How to live a more sustainable life is not always on everyone’s mind, but most know the small things like recycling, or taking one trip to the store instead of three is good for the environment. But what about green products that would have a larger impact, like buying a new hybrid car with low gas mileage, or installing insulating windows to reduce the heat bill. It’s not that Americans are against these products, they simply cannot afford them.
Technology and science have produced an explosion of innovative green products over the past decade from energy saving fridges to luxury sports cars powered by electricity.
However, this technology is expensive and with a struggling middle class that is living paycheck to paycheck, caring about an environmental footprint has become a luxury.
Who is more likely to buy new environmentally friendly products, a single mother working two minimum-wage jobs, or an affluent family of four with three cars?
And even that affluent family of four is struggling according to a Pew Research Center report, the American middle class has shrunk in size and fallen backwards in income and wealth. According to the report, 85 percent of participants said it was harder to maintain their standard of living now compared to 10 years ago.
With the middle class struggling, the environmental movement must do a better job of making these sustainable technologies affordable and accessible to all — not just the affluent.
But wait, there are other ways to reduce your carbon emission without having to spend a lot of money. Of course, recycling, turning off lights and taking shorter showers all have an impact. But to advance environmental efforts more must be done.
It is not just monetary wealth that can dictate if one buys a sustainable product, but also a person’s community can have a major impact. An outdated energy grid can be a large deterrent from purchasing green technology, as it is much harder to connect green technology — like a solar panel — to an outdated grid.
Along with international treaties that reduce harmful emissions and establish carbon caps, addressing domestic pollution is key to reducing the effects of climate change.
And the effects of climate changes are becoming more and more apparent each year. 2012 was one of the worst natural disaster years in recent history. 2012 saw one of the most extensive droughts in U.S. history with 80 percent of U.S. farmland experiencing drought, according to the USDA. Not to mention Hurricane Sandy that devastated the east coast, and left approximately $50 billion in damage according to the Huffington Post. Another natural disaster that hits close to home in Moscow is wildfires, which burned 30 percent more forest area than in previous years, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
We must not sit back while natural disasters become more extreme, and our atmosphere becomes clogged with harmful pollutants.
Climate change is here, and to combat it we not only need to change our daily habits, but also our daily products. This sets up the next challenge for environmentalists, how to make sustainable technology for everyone, regardless of income level.
Ryan Tarinelli can be reached at arg-opinion.uidaho.edu