Complex conversations

I went home for a few days over spring break, so I talked to my family a bit about some environmental issues. A lot of my values concerning the environment were inspired by my family, such as reducing consumption, not being wasteful, and just a love for the outdoors. However, we still disagree on many topics concerning the environment. I remember over winter break, my dad told me that he thought that the warming of the planet was just a part of its normal cycle. I brought the subject up again last week, and I think he's starting to change his mind because he said something like "I need to look into that more." My mom and sister also argued that scientists don't have enough information to prove that global warming is caused by humans, and that for every study that implicates humans as the cause, there is other information to refute it. I pushed my mom to back up her opinion with facts, but she couldn't do it. My dad has a copy of An Inconvenient Truth, so I told them that they should all watch it together.

It can be really frustrating talking to my family about the environment, because as I said before, they are part of the reason why I'm so interested in the environment and why I feel like it is so important to protect it. Therefore, it's hard for me to accept that they don't hold all of the same values that I do. I occasionally send them links to articles that I find interesting and encourage them to make small changes, such as buying more organic food, using reusable bags instead of plastic ones, using safer cleaner products, and using compact fluorescent light bulbs. My mom did buy a compact fluorescent light bulb, but then when we went to put it in my sister's bathroom, it didn't fit - so that was annoying! It's difficult to get them to change their habits, but I'm still working on it.