I’ve spent a lot of time in these articles talking about personal actions that you, as an individual, can take to minimize your environmental impact – your carbon footprint. But as we know, putting the onus on individuals to look at their own carbon footprint isn’t always fair and, in fact, the idea of a personal carbon footprint is a product of the fossil fuel industry. At the same time, we know that individual actions matter both for the direct impact but also the indirect impact they have on both others and on systems. That’s what I want to talk more about today but with a twist.
Too often, people feel like they can’t take enough direct action to minimize their personal carbon footprint so they feel guilty and remove themselves from climate activism altogether. Afterall, no one wants to be a hypocrite. Take the man whose home is heated by fossil fuels. Who is he to tell anyone else about climate change? Or the woman who flies overseas to visit family or even just for a vacation. Who is she to tell anyone else about climate change?
But what if that same man whose home is heated by fossil fuels also spends time calling his political representatives to lobby for increased protections of public lands or for stricter energy efficiency in building codes? And what if the woman who flies overseas comes back and tells a story to her neighbors about the composting practices she saw on her trip and implements them in her community and her workplace? Or what if, by seeing the relative impact of climate change in different parts of the world, she understands more about how climate change does not impact everyone equally and she writes an op-ed about it or starts attending climate marches? Or what if she works in a university as a climate scientist. Those actions can’t be measured in emissions. They represent what Emma Pattee defined as a “climate shadow.” Your climate shadow represents the sum of your life choices on climate change, both direct and indirect. Importantly, unlike a carbon footprint, a climate shadow accounts for not only your consumption and personal choices you make, but it also accounts for how you use your influence – socially and politically. This is what we should be focusing on.
So before you beat yourself up and say, “I can’t speak out about climate change because I’m a hypocrite,” realize that without systems change, it’s hard not to be a climate hypocrite in some aspect of life. That’s not to say we shouldn’t keep focusing on our own personal actions and making the best choices we can (those are, after all, still part of your shadow), but it just means that those choices are not all that matter when thinking about climate impact. No matter how much guilt you feel for not being perfect, keep speaking out and keep advocating for that change. Keep advocating for climate forward political candidates. Keep talking about the issues. Keep lobbying your elected officials for regulation change be it building codes or extended producer responsibility laws. Keep voting. Keep thinking about what action you can take in your workplace to make your job a climate job. Keep considering the sum of all of your actions and work to increase the size of your carbon shadow.
The Green Ostrich 