries in the car the past 2 grocery store runs. Whatever the scenario, you could identify your contribution. Small and large actions of your contributions to climate change can sometimes really make you feel guilty and anxious about the future of humanity… Or maybe that’s just me. You might relate.

Where might this guilt come from?

We can answer this question by dissecting human-nature characteristics and anthropogenic habits of man.  

To a person experiencing environmental guilt, your innate love of nature is leading you to humanize and anthropomorphize the natural world.

You are presenting an empathetic attitude towards nature (just as long as nature is human-like in your subconscious mind). Let’s look at some research. 

In a study by Tam, K.-P. (2019), 176 members were used to aid in supporting whether anthropomorphism of nature was associated with environmental guilt. During the study, participants were asked about their perception of nature and guilt on behalf of man/themselves. The responses were offered on an 11-point scale. In short, the study concluded that anthropomorphism was positively associated with guilt.

Tam, K.-P. (2013) presents a theory that “empathy with nature, either dispositional or induced, motivates efforts to protect nature”.” Your guilt triggers you to want to help nature, because you see it as being threatened or harmed, just as you might for a human being.

There are, of course, levels of dehumanization. It is safe to say that just as humans can dehumanize their peers, they can act inversely and humanize the natural world. To dehumanize, we would have to strip a man of his morals and treat him as an object. Furthermore, Epley, N et al. (2007) added to this idea that humans tend to “dehumanize outgroups, who are naturally seen and classified as being different from the ingroup.” We see these situations play out in the world in war, social conflict, and human rights.

As per reasoning, the awareness of our actions brings about guilt because we feel that we are causing harm to other people and anthropomorphic nature, either through our daily carbon emissions, product usage, and waste generation, all of which will impact future generations and the unrepresented people and through a wider scope, developing countries.

With guilt comes a call for action or a better effort to make matters better. Not for just yourself, but for the people you feel are being impacted by your perceived actions.

Here are some ways to cope with these feelings of guilt and maybe reduce your guilt-induced actions. These suggestions and ideas are all actions I have and regularly engage in and can speak confidently on.

1. Don’t be so hard on yourself. Do be rational.

➼ Realize that, if you are environmentally conscious and serious about your efforts, you are part of the solution. Keep consistency with your efforts. Start with small habits until they become a habit. But you must continuously strive for progress in your daily life and habits. For instance, keep more reusable bags in your house and car. Try to steer away from plastic bags. Use your water bottle and do not depend on purchases of single-use plastic bottles, cutlery, cups, straws, and packaging whether from grocery packing or take-out. The concerns of global warming, drought, flooding, and famine are all valid but putting all that responsibility on yourself is not rational since you are not the only human participating in all the benefits of Earth. Keep this in mind when you feel like you’re the only one working so hard. Suggestion # 9 may also bring hope to this weight.

2. Be disciplined

➼ Keep consistent and disciplined with your new sustainable habits. Don’t give in to the easy way out or the convenient thing. Sometimes doing what’s considerate takes more work but it serves a positive purpose. For example, I keep two separate waste totes in my kitchen – one recycling, and one trash. If I have several electronic items and batteries that need to be discarded, I store them somewhere out of the way until I feel I’ve accumulated a reasonable amount to discard all at once in a single trip to a disposal site that recycles responsible battery materials. Since these items are not safe for regular landfills, as an environmentally conscious person, I feel prouder that I took the effort and discipline to hold on to them until I’ve reached the storage threshold, but also responsibly disposed of them. You could even attempt to bring your mug to your daily coffee shops. I say attempt because some shops won’t be so open to filling up your mug with their coffee for sanitary issues… just ensure the mug is clean. 😁 The store may even discount your drink.

Strive for progress, not perfection

– David Perlmutter

3. Plan your trips along your route, not out the way.

➼ I do admit that this one may take a little more time than just taking off and driving to where you want to go, but I assure you it will most likely save you emissions. Here is my strategy. Sometimes I find myself needing to go grocery shopping and maybe get my dog groomed. If my dog’s grooming appointment is on Friday but I also have to drop off some clothes donations, and maybe go to the post office, then I’ll just wait until Friday when each location is along the route of the furthest location. This way, I wouldn’t be making trips out of the way or in the complete opposite direction. I would do most things in the same days since the route is in alignment with every errand run. Also, it’s best to make your route beforehand and not right when you are ready to head out because you will prevent idling if you are trying to make your route in the car while the engine is running. I have learned this before.

