Choose Well
Why does it matter?
Many of our daily choices are determined by convenience: how to travel (whatever is quickest), what to eat (whatever is easiest), and what to buy (whatever is cheapest). When we prioritise convenience, we are privileging what is personally best for us in the short term with little concern about the long term impact of our choices on our own bodies and psyches, let alone on other people from far away places and times. Convenience is a kind of self-concern. As a rationale for decision-making, it is the opposite of ethics and the opposite of care. Not the sort of attitude we would tend to approve of in others but one that we tacitly adopt in our everyday experiences.
Developing climate consciousness requires willingness to question the consequences of all our decision making from an ethical perspective.
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Who benefits from my choices? What is the price of those choices? And who is paying it? Developing climate consciousness means caring about the answers to these questions and making different choices accordingly.
Choosing well means reassessing all your consumer choices – from food to fashion, personal hygiene, and household cleaning products – from an ethical perspective. It means considering the buy-now-pay-later costs and the here-and-there consequences for animals, plants, and planet. Having questioned your decision making processes, you may find yourself opting for radically different choices, not because you feel you have to, but because it is what you want.