By Karla Cloete
Edited by Imaan Moosa & Tasmiyah Randeree
Content writer Karla Cloete confesses to us all the things that keep her up at night, such as whether or not her individually-focused climate action to buy local will create the impact our world needs.
If you were born in the late ‘90s or early 2000s, it’s very likely that you are, what I call, a climate change baby. The symptoms can include:
- Having heard the hysteria over ozone-layer holes in school.
- Knowing who Al Gore or Gretha Thurnberg are.
- Getting a stomachache whenever you hear about climate change.
- Learning the words “greenhouse gas” and “global warming” before you hit puberty.
- Attempting or seriously considering going vegan or figuring out the puzzle of recycling.
A vague but constant panic that both you and the world are running out of time.
Or maybe that’s just me. Maybe you were told to shut off the lights to save polar bears. Or that littering makes the earth cry. Perhaps you were warned not to run around starting forest fires as a 7-year-old.
I often think about what the ‘our-plant-is-dying-and-you-are-killing-it narrative’ does to a generation that has been hearing it since they were in preschool.
Climate change anxiety
Climate change anxiety has followed me for most of my life. Apart from sleepless nights, it’s resulted in some positive behavioural change: I try to walk when I can. I thrift my clothes. I compost eggshells and coffee grounds. I take reusable containers to the campus dining hall. I own too many reusable water bottles. I stopped eating seafood. My family tries to recycle.
All of this is done haphazardly and imperfectly.
Just last week I was telling my boyfriend that I felt like a horrible-terrible-turtle-hater because I forgot to bring my reusable cutlery when we went out to get lunch.
I feel so guilty about not buying makeup in eco-friendly packaging; I hoard the foundation bottles in my makeup bag until my mother makes me get rid of them.
If you care seriously about the planet it can sometimes feel like you are literally carrying the weight of the world.
Unfortunately, climate change anxiety is usually closely followed by environmentalist guilt. The debate I am constantly waging against myself sounds like this:
How much responsibility, if any, lies with me as an individual for this current climate nightmare?
The rabbit hole only gets more complicated the deeper you wander in.
Does individual responsibility exist?
On the one end, we have The Guardian reporting the oft-cited fact that 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions.
You may have also heard of the Oxfam study which showed that the richest 10% are creating half the world’s individual emissions.
Looking at these numbers in isolation can quickly lead you, as it did me, to the scapegoats that are easy to hate — the uber-rich and evil oil companies.
Then there is the individually-focused climate change camp, which passes the buck to individual consumers who are responsible for increasing their carbon footprint.
Jay Michaelson writes in The Daily Beast that:
"Individual behavioural change isn’t action — it’s distraction… It shifts the blame from the actual causes of climate change to fake ones and shifts attention away from meaningful actions to meaningless, psychological ones.
"A fixation on voluntary action alone takes the pressure off of the push for governmental policies to hold corporate polluters accountable, says climatologist Micheal Mann in USA Today."
They aren’t wrong. The very idea of an individual’s carbon footprint was invented and popularized by the oil company, BP. The term took off quickly and has proliferated into the vernacular of governments, researchers and journalists alike.
Rather than being based on actual science, this shame-tool has been described as one of the “most successful, deceptive PR campaigns maybe ever”. This is one of the first instances of blame-shifting that allowed the biggest climate culprits to get off scot-free.
Mann continued on this point:
"One recent study suggests that the emphasis on smaller personal actions can actually undermine support for the substantive climate policies needed."
Smoke-mirrors and the ‘why-aren’t-you-vegan-yet’ blame can easily distract from the larger environmental policy and legislation that government action needs to implement. Not to mention companies that wilfully ignore their own contributions to the climate crisis.
When we shame and blame each other for using plastic straws or not buying local, this shifts attention away from those who are the most responsible.
Does this mean we have no moral obligation?
Seeing how slow governments were to sign the Paris Climate Agreement and the snail-pace of their half-hearted implementation, thinking that my actions can’t help is perhaps even more depressing.
If big brother won’t do anything and nothing I do matters, then aren’t we pretty much screwed?
This feels worse. For many people, their climate change guilt and anxiety results in inaction.
It’s especially hard when larger institutions don’t support individual efforts. If your community doesn’t have recycling systems in place it may seem nearly impossible to take action.
If your hometown has no zero-waste stores, composting initiatives or alternatives to plastic products we all use every day, it can feel like you’re playing a game that has already been rigged for us to lose.
Overwhelmed by hopelessness, feeling like we have few options or fearing that any action will not be enough to create meaningful and sustainable change leads us to believe that, heck! We’d rather not try at all.
I’ve thought about this, too. It’s so easy to stick your head in the sand — not to mention how cosy and convenient it is to not be socially aware.
Why should I avoid (really cute) fast fashion when the rich oil execs wear Gucci and don’t give a damn?
The reality is that the rich will largely be unaffected, while the majority of everyday, hard-working citizens of the world suffer at their expense.
The same Oxfam study found that the poorest 50% are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Droughts, floods, natural disasters, and food insecurity are all set to create 143 million climate change refugees by the year 2050, according to a 2018 World Bank report.
Our inaction isn’t a screw you to millionaires or big corporate companies, it endangers developing nations and some of the most vulnerable communities in the world. That includes South Africa, a nation that has already seen the devastation of drought.
According to Hiller in their Climate Change and Individual Responsibility study, although large scale industrial change and legislature is incredibly necessary, individual action can make a difference.
We’ve seen that when we, as communities, implement small changes, it can have huge effects.
Adopting sustainable habits and making them a part of your routine can model good behaviour to your friends and family.
If we all chose to consume from sustainable brands instead of mass-produced products and stopped using wasteful products, like paper towels, for example, these companies would have no choice but to begin meeting our needs and adapting to the trends we create.
Consumer behaviour can be a direct source of change by decreasing the demand for certain products that harm the environment.
Perhaps, the question isn’t “is it worth trying?” or “do our small actions matter?”. The truth is that the current situation is so dire that we cannot afford to think this way. We cannot ignore our responsibilities and our part — albeit small — in this crisis.
Those in charge are moving too slowly for how fast the world is changing.
A grassroots movement towards sustainability will not eradicate the threat of climate change. In a world where our daily choices can add up over time to contribute to the destruction of our planet, our ecosystems and human life, we each have a moral responsibility to mitigate that threat in whatever way we can.
We all have to take action because we cannot afford not to.
In summary, here is my climate baby guide to vending off the apocalypse (or at the very least, fighting off the ever-present anxiety):
- Find sustainable habits that fit into your lifestyle. Try to be consistent.
- Don’t aim to be perfect or feel guilty when you aren’t.
- Keep learning. Make your social media doom-scrolling educational by following positive platforms that encourage both large and small changes.
- Don’t shame others. Educate. Sharing is caring.
- Be vocal and advocate for larger change wherever and however you are able to.
Wangari Maathai
Be the Greta Thurberg of wherever you are.
Most importantly: Yes, you are a part of a much larger system that undermines individual action. This can feel soul-crushing but that doesn’t mean individual actions don’t or can’t matter. The planet is too important to wait for someone else to do something. You are someone. So, let’s do something.
Comments