Do Everything You Can to Stop Climate Change
I spend too much time online in comment sections, scrolling through arguments about climate change. I am not reading arguments between climate change deniers and those who believe that the climate crisis is real and urgent. This is infighting among those who believe that climate change is a serious problem.
The sort of argument that frustrates me is over whether individual actions can do any good. I’ll read someone’s suggestion of a positive individual action to fight climate change, say bike commuting to work, and then I’ll read responses that are filled with cynicism and disdain. The responses will amount to a giant pshaw.
You can ride your bike all you want, but it won’t do any good; Billionaires are still going to fly their private jets.
Even if everyone in the country stops driving their cars tomorrow, China’s emissions will still be way higher than ours.
The only way to make real change is to go out and vote.
These responses are not necessarily false. It is true, an individual’s impact will be negligible if the rest of the world continues on as normal, but what frustrates me about these sorts of comments is that they are the thinking of stingy people, people who apparently won’t consider doing good by the climate until they make sure that everyone else is doing their part first. Or until we all vote the right way and presumably are coerced by law to start doing good by the climate.
This is the attitude of doing as little as possible. The climate crisis is urgent. The solutions will necessitate major changes to how we live. Instead of a mindset of doing as little as possible, we need to adopt a mindset of doing as much as possible. It is not an either/or choice between making individual actions and advocating for collective change. It is possible to do both. We need to do both.
If you are looking for permission to do more than just voting for the climate, consider this it: Do everything you reasonably can to stop climate change.
Really, do everything you can.
Tear out your lawn and grow a vegetable garden in your front yard.
Learn to repair that ripped shirt instead of buying a new one.
Ride your bike. Even when it’s cold out.
Do go out and vote, but don’t get fooled. Vote for leaders who understand that the solutions to the climate crisis will need to be big and will require a new way of living. If you can’t find these leaders, run for office yourself.
Don’t wait for laws to be passed to limit your fossil fuel usage. The system is odious. Do not be a part of it. Do what you can to transition away from fossil fuels now.
Make big sacrifices.
Don’t board that plane.
Don’t buy that second home.
Don’t give millionaires that ride private jets your money. If you don’t like what they are doing, don’t buy what they are selling. You probably don’t really need their products.
Be radical.
Quit your fossil fuel job.
Move closer to your new job and sell your car.
Move onto a farm and ride your bike everywhere.
Take out your retirement savings and invest in making your home super energy efficient.
Talk to your neighbors about what you are doing to fight climate change.
Teach others the skills we will need to live in a world without fossil fuels.
Protest.
Be bold.
Be brave.
Be courageous.
Do everything you reasonably can to fight for the climate.
It is true, there are many people who are not willing to make sacrifices for the climate. There are people who lack the imagination to envision living in a world without using fossil fuels.
These people may be out there, but you do not need to be one of them.
Instead, you can help build a new world.
Instead, you can be one of us.