When you work at a climate NGO, you get asked the same question by your ‘non-climate’ friends and family: “So, what can I do to fight climate change?”
It can seem like a daunting question, until you break it down to specific groups of people: what a Fortune 500 CEO can do is very different to what 'ordinary' people can do. School teachers and truck drivers and accountants and dentists and tattoo artists and midwives have a different role to play than a Prime Minister. (If you’re a CEO or a Prime Minister and you’re somehow reading this, please close your browser immediately and have your staff call me – we need to talk.)
For everyone else, here’s my (slightly controversial) 3-step guide to saving our climate:
1. Enjoy your life
Please enjoy your life. The world is trying to heal from a horrifying pandemic, Europe is at war, the new Lord of the Rings TV series sucked, and we all face myriad personal traumas in our everyday lives. Many people are burnt out, struggling to get through to the end of the day, week, month. You are not responsible for the climate crisis so do not feel responsible for it. You are also not responsible for decarbonizing the global economy, though if you want to work in the climate space, consider joining a climate-focused organization.
The reality is a handful corporate and political leaders made the big decisions that got us here – and there’s a handful who can get us out. Let go of your climate guilt. Live responsibly and in a way that feels right to you, but please be kind to yourself and give yourself a break. The climate movement needs you feeling happy and excited about the future we're building.
Please book the holiday that gives you something to look forward to. There’s no point in foregoing a holiday because you feel guilty about your flight’s carbon emissions; airline CEOs have watched as their planes fly literally thousands of empty aircraft just to keep their landing slots. They should feel guilty about their aviation carbon emissions, not you.
Go on that holiday. Be present and care for your friends and family. Please enjoy your life.
2. Campaign in your workplace
You may have read one of the many “What can you do to fight climate change?” listicles that prescribe taking fewer flights, using paper straws, composting and so on. You should do these if they bring you joy.
But their message is somewhat misplaced, in my opinion, because it shifts the onus of solving climate change from powerful organizations to you (the individual).
If you use a paper straw instead of a plastic straw, and then millions of other people miraculously also eschew plastic straws, perhaps it’ll send a market signal to Big Straw, which could maybe decide to make less plastic straws and stop lobbying for plastic straw tax breaks and maybe even find a way to recycle them. But that sequence of events may take years. It may not have a big climate impact. It may not happen at all.
You know what’s faster? If Big Straw – or airlines CEOs or environment ministers or whoever – chose to act today.
Business leaders always had the power and now they have the impetus. From their funders and their employees to their children and their customers, many corporate executives have been given a thumping mandate by their stakeholders. You can give them an extra push, by campaigning for your employer to make smart business decisions, like buying their electricity from cheap, renewable energy projects. Here’s one such “Personal Guide to Corporate Climate Action”.
Figure out, without risking your job, how you can help your company’s leadership take climate action. Nudge them as best you can. After that, it’s on them.
3. Vote for climate leaders
If you are lucky enough to live in a democracy, you should vote for the political candidate that has the best climate plan. Ask candidates how they plan to reduce their constituency’s emissions 50% by 2030 and go to 'net-zero' emissions by 2050. Is their plan backed by scientists? Is it going to bring long-term investment and good jobs to your community?
Around election time, search for online resources comparing candidates’ climate plans, and then cast your vote and/or campaign for a candidate with a robust climate-plan. If your leader is a climate laggard, vote them out.
Remember that you can only do so much to save our planet. This doesn’t mean you’re powerless. It just means that you should focus your efforts in ways that are realistic and nourishing. You should trust that powerful leaders (prodded by plucky climate NGOs) can pull the big levers of change. And meanwhile, you should optimize for your kids' happiness.
Dispel that climate doom. We’re going to solve this together.
(And if you’re a CEO or a Prime Minister and you’re still reading, please call me right now.)
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