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Why You Feel Guilty About Problems You Didn't Create · How To Protect The Ocean

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  Why do caring people feel guilty every time they buy groceries,
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  use plastics, or even open an app?
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  Because somewhere along the way, the biggest environmental
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  decisions got pushed onto you.
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  This is the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast, your weekly ocean news update.
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  And if you care about staying informed about the Ocean every weekday, hit
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  that follow button right now so you don't miss tomorrow's episode.
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  Today we're talking about the hidden system behind your choices, why consumer
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  guilt is so common, and what real accountability actually looks like.
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  This is based on a powerful conversation I have on Friday.
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  I'm gonna be posting that conversation with Sarah Federman, a professor
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  of Peace studies who examines how corporations shape justice,
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  sustainability, and long-term impacts.
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  Now we've all felt it.
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  You're standing in the store trying to choose between two products.
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  One has more packaging, one costs more.
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  One may be sourced ethically, one might not be.
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  You need groceries, you're in a rush.
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  You suddenly feel like saving the planet depends on what you put in your cart.
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  And it's exhausting, to be honest.
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  And according to Sarah, many of these ethical dilemmas were never supposed to
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  land in your hands in the first place.
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  She described how decisions about environmental harm often travel all the
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  way down the supply chain until they reach the final person, the consumer,
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  and then were left holding the guilt.
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  I think it's really interesting, like when I'm in the grocery aisle
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  and I'm trying to choose a product.
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  I'm always trying to choose like what's the best one.
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  And I start looking at the products and something that always stood true
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  to me and always stayed with me when I interviewed somebody who was involved
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  in product management and involved in like, selling products online,
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  especially from an environmental standpoint to be environmentally safe.
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  And what he said to me really resonated with me.
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  When you get stuff from him, this is the Grove Collaborative.
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  It was the founder of the Globe Collaborative.
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  You get it in these little bottles.
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  It looks so small, but it's detergent say, but it's the same amount of
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  detergent in there that actually, you can get from anything in the grocery store.
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  And those big, big, like four liter containers.
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  The reason why they're four liter and they're orange and they're
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  yellow and they're bright colors are green, is they stand out more.
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  They're bigger, they're more colorful, and that they're competing
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  with other products, the same products on the grocery shelf.
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  So when you're standing on the grocery aisle, you're looking at
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  a competition of these products.
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  And a lot of times that competition to make them bigger, they have
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  to dilute the actual soap.
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  So when you use the soap, you're trying to use more.
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  They want you to use more 'cause they want you to go back and buy more.
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  But when you get it online from an environmental sustainably sourced
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  company, they're just coming in these small bottles and you just put a little
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  bit, a little tad and that's enough.
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  And you start to look at that and you're like, is that enough soap?
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  Like, is that gonna take off that stain or is that gonna make my
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  entire load of laundry cleaner?
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  Because when I use something else, it requires, I use more.
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  Why am I using such a little amount?
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  And that's where it comes from.
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  Like you look at these groceries, you look at these islands and you're
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  like, do they need to be that big?
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  Do they need to have all that water in it?
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  Do they need to be certain type of plastic?
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  It doesn't have to happen, but it's that competition that makes it big.
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  And it doesn't mean that consumers, when you pick those products, because you
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  can't see anything else, it doesn't mean those consumers have no responsibility.
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  It means responsibility has been unevenly distributed.
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  So like, let's be honest here.
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  It's much easier for a corporation to say, Hey, shop better than
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  redesigning their package.
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  Think about that.
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  It's much easier for industries to say, buy sustainably than to
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  fix their sourcing transparency.
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  It's much easier for governments to tell people to conserve
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  resources than to regulate waste pollution and extraction at scale.
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  And when that happens, everyday people start blaming themselves for
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  problems that they did not create.
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  Think about the guilt that's put on us.
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  Sarah gave a strong example with AI.
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  People are now learning that data centers use massive amounts of water and energy.
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  So what happens?
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  Users begin asking, should I even use this tool?
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  Am I causing harm by opening the app?
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  That's a real emotional burden because everybody's using AI.
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  But one person choosing not to use a chatbot is not the same as demanding
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  better infrastructure, renewable power, water planning, and transparent reporting
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  from the companies building those systems.
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  And let's be honest, these data centers as I go in the conversation,
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  you'll hear it on Friday with Sarah.
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  These data centers are often put in places where land is cheap.
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  So it's usually often put in a place where it's not that expensive.
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  Marginal communities live there.
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  And they have to deal with these data centers.
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  We don't know what the effects of having those data centers.
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  They're also put in areas where there's already water problems
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  because the land is cheap.
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  Nobody wants to live there, and there's already water problems.
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  So they're competing with drinking water for the people who do live there.
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  So I think it's really difficult.
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  You are looking at different levels of responsibility and we
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  are stuck with the bill of guilt.
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  We see this in seafood all the time.
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  Consumers are told, buy sustainable seafood.
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  Read labels.
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  Know your species.
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  Know the stock status.
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  Know the fishing method.
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  Know if labor practices are ethical and if it was local, know if it was imported
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  and most people just want dinner.
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  Like my kids, I have two kids.
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  They're older now, but things are busy when you have kids.
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  And I'm not saying anybody who doesn't have kids aren't busy.
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  We are busy.
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  Everybody's busy.
