How effective is change on an individual level as far as addressing climate change? This is a topic that has come up a lot in my course so far that I'd like to explore. Oftentimes sources of information on climate change include sections on "what you can do" and include many suggestions for changes that you can make to your daily life to improve your carbon footprint. I also remember going to the "Inconvenient Truth" movie awhile back and the last part the movie lists a lot of ideas for things to change such as buying fluorescent light bulbs. I think there were many other wider-reaching ideas too, I just remember that there was a long list of possible things you could do and some of them were individual behavior changes. I also fully admit that I have been one to embrace individual changes. Maybe its just because I'm always attracted to self-improvement projects and also enjoy the "do-it-yourself" nature (hence, this blog) of some of these changes. I find it empowering to find ways that I can make small changes in my lifestyle and I am also attracted to the idea of exercising power through consumer choices. Another side to this is that when I'm feeling concerned about the environment (which is a lot of the time these days), I appreciate that there are simple tasks that I can do, that I have control over, that can make me feel somewhat better. Plus, admittedly, these changes are much easier to undertake then trying to enact changes on a more large scale level.
However, as I'm learning more about human behavior and climate change, I'm realizing that focusing on individual level changes is short-sighted. The reality is that without an organized approach supported by some over-arching framework or reinforcement, individual level changes are not going to be enough. Of course part of this is that some people refuse to make any changes, particularly people who do not believe in climate change, but another part of it is that even if you do want to live a "greener" existence, this can be an incredible up-hill battle when everything around you is set-up for you to live in an unsustainable manner. And, according to what I've learned in class, whining to people to change their lifestyle is probably more likely to make them not want to talk to you anymore, rather than make changes (which is a hard pill for me to swallow, given that I'm prone to want to do this). Basically, when all the momentum is for people to maintain their current lifestyle, some people will go against the current, but greater incentive is needed to create a large scale lifestyle change. For example, creating economic incentive for curbing energy use is likely to be more effective than a public service message telling people to care about the environment and take shorter showers.
Another piece of this is that some "green" products and lifestyle changes are out of reach for some people. Products that have less chemicals and may be safer are usually more expensive. It also takes time and resources to research products and make lifestyle changes. This means that richer people have the luxury of buying products that might be safer, whereas people with less means bare more of the burden (and this goes for all sorts of environmental pollutants). Also, people with more means may feel somewhat superior for their green lifestyle when in reality, they probably have a much larger carbon footprint than people with less money. They are more likely to have a large home with less people living in it and more appliances and cars. In addition, focusing on making change through buying can be counterproductive and lead to buying more stuff just to try new "green" products. So feeling too comfortable just because of personal lifestyle changes can be dangerous. This is not to say that making these changes or trying to improve one's carbon footprint is inherently bad or not helpful. I think that it falls on those who do have the means to create change to do so. However, it is also important to consider the effects of environmental justice and include other efforts such as working through government or other organizations to bring about changes. Even the most saintly person can indulge in a long hot shower or a nice Sunday joy ride; right now, its too hard for us to police our own behavior because these tempting choices have no immediate negative consequences. All we see is positive reinforcement. We need changes that make the greener lifestyle the more tempting, reinforcing one and that's not something we can do on an individual level.
One last piece to consider is the role that individual changes may have in fostering empowerment and a sense of control. I don't think these qualities should be over-looked as they could be important for empowering people to make the jump from individual changes to larger scale efforts. Also, I think a part of becoming more aware of the situation with climate change is realizing how our daily behaviors have far-reaching effects. Once you are aware of this, it would seem discordant to not make changes that try to minimize the negative ramifications. In conclusion, my hope is that individual changes can be the first step at becoming more environmentally conscious, but they can't be the only step that we take if we want to make meaningful changes.
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