Letter to the Editor: Small changes are better than nothing

RE: Environmental troubles can’t be solved with buzzwords

While it is true environmental issues are not to be solved by buzzwords, neither will they be solved by articles that have the same ambiguous prescriptions that the author himself laments against. By discounting almost entirely the effect of individual action no real change can occur. It all has to start somewhere and every little bit counts.

Today, as with many subjects, particularly environmentalism, there is too much emphasis on radical change, that it must be massive and immediate. As the expression goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” so too with building a sustainable society.

Instantly cutting all ties with the energy industry that makes all life in the western world possible is financial and literal suicide for society and this institution of learning. In fact, by coming here everybody has already taken the first step. It doesn’t matter what faculty you are in because we are all taught how to solve problems.

The solutions to environmental problems and sustainability are likely to be found here if anywhere, so stop telling others what to do and do it yourself. Others will follow and change can snowball.

Tom Wenger, fourth-year political science