Both/And
When I worked at the “clean energy concierge service” MyDomino, we were all about the power of individual actions to fight climate change. We provided numerous examples of the way small actions add up to large effects:
If 25 homes go solar, it’s like planting 97,000 trees.
If every household in the U.S. switches just one light bulb to an LED, that’s like taking 1.95 million cars off the road for a year.
If you cut out one pound of beef from your diet, you’ll save as much water as you would by skipping 26 showers.
It’s true that our actions and behaviors are powerful. It’s true that they’re important.
It’s also true that when so much emphasis is placed on the individual, we can lose sight of the systems that inform and constrain us.
The issue here, as with so many complexities in our world, is framing the problem and its solutions as either/or. A both/and approach usually yields something more useful, and more closely resembling reality.
Are individuals or systems responsible for climate change?
Though this is true in many areas, climate change provides a clear example of the complex interplay between systems and individuals.
Some say the focus on our individual “carbon footprint” is a distraction from the real polluters: the fossil fuel companies who coined the term to shift responsibility from themselves to consumers. They’re not wrong. A 2013 study concluded that just 90 companies were responsible for nearly two-thirds of the greenhouse gasses emitted globally between 1751 and 2010. A subsequent 2017 report linked 100 fossil fuel producers to 71% of industrial greenhouse gas emissions since 1988.
Humor about carbon offsets, which big polluters often use as a form of greenwashing.
It’s also true that we’re all users of products from these companies — even those of us who try to distance ourselves from them. Even if we electrify everything in our homes, drive electric (or stop driving at all), and source all of that electricity from solar panels on our roof, we can’t escape participating in the fossil-fuel-driven economy.
What’s also true:
We don’t have a lot of choices.
Fossil-fuel companies and utilities use dirty tactics to keep us in their thrall.
Governments around the world are subsidizing fossil fuels to the tune of $11 million per minute.
We need to take individual actions to fight climate change. But to make a real impact, these actions must be taken collectively. And they must be supported by the system.
Without systemic changes, most people simply can’t take the actions needed. As someone who works in clean energy, I care about fighting climate change and am aware of many available options. But we haven’t fully electrified our home because of the cost. What’s changing that? Various incentives provided by local, state, and federal policies — which, in turn, help create a market for solar panels, EVs, bikes, induction stoves, and heat pumps.
Like companies, larger systems are made up of individuals. And individuals can influence those systems. As individuals, one of the most effective ways we can change systems is to vote. Another is to vote with our dollars, which can include our shopping choices and where we bank. We can also, if we’re lucky, be selective about where we work; more workers today are favoring companies with strong social and environmental goals. “Climate quitting” is apparently a new trend!
We don’t exist separately from the systems we inhabit and interact with. We can and should take what individual actions we are able to. Despite what some might say, those actions matter. And one of the strongest actions we can take is to hold our systems — and large corporations — accountable. We can’t let the responsibility rest solely on individuals.
A trend that extends far beyond climate change
But these days, everything seems to be about individuals. I keep thinking of more topics this applies to. Just a few:
Self-help. Being all about the individual, self-help is a case in point.
Like carbon footprints, self-help can be a distraction from the root cause of the problem we’re seeking to address. We can’t measure the psychological toll of our systems the way we can measure carbon emissions — and because human psychology is complex, many factors contribute to our issues. But it’s clear that our increasingly unjust and inequitable social and economic systems are stressing people out — thereby creating a greater need for self-help.
To cope with that stress, the U.S. self-improvement industry (a.k.a. “self-help industrial complex”), estimated at $10.4 billion in 2021, tells us to meditate, take up yoga, or repeat affirmations.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t meditate or do yoga. Self-improvement is a good thing; I’m all for it, and I’m always trying to improve myself. But self-improvement shouldn’t be substituted for changing the system that’s stressing us out in the first place. Again, it’s not an either/or proposition; we can try to improve ourselves and also work to improve our systems.
Addiction. The “Rat Park” experiments led researchers to conclude that isolation was a major contributor to addiction. While addiction is complex and is also affected by biological factors, the increasing isolation in American culture has likely played a role in the current opioid epidemic. That doesn’t mean an addicted person doesn’t need to find a way to handle their addiction, but solutions need to be viewed in the larger context of the system.
Sleep. Matthew Walker, neuroscientist and author of Why We Sleep (which I highly recommend!), has 12 tips for getting better sleep. I already follow many of these, such as keeping the bedroom dark and cool. But Walker acknowledges that our system contributes to the poor sleep many of us are getting, with unrealistic schedules and expectations.
Social media. Johann Hari, author of Stolen Focus (another book I recommend!), has some tips for avoiding the social media black hole and reclaiming your focus. But the most powerful of those tips is to try to change the social media company business model, which currently incentivizes keeping us glued to our screens for as long as possible.
Obesity. The U.S. weight-loss industry rivals the self-help industry, having reached $78 billion in 2019. But “food” producers have manipulated us to hook us on their products in much the same way that the tobacco industry did. Add to that the “food deserts” in many of our cities, and it’s clear we have a systemic problem — with obesity prevalence in the U.S. having climbed to over 40% as of 2020.
Covid. When the government tells us “you do you,” they’re abdicating the responsibility of the system to the individuals within it.
We can each decide where and when to wear a mask, but a pandemic isn’t something any individual can tackle on their own. With a better-coordinated, systemic effort, we’d be in a better place by now.
Systems are everywhere
The more you look, the more you see them. From the still-not-well-understood systems that operate our bodies to the systems we’ve put in place to operate our cities and countries, they tend to be complex — and complexity is hard to deal with. Large systems made up of humans also tend to be entrenched and to resist change. A good example is the outdated utility business model that incentivizes utilities to fight rooftop solar, to everyone’s detriment.
But to make progress, we must be willing to try to change the systems that aren’t serving us. While doing that takes collective action, it’s the collective action of individuals. And individuals can have a powerful influence. Just ask Mahatma Ghandi, Jane Goodall, or Greta Thunberg. We can’t all be Ghandis, Goodalls, or Gretas, but we can all play a role.
As environmental activist, author, and scholar Joanna Macy points out, whatever part we play can make a difference in taking our systems to the tipping point where meaningful change happens.
What systems are you feeling aware of in your life? Let me know in the comments!
The now ancient, but-still-relevant quote from cartoon character Pogo put it this way: "We have met the enemy and he is us." When that was published in 1971 for Earth Day the immediate theme was pollution. But it applies so well to so much else.
Indeed, we have met the system, and it is us. But that also means that individual actions do matter (recognizing and acting the "us" part).
The challenge is always time. Aggregate and cumulative individual actions can and do change systems... eventually. The problem with climate change is that "eventually" may not be soon enough. Still, if we don't try to remedy our own systems, then the systems will continue to be the enemy that is us. There's little to lose and much to gain by remembering that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pogo_(comic_strip)#%22We_have_met_the_enemy_and_he_is_us.%22
Re: what you said about self-help, I read a book quite a while ago (I forget the title, natch), the premise of which was that if we all go around thinking we have to heal our wounded child, then that makes us more susceptible to authoritarian thought and less able to take action against the system. We're not just wounded children! We're powerful people who can change the world.