"You Do You" Won't Work for Climate Change

We need systemic solutions.

Photo by Guido Jansen on Unsplash.

This week I was going to write about one of my favorite topics, community. But then my attention was drawn to an outrageous headline in the Washington Post: “Your body can build up tolerance to heat. Here’s how.”

It’s worth noting that the owner of the Washington Post, Jeff Bezos (how is that even allowed?), has recently taken a renewed interest in his paper. And Bezos is the prototypical cold-hearted corporate capitalist. They’re all about putting the responsibility for just about everything on individuals — rather than on governments or corporations.

The story on building heat tolerance was by Allyson Chiu, a reporter “covering climate solutions.”

Maybe it’s possible, to a degree (sorry!), to build up tolerance to heat — but how is it a climate solution? And how will training our bodies to withstand a bit more heat help with the mass migrations, food shortages, and potential economic collapse we’re facing because of severe climate change?

Our individual-focused society has gone too far.

We could fix the broken systems that are stressing everyone out, following the examples of some European countries that provide health care and social safety nets for their people and that have shown that work-life balance doesn’t have to be just a dream. If Switzerland can do it, why can’t we? Instead, we’re supposed to find time in our overworked lives for meditation and “self-care.”

We could implement a systemic, unified way to mitigate a global pandemic, emphasizing not just vaccines but also masking, testing, contact tracing, air filtration, and public education. Instead, we’re supposed to somehow protect ourselves — despite the lack of masking on the part of others (on a recent flight from Syracuse to Chicago, I was the only one wearing a mask on the entire plane), lack of testing, lack of air filters, and lack of acknowledgment by our government that covid is still rampant and is far more serious than a cold.

We could unite all of our governments to make a concerted effort to fight the biggest threat humanity has ever faced, with tools we already have and roadmaps showing the way. We could hold corporations accountable for their role in climate change. Instead, we’re supposed to train our bodies to withstand the increasing heat.

Have we gone crazy?

Don’t get me wrong — I’m all for taking individual actions. Rafael and I have solar panels, an electric car, and an induction cooktop. We hope to be able to afford heat pumps in the not-too-distant future. I hold clothes swaps and buy less new clothing than I used to. All of my IRA savings are in a sustainable fund (which does just as well as non-sustainable ones, by the way). I took a steep pay cut to work in clean energy. And, of course, I vote for Democrats.

We can all take whatever actions work for us. But none of this will be enough without bold climate action from our governments. Except for things like voting and clothes swaps, even the individual actions we take are possible only because of government programs that support them, such as the 30% federal tax credit for solar panels and the local rebate we got for switching from a gas stove to induction. Many people still can’t afford to do these things. Nearly 80% of Americans can’t put solar on their own roof for a variety of reasons (they can’t afford it, their roof is shaded or old, they rent, they live in a condo), but community solar policies like the one California is about to implement (and some other states already have) allow them to participate in the clean-energy transition — while spurring more solar deployment.

Policies like these are key, and we need much more from all of our governments. The Biden administration has done better than most in the U.S., passing the biggest climate legislation in our history. It’s still not enough. We need to stop burning fossil fuels now. We need a climate mobilization on the scale of the mobilization we mustered during World War II.

A lot can be done, and is being done, on the local level — and that means not just action taken by individuals but also action at the city and state level. But we all need to work together if we’re going to have any hope of the frog jumping out of the pot in time. And that requires our federal government taking much bolder action than it has to date — for example, by declaring a climate emergency, which would allow President Biden to take major executive actions such as placing limits on fossil fuels.

Is that likely to happen? I may be an idealist, but I’m not stupid. It’s not likely. Not likely at all. But what choice do we have but to hold out some hope? We have to push our governments to do better — especially in the U.S., which is not only a world leader but also one of the world’s biggest polluters. We have to get away from the idea of individual responsibility and move toward a sense of collective responsibility — dare I say, community? I guess I did end up writing about that, after all.

---

Postscript: When I talk about holding out hope, I mean it. Rebecca Solnit provided a reminder last week of the possibilities still in play for fighting climate change. She noted, as I’ve been saying, that we have the solutions we need — and added that although political obstacles remain, “when we fight we sometimes win.”

I especially appreciate her take on hope:

“People assume you can’t be hopeful and heartbroken at the same time, and of course you can. In times when everything is fine hope is unnecessary. Hope is not happiness or confidence or inner peace; it’s a commitment to search for possibilities.”

Solnit’s comment about tipping points happening not only for climate but also for societies and technologies reminded me of Tony Seba, an inspirational clean-energy tipping-point visionary. The first five minutes of this video are enough to get me excited about future possibilities:

Still, I believe it will take more than just technology tipping points to achieve a sustainable future. I believe it will take systemic disruptions (much as I hate that word), and that will require a major social tipping point the likes of which we’ve never seen in any of our lifetimes. Let’s hope it happens.