Creating Impact
How To Address The Climate Crisis
This exercise should take roughly 45 minutes.
What’s The Plan?
We are going to be diving into the questions; Is our carbon footprint BS?
How much do our individual actions actually matter when it comes to climate change versus big systems and policies?
How can we make the greatest impact possible?
Our Global Footprint
Globally, we emit an average of 50 billion tons of carbon per year. That’s one and a half billion humpback whales, or the entire human population but as elephants, or even cuter and crazier, 10 trillion cats.
Where are the Greenhouse Gases Coming From?
Electricity Production
25%
Coal, oil, and natural gas for power production
Agriculture and Land use
24%
What we grow and how we grow it. Also the deforestation that’s created by it
Industry
21%
Basically all the factories and businesses making the stuff that we use
Transportation
14%
Internal combustion engines that are powering cars and trucks and buses and boats, and planes
buildings
6%
Mostly using oil burners and gas burners for heating and hot water systems
Fossil Fuel (EPT)
10%
Extraction and processing and transport (EPT) of fossil fuels
Source: Project Drawdown
This is where all our carbon is coming from. What stands out about all these systems is that they’re things we don’t have a ton of control over as individuals.
What Is The Difference?
Direct Individual Action
These are choices and actions that we can take on an individual level to address the climate crisis. The top five are, make fewer humans, drive less, fly less, become more energy efficient, and a plant-based diet.
Systemic Change
What is systemic change in the context of a just climate transition? This looks like transforming the root causes of problems by altering the underlying structures, policies, power dynamics, and mindsets that shape a system.
Lets Use An Example
[phones swipe left]
First Argument
So this is one of the big arguments on the “individual choices don’t matter” side of this debate. A lot of this stuff is just outside of our control.
Second Argument
Even if we do change the things that are in our control, it only makes a very small difference. Lets look into how small that difference is.
Carbon Visualized
Global Annual Carbon Emission
50,000,000,000 Tons
Average Annual American Carbon Emssions
16 Tons
.
Individual Emissions
The average American emits around 16 tons of carbon per year. People with lower incomes tend to emit less while wealthier people tend to emit more. The global average is around 4.8 tons per capita.
~.0000000003%
This is the average Americans carbon footprint compared to carbon emissions globally. Yeah. What this means is that the average American contribution to the total global problem is a decimal point, nine zeros, and then a three. Statistically speaking, that’s basically zero.
[phones swipe left]
Your Carbon Footprint
Maybe its time to say, screw your carbon footprint
When you focus all your energy on this, your focusing your effort on something that makes a pretty tiny difference in the grand scheme of things.
By the way, do you know who else seems really interested in having us focus on our own personal carbon footprints?
BP, or at least the BP social media account.
Okay, so it might seem like this is all coming down super decisively in favor that individual actions don’t matter. Let’s read on to learn how individual actions can matter a lot.
[phones swipe left]
Talking about climate change can be scary. What if they don’t believe in climate change? What if they get upset?
Who Cares About Climate Change?
Deniers are just louder, but only about 10% or so of Americans who are firmly in denial about climate science.
Yale Center for Climate Change Communication has been doing polling on Americans opinions on climate for over a decade now.
What they learned is that people assume there are more climate deniers out there than there actually are.
Spiral Of Silence
This is what is called the spiral of silence. People assume other people don’t want to talk about it, so they don’t talk about it.
Let’s say you meet a new friend and you want to talk about the cool new climate action you did yesterday. But you don’t know what they think. You don’t want to cause waves. You don’t want to get into a fight with a climate denier.
Meanwhile, your new friend is actually thinking the same thing. So they are not going to bring it up.
So neither of you talk about it. As a result, you end up in this downward spiral. A spiral of nobody talking about climate change. And if we are not talking about it. How important can it be?
[phones swipe left]
When was the last time you talked about climate change?
What did you talk about?
Did you learn something new or get to share something new?
When you talk about climate change, do you usually talk about the solutions or do you usually talk about the impacts?
Lets Zoom Out
Let’s take a minute to think about what we even mean when we say individual actions because so far that’s been defined pretty narrowly. We have been learning about individual diet and travel, etc. But, of course those aren’t the only actions we can take. There are heaps of opportunities for individuals.
Lets Try An Exercise
Pull out a piece of paper or open a document up on your computer. Journal as you go through the 5 steps below.
[phones swipe left]
Now We Are Ready For The Next Step
We are going to condense the five steps into a Climate Venn Diagram, created by Dr. Ayana Johnson, to help discover your unique role in addressing climate change. First let’s learn about the exercise.
The TED talk below is a 10-minute answer to the question “What can I do to help address the climate crisis?” The short answer is “get to the heart of your climate Venn!”
[Click below to play video]
What are you good at? Think about your skills, resources, and networks. What are your areas of expertise? Who and what do you have access to? What can you bring to the table?
What is the work that needs doing? Think about system-level change. Are there particular climate and justice solutions that interest you? Maybe starting a composting program or getting climate candidates elected? Heaps of options.
What brings you joy and satisfaction? What gets you out of bed in the morning? Don’t pick things that make you miserable and will burn you out! This is the long haul – find things that enliven and energize you.
Climate Action Venn Diagram
[phones swipe left]
Let’s Wrap This Up
The Climate Crisis is a big hairy problem. There are large systems at play. Don’t get down on your personal carbon footprint. We can let go of the shame and guilt. We can start thinking about how powerful we can be together.
When people ask, “what’s the most important thing I can do about climate change?” the short answer is: talk about it. Talk about your fears, talk about your joy, talk about what your doing. That’s one of the single most important things that anyone can do.
Form a relationship with the question, “what can I do in response to the climate crisis?” Let it work on and with you, and begin to live life as a response.
Find ways to stay in the fight. This is the work of our lifetime. Keep doing the work that brings you joy. Spreading the joy of taking action will inspire others to take action too.
There is power in numbers. Find your community. Your climate squad. We can’t do this alone. More people want to talk about the climate crisis than you may think. Even more people want to do something about it.
How can you think in these ever expanding circles of influence? What can you specifically do that will have ripples beyond yourself?
Acknowlegments
How to Save a Planet: A down-to-earth, solutions-focused podcast about the climate crisis.
Project Drawdown: The world's leading resource for climate solutions.
Dr. Catherine Wilkinson: An author, teacher, co-founder of The All We Can Save Project, and co-host of the podcast A Matter of Degrees. Her books on climate include All We Can Save, The Drawdown Review, Drawdown, and Between God & Green.
Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson: is a marine biologist, policy expert, writer, and Brooklyn native. She is co-founder of Urban Ocean Lab, co-edited the bestselling climate anthology All We Can Save, co-founded The All We Can Save Project, and co-created the Spotify/Gimlet climate solutions podcast How to Save a Planet.