Trash Talk #1: What are you signing up for?

A short preview of what’s to come.

Welcome to the first episode of Trash Talk! I’m so glad you’re here. To begin, let me explain what this subscription will entail:

1. Trash Talk is a sustainability lifestyle newsletter. It covers how the way you live your life impacts the future we want to build — “the way you live your life” encompassing not just your behaviors, but also the thoughts, emotions, and beliefs behind them.
2. Trash Talk focuses on both education and action — explaining why your behaviors (or thoughts/emotions/beliefs) matter, then offering alternatives to the status quo. It seeks to break down complex topics into digestible takeaways so that you can immediately apply the learnings to your life. From tangible tips such as how to reduce food waste or how to buy carbon offsets, to philosophical questions meant to invoke a new mindset or perspective…
3. All episodes will be linked by the central theme of recognizing that even as one person, you have the power to affect change. Trash Talk celebrates the individual, because it recognizes that it is the only source of true power we have. Community building and political activism are indispensable, but they must be catalyzed. Only by changing ourselves first, by seeking to understand what matters to us, then by removing our self-limiting beliefs that stop us from acting meaningfully on those values, will we find the courage to galvanize and inspire others.
4. Trash Talk adheres to pragmatic optimism — placing hope in the potential of human ingenuity, while also recognizing that we are in a very, very messed up situation. According to current research, we only have 15 years to meet targets for getting carbon emissions under control. Not doing so risks triggering a cascade of feedback loops that will lead to increasingly devastating and unpredictable outcomes. If the urgency and scope of this crisis scares you, know that it should. However, the best way to overcome fear and helplessness is to do something about it. Trash Talk believes that the more we know, the more our innate desire for a fair and compassionate world will spur us into action to build it.
5. Most importantly, Trash Talk celebrates non-perfectionist climate action. I absolutely respect and admire the actions of zero-waste activists, vegans, and material renunciants (to name a few), but I also acknowledge that every trait exists on a spectrum. The circumstances of everyone’s lives are different, so there is no single “right” way to be a climate activist. Polarizing the options that are available inevitably leads to shame, and shame shrinks us — it makes us feel small and powerless at a time most crucial for each of us to consciously step into our most authentic, embodied personal power.

The path to solving climate change is not linear. Your own progress is not linear either — it will be full of plateaus, detours, and exponential curves. It might speed up then slow down then even go backwards for a time. What’s not important is your flawlessness in the moment, but your commitment to the marathon. Developing resiliency is crucial to continuing forward.

The solutions to this crisis are so vast, so varied, that anything and everything you can do matters. So whatever you can do, do it, with Trash Talk hopefully serving as one small reminder that all of us are in this together.