How Your Individual Choices Can Prevent a Climate Catastrophe

We live in extraordinary times. And by that I do not mean the fact that most of us have created a personal relationship with our sofa over the past year — let us for a short time ignore the COVID-19 mayhem. I am talking about the unparalleled technological progress of the last decades, coupled with a massive influx of information. Topped with a sprinkling of some great world peace that has been predominant in this century, we are experiencing a truly unprecedented era.

After years of pure consumerism, people are starting to make conscious decisions about the products they buy, where they buy them, who makes them, and what happens to them after they had used them. The unquestionable effects of climate change are finally stealing peoples’ — as well as governments’- attention. Our common goal is to put the world on track to limit global warming to around 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels. Some say we’ll be here for a good time — but not a long time, in all truth, at the current pace, we will be here for a very short and at least as bad a time. It is imminent to act now.

But do you know what is almost as bad as not doing anything? Focusing on actions that are not effective. Identifying the wrong perpetrator might be one of them.

We, humans, have inherent tendencies that tend to hinder us from understanding complex problems. We wish that even complicated things had really simple explanations. Anyone familiar with the origins of conspiracy theories may agree — it is in human nature to look for an easy way out when a difficult or novel situation presents itself. We try to find answers to make sense of the chaos — in times of crisis, this serves as a coping mechanism. Our environmentally-woke era carries with it another sort of danger — oversimplifications. But climate change is in fact complicated and involves many interacting factors, which remain a mystery even to climatologists.

As a result, the public is bound to nitpick certain topics and attach great importance to them while dismissing others. A very simple example of this are straws — they have become the poster child of the so-called plastic age of the recent decades and of the struggle against it. It is easy to see why — they are available in every bar, restaurant, café, or shop around the world. Many companies have started producing different types of metal or paper alternatives without really understanding that these will eventually end up in landfills, as even paper cannot be recycled indefinitely. Maybe, before buying a product, it might be useful to ask — is this only marketing, or do we have data supporting its claims?

Excuse me, may I speak to the PR manager?

There is a poignant term for deceptively using green marketing spins to deceive the public. It is called greenwashing and you’ve probably heard it before. It is often used to convince people that a given organization’s products, aims, and policies are environmentally friendly. But in fact, it’s no more than a box-ticking exercise for companies and their social media channels. Product-oriented companies like H&M, Nestle or Volkswagen have all been accused (and even convicted) of greenwashing in recent years. It would be great to believe that even some really bad boys are finally considering sustainability as one of their values. But without actual KPIs, data, and results, we may again fall into the trap of really good (or, worse still, mediocre) marketing.

Even more worrying is how various tools perpetuating greenwashing are effectively convincing us that we are doing enough. Every day we are being surrounded by buzzwords such as sustainability, eco-friendly, recyclable, vegan, ethical, and other green labels. They have become symbols of “righteousness”, the “right product”, the “right policy”, the “right company”, or the “right alternative to traditional means.”

We watch two documentaries on Netflix about veganism, thinking it is the best way to save the planet, without actually realising that consuming mono-cultural crops requires extensive amounts of water.[1] We buy a vintage toothbrush made from wood without paying a thought to the tree that had to be cut for it. We lynch people for using plastic bags without knowing that canvass bags have a bigger carbon footprint.[2] We fly to Bali (does anyone remember COVID?) to re-connect with nature whilst emitting tons of CO2 emissions during our flight. We are being fed with a false hope that we are magically solving this riddle called climate change. All this while scientists are dedicating their entire careers to see how human-caused activities have affected the climate to a point that we can hardly reverse.

And what is even worse — we shame people for not doing the same.

Not me, but you

The popular narrative forces us to rethink our choices — but it also focuses the lens on us, individuals, who are to be blamed for the problem and expected to solve it at the same time. Climate change is indeed human-driven, stemming from rapid increases in greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. While victim-blaming can stir debate in the public, it can also derail us from what really matters — the actual fight against climate change.

The EU-27 generates only 11 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. The remainder is puffed out by the rest of the world, with China taking a huge piece of the cake and India, infamously known for cheap labor and unethical working conditions, not far behind. On the other hand, we have a hundred fossil fuel companies in the world responsible for 71 percent of all greenhouse gases emission around the globe. [3]

As an individual, I truly understand the urge to fight the crisis and look for easy wins. In other words, living a so-called sustainable life is desirable (but also fashionable). Trying to buy less and save more is admirable. Explaining to others why climate change is real and leading by example is honourable. But thinking we can make things better only by our choices as a consumer is, quite frankly, naïve.

Not all hope is lost. Yet.

So, how can we actually make things better? Please, do not get me wrong — all of the above is a good start if we have the privilege to make some changes in our lives.

But we have another important tool in our hands — it is each and every one of us. We have the right to elect our representatives at all levels of government. Our elected officials take their mandate to represent us and act in our best interest — this is, after all, the very essence of (indirect) democracy. Those elected have the power to enact and enforce laws that enable energy transition, emission cuts, and protect key ecosystems. Our representatives can work with industries and combine their resources to battle climate change. Each year at the United Nations climate conference, global leaders meet to discuss actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

We need to concentrate our efforts on choosing the right representatives — to read party manifestos, study their environmental policies and look at their objectives. We need to make sure we choose those who support their claims with data and hold them accountable when they do not deliver. We can start within our own communities, continue in our companies, and move all the way to the top. But without a systemic change in the fossil-fuel flooded world we live in; we might be losing precious time.

Today, as the world is shaken by more than a year of Covid-19, we are finally seeing some light in the dark as vaccination becomes available. Yes, the future is filled with question marks, and a pandemic of new coronavirus variants is still very much in the cards.

But there is no vaccine for the climate crisis. It is not going away, and the clock is ticking — but we have the ability to choose our decision makers, to make climate change a government priority, and to move away from the fossil sins of the past and toward a carbon-free future.

Individuals matter, but data does too. Let us focus on both.

[1] https://waterfootprint.org/en/about-us/news/news/grace-launches-new-water-footprint-calculator/

[2] https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/579437/cotton-canvas-tote-bad-for-environment

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jul/10/100-fossil-fuel-companies-investors-responsible-71-global-emissions-cdp-study-climate-change