Within environmental circles, I sometimes encounter conversations comparing the individual’s environmental footprint, to the government’s footprint, or to major corporations’ footprints. Obviously, the emissions from a single individual are much less than that of a major corporation. Sometimes this fact is used to unite people against a common enemy of “the fossil fuel industry” or “limitless corporate greed”, while also alleviating guilt from individuals. I recently came across a tweet that I felt almost perfectly encompassed the idea I’m referring to.
This tweet tries to peg corporate greed as responsible for climate change, and to alleviate guilt from the individual. And I can understand this argument to an extent. Corporations are responsible for most emissions, and have continually put profit over planet earth. Likewise, climate change will not be solved if I abstain from my bowl of rice, rather it will require sweeping change across every aspect of society. It will require intensive government regulation, a shift to renewable energy, a transformation of the transportation sector.
But despite these facts, we cannot diminish the importance of individual actions. We can’t be alleviating guilt from ourselves, excusing our environmentally destructive decisions. We can’t offload all of our shame and guilt onto the fossil fuel industry, they are only part of the problem. Not only do major corporations continually prioritize their own interests over the planet, so do we. Society as a whole is responsible. We should feel guilty.
First, climate change is not an all or nothing type of problem. The less carbon we emit, the lesser the consequences of climate change. Every choice we make to diminish our footprint will be felt.
Second, the 100 corporations mentioned in the tweet above would not be responsible for 71% of emissions if it weren’t for society buying their products. Undoubtedly, in the world we live in today, there are times when we have no choice but to buy these products, or at least it can be very difficult to avoid doing so. But still, we could all be doing better to reduce our consumption. And we should be doing better.
Finally, individual actions and government action are very interconnected. Choosing to buy an electric car today could encourage another to buy an electric car, and now with more electric cars on the road, the government is more willing to invest in public charging stations. This is just one example, there are so many immeasurable and unpredictable ripple effects that can result from the tiniest of actions. Whether it be through direct political action, or by making the smallest environmentally conscious decision, the citizenry can move to influence government policy. It is our responsibility to shape the conversation and push us in the right direction.
I feel like I see too much conversation assigning blame to other entities, and not enough conversation assigning blame to ourselves. At times, I feel like the Climate Crisis has been misconstrued into a battle of us vs. the fossil fuel industry. I think it is more accurately characterized as us vs. ourselves.
Here are some additional articles about Climate Change and personal responsibility
https://grist.org/briefly/groundbreaking-study-outlines-what-you-can-do-about-climate-change/
Taj 