Photo by Li-An Lim on Unsplash
With a single Google search, each of us can discover how much we, as individuals, and we, as a society, are contributing to global warming: quite a lot, it turns out. So, we are bombarded with ways to combat this by being more carbon-efficient: Ride your bike! Eat less meat! Use a reusable water bottle! And while these actions can have an impact if implemented on a large scale, they’re currently falling flat– which isn’t necessarily our fault. In fact, the term “carbon footprint” was originally coined by BP oil to shift the blame of the climate crisis onto consumers rather than corporations. This would continue to perpetuate the myth that we, the people, hold the power to directly fix it. The fact remains, however, that Earth will become largely uninhabitable during our lifetimes, and urgent action is vital. Thus, finding a solution to the climate crisis should focus on large-scale change rather than individual action.
For far too long, governments and corporations have led us to believe that both the responsibility for and the solution to the climate crisis lie in our hands – diverting attention away from their own non-action.
A 2011 study by the National Institutes of Health discusses Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, in which food and shelter precede love and justice. For different people, however, global warming falls on vastly different ends of this spectrum. According to the World Bank in 2018, nearly half the world’s population struggles to meet basic needs, and the COVID-19 pandemic has only worsened these figures. If almost 3.4 billion people have no guaranteed access to clean water, how can we expect them to look beyond tomorrow? Why should they attempt to solve the problems created by much more influential people?
For example, the United Nations Development Program’s Climate Promise states that less wealthy, virtually powerless communities, such as small island nations, are more susceptible to the impacts of a rapidly evolving climate, despite being the smallest contributors. To put this into context, Client Earth disclosed that Exxonmobil released 730 million tonnes of greenhouse gases in 2019. That’s equivalent to the entire nation of Canada with its population of nearly 38 million. This despairing statistic just goes to show that without enough backing from governments and corporations, even millions of people globally will be unable to make an impact. Recycling and riding our bikes and reducing our carbon footprints and encouraging others to do the same is a powerful first step – but it’s not enough. If we protest, we need to do so in ethical and effective ways that make leaders take action. Or we should become those leaders and put our ideas of a just and sustainable society into practice. We could innovate eco-friendly alternatives to the technologies that contribute most to global warming, or hold powerful contributors responsible by researching and taking them to court.
We need to come together to make a large-scale impact, or force those in power to do so, because this is a burden too large for any one individual. In a paradox of sorts, that responsibility falls to us. Whether directly or indirectly, we are the generation that is not too late to solve this crisis. That number on the carbon calculator represents the negative impact of not only one person, but an entire society. In that same way, it should symbolize the potential difference we can make as an entire society – in changing how we act, how we think, and how we motivate, to ensure that our solutions will have a tangible impact on billions.
Be First to Comment