Take a look at this routed map below. It shows you how one acceptable route considers proximities within each other, on a single day ✅ vs. a route that would complete the same errand runs but not within acceptable proximity ❌.

4. Find the route of your guilt

➼ Analyze your impact. Research the exact actions that humans contribute to climate change, social/environmental injustice, and global conflict. You will find that they are all interconnected to a point where if one playing factor in a situation falls off, then another actor in the system will too. Then, analyze how the bigger picture aligns with the unideal habits you carry. What are you doing that goes against the sustainable, responsible, and selfless ideal ways of combating climate change?

5. Maybe not watch the news

➼ The news can be very depressing and dreary. There are times when you would hear reports on the increasing global temperatures or water levels declining, so much so that canals have limited space for cargo ships to pass through, resulting in shipping delays. Now your products aren’t arriving in sufficient time. Although it is important to know what is happening in the world, if you find you are intensely feeling environmental guilt, limiting news intake won’t hurt. Refraining from the news won’t change the fact that these issues are occurring, but it could give you some relief.

6. Avoid social media

➼ Just like the news, social media can illustrate some shocking news and just plain out disturbing information that would have been better left unknown. Wouldn’t benefit you whether you knew it or not. Social media can sometimes be a place of disingenuous actions and efforts. Sometimes the motive is not what is claimed, but rather for a following. Some dedicate their profile to environmental activism, sure, but outside of that, what are the real benefits aside from business marketing? Hhmm. I said what I said. 😋

7. Practice selflessness

➼ Join community outreach events. Volunteer at your local lake and wildlife refuge/preservation. Be aware of the changes your local wildlife is experiencing. Rescue an injured or abandoned animal by transporting it to a rehab center. Participate in public environmental scoping meetings to give your passionate take on a new project that could have some harsh impacts on the local community. Donate to your favorite conservation non-profit. Attend seminars and forums that inform you of ways you can help the cause. Volunteer at your local Habitat for Humanity.

8. Reduce, Reuse, recycle – Revamp the 3 R’s.

➼ Compost. Give the earth its materials back. Create or purchase a composting site/tumbler. If you have veggies and fruits, these are excellent nutrient-rich options to send back to the ground.

➼ Adopt a minimal plastic packaging habit. Resist products that use excessive packaging. Purchase items that use sustainable materials and are recyclable.

➼ Carry your reusable food cutlery, bottles, bags, containers, etc. If you had to use packaging from your last purchase, see how long you can use it until it must be discarded. I do this with my carry-out containers which are usually high-quality containers. Make sure they are BPA-free (Bisphenol A).

Try all these in your style.

9. Join like-minded individuals

➼ If you join in collaboration with folks who think like you, or have the same feelings, share your concerns and ideas with your group. This leaves room for inspiration and motivation for all the people involved. Join a garden club, or environmental group, or become a member of a non-profit organization that conducts community learning events and volunteer opportunities (ex. Sierra Club, Niagara Waterkeeper, Olmsted Parks Conservancy, Iroquois National Park to name a few of my local groups). Or you can create your own club and bring in people from Facebook, your website, or the same people from an established program.

10. Make 3 top goals to reduce your carbon footprint and purchase responsibly

➼ Reduce meat intake (it requires excess water usage, and the one most recognized, methane gas release within the dense cow populations).

➼Purchase products from companies that pride themselves on minimal packaging, produce sustainably, are B Corp Certified, FSC certified, have a high ESG score (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance), and have a valid registered EPA regulation number when producing cleaning / disinfectant materials (ex. EPA Reg. No. 777-114 – Lysol Wipes).

➼For a nice investment, make a goal to acquire an electric vehicle (EV). Not only are they emission-free, but they are also super fun to drive with their impressive acceleration abilities. This is the ultimate success when it comes to environmental guilt in my experience. 

Now that we’ve covered 10 ways to cope with environmental guilt, we can better understand how it develops. I am confident that you will feel happier knowing how it develops and how to reduced the weight of the guilt.

Below is a beautiful and reassuring illustration that puts things into perspective if you want to begin your journey of relieving your environmental guilt. Visit Aware Animals to view their Little Book About Recycling comic. They have even more awesome comics here.

Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection.
Kim Collins