As we watch the world burn and we watch it flood…
As glaciers disappear in the span of only a few years…
As parts of the world become uninhabitable…
Do you feel guilt? Do you worry you aren’t doing enough? Do you feel like the onus is on you – an individual – to change? Do you question whether your “carbon footprint” is the problem? That’s very intentional.
Have you ever wondered where the term individual or personal “carbon footprint” came from? It may surprise you to learn that oil and gas company BP coined the term 20 years ago in a television ad (right around the same time BP rebranded itself to “beyond petroleum”).
BP didn’t coin the term because they believed that individual actions were the problem. BP (and other fossil fuel companies) knew and know that their industry is in fact the problem. But with that knowledge comes responsibility. Responsibility that fossil fuel companies aren’t willing to take. So what could they do? Deflect. BP coined the term “carbon footprint” to deflect blame. If individuals are to blame, then BP can continue to operate as it always has without interruption.
This is not to say that individual actions don’t matter. Far from it. In fact, I wrote a whole article about why I think individual actions matter very very much! Individual actions cause the ripple that leads to change in your own actions, your community, and, ultimately, in business and government. But this hopefully serves as a very short reminder not to be distracted and not to lose sight of the real source of the problem. Thinking about it another way, what would your carbon footprint be if government and corporate actors would step up and make fossil fuels a thing of the past? Probably pretty small….
The Green Ostrich 