My Environmentalist Roots: Roger

     Hey there blogosphere folks! My name is Roger LeBlanc Jr., and I am an amateur thinker about sustainability issues and co founder of People for a Plastic Free Planet. Outside of initial introductions to recycling and ozone layer issues in grade school, the start of my environmental conscious and my awareness of our planetary crisis, like many Americans, began in 2005 with Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. The shots of the rising water levels flooding our world map, displacing millions of people haunts me to this very day. Global climate change is something that will make our precious and all too unique planet uninhabitable to human life unless extreme action is taken, and the effects of our warming planet will drastically change how our society runs in our life time.

     The experience of studying the crisis initially left me feeling feeling overwhelmed and powerless, rather than motivated to take action. Though I understood the issue's importance I think I believed somewhere in the back of my mind (or desperately hoped) that the government or some extraordinary scientist would one day solve the problem before I would need to worry about it. I coped with my fears by ignoring the issue all together. I went through high school blissfully unaware of my large carbon footprint, and racked up a tremendous amount of plastic trash with the highly packaged and processed foods I was consuming on a daily basis. I also rolled my eyes at friends of mine who were dedicated to producing their own food locally, and remained neglectful about recycling and composting.

    It wasn't until I went to school that started to think critically about humanity's relationship with the environment again. I now truly understand that global warming is not going to go away by some magic technology or political legislation. It is going to require a multitude of solutions. Corporate blocks and bureaucratic red tape are keeping environmental reform at a snail pace. I am incredibly hopeful though and excited about the possibility for change that can take place at the community level. At school I was surrounded by really thoughtful people, and it reinforced the idea for me that daily choices made by individual, families, and neighborhood groups can make powerful changes while we wait for our politicians to prioritize the health of our planet. I have also been incredibly inspired by writers who have really taken charge such as Micheal Pollan with “Why Bother”, Barbara Kingsolver with Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, and Bill McKibben with Eaarth,

    So in short I am super late to the party, but I very excited and ready to help the environmentalist effort in any way I can. Some service I was able to accomplish in the past year include volunteering for the organic vegetable garden on campus, and helping staff a zero waste concert involving all compostable silver ware and fun vegan meals. Over spring break I participated in an alternative break trip and performed conservation service work in Stuart, Florida, planting cyprus trees, restoring oyster reefs, and removing invasive species.  I am also in the process of launching worm composting in my residence hall along with a few of my floor mates in order to reduce food waste and put good soil back into the garden.  I am super excited to learn about other opportunities to get involved, and to do meaningful work done with PPFP.