Let’s Fall in Love with a Problem
In Love With A Problem is a documentary that profiles two young scientists working to solve the plastic pollution problem. And I am In Love With this documentary.
I love Jeanny Yao’s view of landfills as mines full of potential building material. And I love Miranda Wang’s observation of how periods of time have been defined by what we have to build with: first the Stone Age, then the Bronze Age, and now the Plastic Age. And I love when Dr. Jennifer Le Roy, CTO of Novoloop, said “the plastic problem… is something that we can fix with the science that exists today.”
Founded by Miranda and Jeanny, Novoloop takes LDPE plastic and “upcycles” it into a building block for nylon. LDPE plastics are some of the more problematic types that are excluded from most if not all municipal recycling streams, so I am very excited that this “problem” is becoming a solution.
I want to see this technology developed on a large scale, and I want to see it implemented with race-conscious regulations. Because many landfills are in BIPOC communities, they would be directly impacted by the industry to extract plastic resources from landfills. So we have a tremendous opportunity and responsibility to protect them from the potential harms of this promising technology.
Luckily, I believe that the Plastic Age will be implemented with environmental justice, because I have taught my brain to look for evidence to support that belief. Like the Biden Administration’s focus on environmental justice as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure law. Like the growing interest in corporate ESGs. Like the increasing number of B Corporations.
Why did I do that? Because intentional evidence seeking helps me to reach my goals and to support the goals of others.
As humans, we are hard-wired to be on the lookout for threats. If you jump out of the way of what you think is a poisonous snake 10 times, you stay alive. If you don’t jump out of the way one time and it is a poisonous snake, you may not survive to pass your genes on. The instinct to overreact can be as helpful today as it was 70,000 years ago, as we still have poisonous snakes among many other life-threatening things. But our brains may equally apply this survival mechanism to information we perceive as threatening, such as a news headline or social media post.
When we experience information as threatening, our brain will search for evidence to support that believe. Just like how we might have searched the savanna for lion footprints or kept a record of how many hyenas live nearby. In all cases, this is just our brain doing its job of keeping us alive, but I believe it is a contributor toward confirmation bias, our tendency to select for information that supports our beliefs. Confirmation bias has been well documented in psychological experiments and observable in political debates, workplace decision-making, and between quarreling couples.
The media plays on our instinctual overemphasis on threats by making headlines as sensational as possible. And social media doubles-down on our confirmation bias by setting algorithms to show us stories that support what we already believe. This means our worst fears can be amplified in ways that negatively impact our mental and emotional wellbeing. Before I learned self-coaching tools I spent a lot of time doom-scrolling and anxious because of news headlines, so I know the effects of this personally, and how they can really be disruptive of one’s day to day life.
So the next time you are finding yourself amped up about a problem, ask yourself, what would you want to believe about it if the choice was entirely yours? (here’s a secret: it totally is…)
And the next time you find yourself overwhelmed by the evidence of a problem, ask yourself: how much of this is confirmation bias, news sensationalism, and/or the social media echo chamber?
If you want to learn the critical thinking skills that will enable you to manage your confirmation bias and support the beliefs you choose intentionally, then you’ll love my one-on-one coaching program. Book a free discovery call to learn more.