ABOUT
Hi! My name is DW and I am the author of Plan It Earth!
WHY THE STRUGS
A couple years ago I started my own adventure into sustainability. However, I was struggling because I couldn't understand how to apply concepts to my daily life. Like, what can be considered “sustainable”? What should I do or not do? How do I remember everything? Where do I even begin?
​
Anytime I talk with friends and family, it is apparent that this kind of lifestyle is met with hesitation. At the root of the struggle, it's because we’re all just confused.
SOME CONSIDERATIONS
There are a few things that I want to mention that I am trying my best to be mindful of.
​
Content creators are sometimes actually too into the aesthetics, are shopaholics, and/or concentrate too much on the person instead of the important content. Podcasts are sometimes information overloading, time consuming, and hard to refer back to for specific info. Finite resources (books and social media posts) would, at some point in time, become outdated. They are also resource intensive and sometimes not always accessible.
​
To allow me to correct, edit, update information, and address these above issues, I’ve chosen the website format.
Even though I will come at things with my own approach and opinions, I can hope to be unbiased and give as much breadth of options as I can. The information that I reference is linked and can always be traced. Even so, no matter what, please always use your own judgement, form your own takeaways, and choose what to apply to your own situation from any resource (even this one). This website is in no way a rule book. Instead, always choose your own adventure! Also, please note that I am not a professional in this field.
So what is Plan It Earth?
This website was created in an attempt to understand this whole mess, how we got here, and consolidate a simplified educational repository (or hub) for knowledge. Because of the overwhelming weight of eco-anxiety, both for myself and others, I will put more of a focus on positive solutions and creating a clear and positive vision of our future. Every day should be Earth day -- after all, it is home.
PREFACE
(My Chemical Romance starts playing “Well if you wanted honesty, that’s all you had to say”)
​
​
Oftentimes, I wallow in a feeling of dread because I just don’t know if we can actually save our planet. Climate change is likely to get worse and it is happening quickly.
​
To put it bluntly, the human race often shows just how sluggishly and selfishly insufferable we are. Here in America we seemingly often don’t have the drive to unify, even for the common good. Instead, we’d rather make excuses and finger point.
“I really desperately want people to begin to think about Climate Change, which is the greatest public health challenge of our time, as being a human problem. A human problem that demands human beings to address it as we have with other pollution.”
— Gina McCarthy, How to Save a Planet, Episode “Meet Your New Climate Czar”
THE DREAM
While I could admit defeat (as it is so easy to do), in spite of my eco anxiety, I fight.
​
I came across the topic of “sustainability” before “ecosystems”. Learning both truly ties everything together. In the book All We Can Save, an essay titled Reciprocity by Janine Benyus discussed how species in forests work as a growing family with individual roles, supporting one another, sheltering those below, and distributing water with their different depths of roots. These ecosystems work because they do it together. Life flows and intertwines, which is really just beautiful.
​
Sometimes the meaning of “sustainable” can be twisted, but this is what it means to me. As of now, I cannot find a better word to use.
​
In an "ideal situation", we could start by re-evaluating and renovating our current system, finding the things that work and solutions to those that don’t. We lay down a new system for future generations. We re-wire habits and only create what we need. We invest in quality so things last forever. Some profits go back into causes, communities, rehabilitation, or conservation. Both consumers and companies care about distributing the wealth and ethical labor practices. On all levels, there is regulation and accountability. As a whole society, we all learn to appreciate living slower — valuing our time, hard earned money, health, skills, each other, what we do, what we have, etc. It is an ecosystem of co-existing harmony that lasts long-term.
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
“We must also recognize that climate change is only one symptom of a larger problem. Human beings have fallen out of alignment with life”
— Indigenous Prophecy and Mother Earth by Sherri Mitchell, All We Can Save
Climate change and the disruption of ecosystems really started with the birth of the Industrial Age. Since then, in 200 years alone, with newer “innovations” and machinery, we have drastically increased our impacts everywhere. Heck, scientists even found teflon and other microplastics in our drinking water, fetuses, and in the most remote, isolated of waters (in Antarctic ice, for example)! Our impacts are so wide spread.
​
We are the core cause of our current situation. Across all levels in society, our consumption and waste problem has truly gotten out of hand.
​
Within the past few years, we have seen record highs of production and throw-away culture (includes donations). As an example of bad collectivism, as mass consumers, we have created a need for mass deforestation for large-scale agriculture, destructive mining of non-renewable resources, drilling for fossil fuels, overflowing landfills, etc. All of these businesses are obvious producers of greenhouse gases. Our Earth Overshoot Day has continued to move earlier every calendar year, recently being in July.
​
“The actual root of sustainability is less consumption.”
— Jessica McMahon, Clothes Horse Podcast, Episode 129 "Unpacking the 'Textile Recycling' Industry"
What I truly love about sustainability is it highlights a lot of bullshit going on.
​
What we must remember is that the primary goal of companies is to make as much money as quickly as possible and they will do this by ANY means. And what’s worse, as a collective whole, we’ve made these destructive-minded monopolies’ rise possible by knowingly giving them money to continuously get away with it.
​
We have been manipulated in so many ways, so re-wiring ourselves and the system will be hard work.
​
In opposition to the easy “Buy Now” button, “conscious consumerism” is here, asking us to step up and be better by being intentional, mindful, slower, educated:
We are always voting with our wallets.
We have so much consumer power.
What we created, we can reform.
​
The good news is that the market is shifting! New companies, bills, etc. are popping up with more sustainable systems and reception is positive. Some great solutions are successfully re-emerging from our past (for example, extended producer responsibility in circular systems)! Repairing, valuing, thrifting, and community sharing are also coming back strong — all sustainable concepts pre-dating the Industrial Revolution. Warning: older big-brand companies are side-eyeing the scene — hopefully some will shift gears, too; their changes will most likely be greenwashing because they will be scared of losing out on money.
SHIT IS REAL! LET’S GET IT TOGETHER!
We cannot waste more time being “okay” with what exists, because our current system is clearly just not working.
We need collective action.
​
Without all of us (people, companies, leaders, and governments) unified, holding each other accountable, asking for better and more, we will never see change. Standing up takes a level of courage, selflessness, and care that allows us to realize both the small and big picture and act with more heart.
“Life on earth is under pressure,”
We know what’s at risk. Now, let’s fix this thing!
​
(pan out of the planet as it rocks out to My Chemical Romance singing “But you really need to listen to me, because I’m telling you the truth!…I’m not okay! You wear me out!")