Life in Plastic is Not Fantastic

Navigating the despair of living in a world drowning in plastic and climate catastrophe.

A new study discovered microplastics in clouds, which could result in “plastic rainfall”. While the full impact of this discovery is not yet known, it certainly adds to the distress and hopelessness people feel about the destruction of our planet. In the coming years and decades, we will continue to get news like this and it will worsen our feeling that we are utterly and royally fucked.

So how do we navigate the mental and emotional impact of seeing our planet destroyed? To start, our responses to this existential problem are appropriate and valid. However, if our only exposure to environmental issues are headlines and images of catastrophic events on social media, then we’re doing ourselves a disservice. We must take the time to fully inform ourselves, make decisions that align with the future we want, and take care of ourselves and each other in ways that feel meaningful to us.

Information is liberation for the mind

Plastics in the clouds didn’t get there by themselves. It took a complex series of events, money, laws, misinformation, actions, and inactions by people who run oil companies, government officials, marketers, and (mis)informed consumers like you and me. The misinformation promoted by oil companies about the catastrophic and inevitable effects of the continual extraction, production, and consumption of fossil fuels and plastics has led us to where we are today.

For more in-depth information, watch this Frontline PBS documentary called The Power of Big Oil.

Accurately informing ourselves and others about the destruction we are witnessing helps us to better process our thoughts and emotions. It’s especially important to inform children and young people with age-appropriate information because they are seeing and living through the same events and effects we are, except they don’t have the ability to inform themselves without the help of adults. Furthermore, they will have to grapple with the harsher realities of this situation as they grow older, so it is on us to equip them with the information and resiliency they will need to fight for a livable planet.

Without a full picture and facts, we are left with a version of reality shaped by oil companies and a series of catastrophic events without the ability to connect the dots. This can leave us feeling even more scared, angry, confused, and hopeless. An informed person is in a better position to take care of themselves and take strategic, intentional action.

Action is healing for the heart

Inaction and apathy promote powerlessness and despair. Your actions to help the environment, while small in scale, can make a positive impact on your mental health. They can lead to shifts in thinking and habits, such as purchases, decisions at your job, and in your community. Staying conscious about the decisions you make in day-to-day life can help you feel better.

It is advantageous for oil companies when the general public makes decisions on autopilot and without much thought to the impact their lifestyle and consumer habits have on the planet. The more single-use plastics, synthetic fibers, and gasoline we consume, the bigger the profits for them. And while dollars from individuals may not account for all the profits that oil companies extract from society, our purchases further normalize and embed plastics and pollution into our modern way of life.

Another action that is powerful and accessible to most people is calling attention to companies and industries that have harmful environmental practices and demand that they make changes. Pressure from you as a citizen, customer, patron, fan, student, and worker can force the government, businesses, sports teams, schools, and jobs you interact with to make decisions that help the environment instead of harming it. It feels good to take part in bringing about change when you can.

Community over capitalism

Unlearning capitalist values, ideology, and habits is a great way to improve your mental health. The pervasive message in capitalism is that you will feel better if you spend your money on certain products and sustain a trendy lifestyle. Capitalism promotes polluted versions of self-help and belonging that have the opposite effect on us and result in real environmental pollution and destruction.

To truly feel good, fulfilled, and alive, we must build and maintain meaningful connections with others. We need to laugh, collaborate, exercise, love, build, think, solve, volunteer, and do things with and for others. Isolation is the inevitable outcome for someone driven by capitalism.

In capitalism, nothing feels fulfilling enough because the belief we adopt is that we need more. You, yourself, never feel good enough as you are because capitalism convinces us that we aren’t complete without this product and that lifestyle. These messages are pushed by, not just companies and major marketing firms, but by people on social media who believe that being an influencer for capitalism is the epitome of success.

When we are connected to community, we feel better and more is possible.

Be intentional about the information you expose yourself to and the beliefs you function out of. Notice how it all makes you feel, think, and show up in this world. Change in yourself has the capacity to change the world.