I work in the environmental movement. I don’t care if you recycle

I’m at my friend’s birthday dinner when an all-too-familiar conversation unfolds. I introduce myself to the man to my left, tell him that I work in the environmental field, and his face freezes in terror. Our handshake goes limp. 

“You’re gonna hate me …” he mutters sheepishly, his voice barely audible over the clanging silverware. 

I knew what was coming. He regaled me with a laundry list of environmental mistakes from just that day: He’d ordered lunch and it came in plastic containers; he’d eaten meat and he was about to order it again; he’d even taken a cab to this very party. 

I could hear the shame in his voice. I assured him that I didn’t hate him, but that I hated the industries that placed him — and all of us — in the same trick bag. Then his shoulders lifted from their slump and his eyes met mine. “Yeah, ’cause there’s really no point trying to save the planet anymore, right?” 

My stomach sank.

Read the story from Vox by Mary Annaise Heglar - "I work in the environmental movement. I don’t care if you recycle.”