Choosing produce that isn't wrapped in plastic, if available, is a way to cut down on waste. (Unsplash/Benjamin Brunner)
by Celina Kim Chapman
Editor's note: Notes from the Field includes reports from young people volunteering in ministries of Catholic sisters. A partnership with Catholic Volunteer Network, the project began in the summer of 2015.
With Earth Month coming to a close, I thought it would only be appropriate to end weeks of celebrating our environment with a video of how you can continue this momentum of appreciating nature and promoting the care of our planet.
Living in a service year and being environmentally conscious can be difficult, but in my video, I lay out some of the ways that living simply and intentionally have helped me continue my practice of low- to zero-waste living. I show how I save money when I stop and think, and I also point out the ways in which I can still work on my efforts of being more eco-friendly. In the end, I discuss my privileges and talk about how thinking about our planet first is a practice I learned when I was a young girl.
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Even if you haven't cared about the environment for most of your life, it's OK to start now and start slowly. The biggest lesson I have learned from working in anti-racism and equity and in continuing my research in building a sustainable lifestyle is that true environmental justice comes from taking care of the people on this planet, too. Environmental justice directly intersects with a plethora of social justice issues, and I hope my video sheds light on how the work you may (or may not) do correlates to work that helps the Earth.