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  When I have kids, you know, we come home from school, they come home, you get them
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  ready, give them a snack, hopefully it's sustainable and all this kind of stuff.
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  And then you go out grocery shopping because both my wife and I work.
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  We go grocery shopping in the evening where it's busy when there's a lot
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  of other people and you're going out and you're buying all this stuff.
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  You're trying to make all these right decisions, but you're in a hurry.
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  You gotta go back.
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  Our lives here in Canada are not slowed down.
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  We move 'cause we have to get them to hockey or we have to get them to ballet
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  or we have to get 'em to dance class.
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  We have to get 'em to all these places.
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  And if you have boys, it's different, right?
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  Like different sports, different activities, everything's different.
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  If any child, you try and put 'em in activities like crafts and everything
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  like that, arts and sciences and music and all these different things.
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  And then you have to make dinner.
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  You have to buy all these products and they need this and they need
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  that and you have to make a decision.
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  And we just don't have the information.
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  Yeah, we talk about seafood.
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  Just going back to seafood, like how are you supposed to know all that?
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  Stock status, fishing method, labor practices were ethical.
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  Is it local?
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  Was it imported?
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  All these different types of things.
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  I just want dinner.
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  I just need to fix dinner.
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  And that makes it a really difficult thing.
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  But then all of a sudden you feel guilty.
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  That's why better systems actually matter.
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  Traceability systems, clear labeling, strong fisheries management,
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  fair labor enforcement, honest certifications, retailers that do
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  their homework for their consumers.
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  Whatever happened to that?
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  The actual choices matter, but consumers cannot carry the
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  entire oceans on our backs.
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  It's not fair to ask.
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  So what does real accountability look like?
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  It means pushing change upstream.
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  That means asking a lot of questions.
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  Who designed the system?
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  Who profits from this system?
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  Who has the power to improve the system?
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  And who should be transparent and who should be regulated?
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  You'll hear it on Friday.
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  Sarah also talked about something important.
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  Public pressure actually matters.
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  Writing companies.
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  Supporting better business matters, showing up at local meetings matter.
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  Speaking up matters.
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  Collective action matters.
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  Making that TikTok videos speaking your opinion matters because once
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  that movement starts, once you see someone talking about it, you feel
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  like talking about it as well.
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  One person changing brands might feel small, but thousands of people
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  demanding better standards is different.
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  It's a movement.
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  And just like yesterday, when we move as a collective, it works really well.
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  When we move as a coalition, it works very well.
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  It gets attention and that matters.
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  That matters more than you think.
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  If you care deeply about the ocean, climate or future, guilt can feel
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  constant, but guilt is not a strategy.
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  It's the clarity.
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  The clarity is a strategy.
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  You don't need to be a perfect consumer.
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  You need to be an aware citizen.
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  You need to make better choices when you can.
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  That's no doubt for sure, but you have to also give yourself grace when
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  you can't make those decisions, when you don't have the information.
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  And wherever possible, help move responsibility back to where it
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  belongs with the systems powerful enough to create real change.
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  Imagine grocery stores having to be transparent and where
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  these products come from.
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  That means the products themselves have to be transparent.
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  Who can regulate that?
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  Government can regulate that.
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  Products, like even their own products, like their own companies or private
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  companies can put that on there.
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  And then you'd be like, you know what, I'm gonna buy from you 'cause you are awesome.
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  It's helps when you start to push back.
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  It helps when you are not the one that has to make all the decisions.
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  A lot of the times, we just give that to ourselves.
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  It's all these hidden systems that are put on the burden on us.
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  Why should we have to put the burden on where the fisheries
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  come make those decisions?
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  It should just be given to us.
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  We shouldn't be given the option of buying fish that's over fished or we don't
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  know where it goes in the supply chain.
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  That should be a huge thing.
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  Whether it's fisheries, whether it's beef, whether it's chicken,
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  whether it's vegetables or fruit.
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  We should know how things are done.
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  Just like we know when Clementines come from Mexico.
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  We should know when it's local and we should know when it's organic.
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  Is it truly organic?
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  What makes this thing organic?
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  It shouldn't just be a hidden marketing scheme.
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  The hidden system behind your choices was built by people, and that means
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  it can be rebuilt by people too.
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  That's the final message I want to give you because that is something
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  that is extremely important.
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  This week in podcast I told you is gonna be inspiring because it's Earth Week.
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  It is Earth Day soon, and I want you to be prepared to
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  be like, Hey, you know what?
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  I wanna protect the planet.
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  But not just by myself.
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  I want to be in a community.
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  I want to be in a collective or a coalition or start my own or join one,
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  but I also don't want to feel guilty all the time and have the burden put on me.
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  Like have the burden put on you because you're using a
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  phone that's made of plastic.
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  Well, that's not your fault.
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  But how about we push back on the systems and the people who made that
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  and say, why are we using plastic?
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  Isn't there something alternative that we can use or the way the plastic
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  is made is not by fossil fuels.
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  That's what we're gonna learn all this week.
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  We're gonna talk about Sarah by the end of this week.
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  On Friday, you're gonna hear the full interview.
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  But until then, if you want to hear that you don't wanna miss it, follow
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  How to Protect the Ocean Podcast for more weekday ocean stories, science,
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  and actions that actually matter.
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  I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the
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  How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
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  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, building the community of people
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  who care about the ocean.
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  I wanna thank you so much for joining me.
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  Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.