Change of Attitude

Why is it that some attitudes and behaviours change fairly quickly and others hang on like stink on a skunk? With the coming of the spring and warmer temperatures, our attention will turn more and more to outdoor activities. With the coming of summer we will begin to see the UV index getting more press and we will all begin to slather ourselves with sunscreen. It wasn't so long ago that sunscreen was unknown and people more commonly used that wonderful old standby, suntan lotion.

When I speak of 'quickly' I don't mean over night or even several months. As with most things in our world, real change takes years. But in the vast scheme of things I'd say 15 years is pretty quick. In the late 1980s and early '90s I spent my summers working at a summer camp and people using suntan lotion while at the pool. In the three summers that I worked at camp, this use of suntan lotion turned into the use of sunscreen. That's fast. Granted, some people were probably using sunscreen earlier than that, but still… We changed our collective attitude in a matter of a few short years when it came to something that directly affected out health. When the damaging effects of UV radiation on the skin became known, everyone jumped on the sunscreen bandwagon.

Why then, when it comes to pollution, do we not have the same attitude? It affects not only our own lives, but all life on the planet. Just recently in the news we have had reports of oil spills, the debate over hydro fracturing, concerns over fresh water, tar sands debates – the list goes on and on. All of these things will directly affect our health. Have attitudes changed? Do we drive smaller cars and use less gasoline? Nope. In the case of the tar sands, the oil and gas industry has undertaken a re-branding campaign to rename the tar sands the oil sands. I guess it sounds better.

I think the problem becomes one of scale when it comes to the big pollution problems. What can we, as individuals, do to effect change on a large scale? Where do we start? How about on the small scale first? With the coming of spring and the anticipation of slathering ourselves with sunscreen, comes the melting of the snow that has accumulated over the long months of winter. As that snow melts we get to see the detritus that people have tossed out the window of their cars over the preceding months. What if we started by placing refuse in the proper receptacle? Recyclables in the blue bag, compost in the compost bin, and the remaining garbage in the garbage bag instead of along the side of the road. If we start to look after the little things, the attitude will eventually move up to the larger problems. If we're lucky it will happen just as quickly as the change from suntan lotion to sunscreen.