Do I want to know???

Ignorance is definitely bliss! Sometimes I think life would be so much easier if I didn't really know what was happening around me, I could then geniunely say I didn't know better when doing something ungreen. Unfortunately this is not the case - in fact I somehow seem to be drawn towards articles, books etc that brings more knowledge into my head and makes my life more difficult.

Recently I was offered a free book with a magazine subscription and I was given a long list of books to choose from, yet of all these books I went for 'Go Make a Difference - over 500 daily ways to save the Planet'. My thinking was - there should be a trick or two in there that I have missed, this will be good inspiration. It is a great book, but unfortunately rather than making me feel happy about the stuff I am already doing it has made me feel overwhelmed by the stuff I am NOT doing.

This book covers everything you can think of regarding green and ethical living and there is some very good information in it, but it has not made my life any easier. The wealth of information in it is making all my efforts look rather small.
There is all the stuff to do in the garden, like putting up bat boxes, laying on squirrel banquets and planting bee friendly flowers.
Then there are things to do with the kids, such a flying kites, getting on the bikes, making a frieze of endangered animals or even making your own recycled paper!
Of course there are also all the campaigns you can sign up to: campaign for re-use of empty homes, campaign to support the victims of Bhopal on Day of No Pesticides, campaign to stop the use of child soldiers, campaign to ban Lindane (a dangerous pesticide), campaign to make supermarkets take responsibility and obviuosly you can write to countless embassies to protest about ivory trade, whaling etc
Not to mention the long list of things that you should and shouldn't buy, e.g. buy organic produce, buy fairtrade, buy local, but avoid anything with phthalates, bromin fire retardants or bisphenol A, not to mention boycutting companies that use animal testing,child labour, sweatshop production etc

These are all very worthwhile causes, and I don't for one second suggest they shouldn't be supported, but my brain simply cannot compute it all.

I am kind of stuck, I feel I need to change more or less everything I do and even if I did I would probably still miss something. What's more important, to create a wildlife haven in your own garden to increase the very important biodiversity or to support a campaign against exploiting children??!! There is not enough hours in the day to get involved with everything that is wrong in this world, but where should I start? The thing is if you don't pay attention you could very easily end up supporting something that you really don't like - but if I had to check all the ethical lists before doing anything I would never get started. Argh!

If I had read this book before embarking on this green project it might never have begun, I would have given up on the whole idea. Thankfully I am already halfway through, so at least I could tick some of the boxes while reading the book and say 'yep, doing that already' and not end up completely disheartened, but it is not a good feeling. How did the World end up in such a mess with complete lack of respect for the Planet we live on?

So what to do now. Do I burn the book and try to erase the information from my memory or is this the time to step up the game? I just don't know. What I do know is that it is easier when you don't know... No wonder that lots of people don't really want to hear about the environmental problems that we face. But unfortunately I can't just ignore the facts, so I will need to find some way of navigating the information jungle. I will probably just have to start with the things close to home and I will always be of the opnion that trying, even when not successful, is better than doing nothing at all. The one thing thats for sure is that I will not be buying part II any time soon.