I carry a lot of guilt for the way I live. I watch the world burn around me and I feel like I’m not doing enough. I eat too much meat, I can’t seem to go completely zero on single-use plastics, I use online shopping giants like Shopee, Lazada, and Amazon even though I complete know that they’re ethically dodgy and the carbon footprint of that kind of logistics is fucking awful. I take long-ass flights multiple times a year pre-pandemic.

I know these things are harmful for the environment but I can’t seem to completely rid myself of these acts. Why? Convenience, that’s why.

I’ve read a line somewhere that stuck with me. I can’t find it now, but it was a blog post about football, funny enough:

We all choose the blood that greases the gears of our existence.

(I’m for sure paraphrasing this; it’s been years since I’ve read it online. Like, I’m not sure if it’s wheels or gears. But you get the point.)

That guilt? It’s legitimate. But it’s also a scam.

Let me explain (badly).

I’ll start with the scam part of things. A shitload of that guilt is manufactured by think tanks, PR companies, and political lobbyist working for big corporations. Just look at BP’s strategy to launch a PR campaign that puts the blame on individuals (not them, no, not the MASSIVE fossil fuel company) for climate change. These fools drummed “carbon footprint” into our vernacular, and even launched a carbon footprint calculator. Genius, right? Now we all feel personally victimized by Regina George responsible for negating or lowering our carbon footprint.

But I believe that this guilt is legit as well. We don’t need to have a false dichotomy between personal and collective action. This guilt is important because our actions are not meaningless.

Why not call for large-scale changes and also do what we can personally?

This is actually similar to the rallying call of a lot of zero waste and a lot of sustainability influencers. Bless their hearts, but I personally feel too much pressure from these types— a lot of them are tend to be unforgiving to those who can’t commit 100% to zero single waste plastics, to veganism, etc etc. They don’t mean to, but there’s a lot of things they don’t have to consider… like how expensive of a lifestyle it is to go zero waste in the Philippines.

So, this is what this resource is for. It’s to make things easier for those of us who want to commit to actions with a low barrier of entry. I feel the need to say that this resource isn’t a checklist— you don’t have to do everything in it. You don’t have to watch all the documentaries, listen to all the podcasts. I don’t. It’s just a reference. We don’t need to get bogged down by the progress vs perfection defeatism. There is no ONE way to individually contribute. I’d rather succumb to hypocrisy once in a while in my journey than stop altogether.

Also, this is a live document. If you want to contribute to this resource, please do. I’ve made it editable for everyone with the link… I think. I’m a notion newbie.