The time has come for me to try to tackle this extremely important and charged subject. The environment and sustainability. Swedes, I know what you’re thinking, “HAHA the USA is going to take a hit on this one”. And yes, this is partly true since it is commonly known that the US contributes a lot to our planet getting destroyed. However, firstly I want to talk a little about the reasons behind the two countries’ views of the state of the environment and sustainability.
So, for those of you who don’t know the general thoughts and stereotypes about the two countries, let me give you a short summary: Sweden: tries really hard to save our planet, uses a lot of public transport, fanatically recycles and lessens the taxes for those who drive “green” cars. The USA: Does not try very hard to save our planet, drives cars everywhere possible, does not recycle a lot and does not focus on rewarding environmentally friendly thinking/actions. Remember, these things are stereotypes, doesn’t mean they are generally true. However, in my opinion there is sadly a lot of truth to them, at least in my experience.
Rebuilding infrastructure is not the easiest thing. In order to increase the amount of public transportation for instance, it would take a lot of money and effort. The second part, effort, is something I’ve noticed is very lacking among the Americans I’ve met. Either they don’t know about environmental issues and how to make them better, or they don’t have the resources to do so. I mean, everyone has to get around, to work, to school etc, in order to live their everyday life. My suggestion to making people aware of global issues is usually education. If they don’t know something, teach em! What I mean is, I went through school having to learn about the environment and sustainability, it was simply part of our learning material. Some people in the US have told me, that they never talked about these subjects in school at all. If the knowledge isn’t there, how can we expect the effort to be?
So, why is the situation like this? Let’s start by looking at the size of the countries. The US is VERY large, and Sweden is not. There is physically longer distances to travel in the US, regardless if it’s to work, to the grocery store or across the country. This results in it being harder to get places than in Sweden, hence the cars. In Sweden, everything is situated closer together. Often you are able to walk, bike or ride the bus places. So, just because of physical space, it is more difficult to be environmentally friendly in the US. Now all my Swedes out there are thinking, well, fix it?
Anyway, I know I’m sounding very negative towards the US and Americans right now, in my opinion with good reason, but I also want to point out, that Swedes are not so perfect either. Swedes fly five times the amount of the global average and the amount of flying has increased by 47% since 1990.* So even though Swedes are good about their sustainability at home, they still do their part in the destruction of our planet. I mean, who am I to talk, I fly back and forth between Sweden and the USA all the time now…
-K
*https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/stockholm/svenskarna-flyger-fem-ganger-mer-an-globala-genomsnittet
Swede&Sour 