Let’s consider a hypothetical scenario where everyone in the world chooses to take high-impact personal actions. Everyone changes to a plant based diet, takes fewer flights, lives car-free, and purchases zero-carbon energy for their home 
.
Even with these assumptions, the total reduction is only 50% .
However, these assumptions are very unrealistic. For example:
- The reduction of CO₂ for switching to green energy was calculated for developed nations . The figure in developing nations is likely to be lower as they currently consume less energy per person .
- We assumed that people would stop using cars but did not look at how this would increase emissions from other types of transport.
Even then, a 50% reduction is still not enough to solve the climate crisis. To stop climate change, we need to get total emissions to zero .
While this shows that personal action alone is not enough, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t make changes to our lifestyles!
Why should we make personal changes?
Lifestyle changes allow us to express our concerns about climate change to others. Through our actions, we can encourage others to make these changes too, triggering a ripple effect . For example, when children make an effort to help the environment, their parents are more likely to adapt their own lifestyles too .
It is difficult to try to convince people that they should change their habits without following such advice yourself; if you want people to take you seriously, practice what you preach !
What’s more, when we buy things, we are “voting with our wallets”. If we only buy sustainable products, companies are incentivised to adopt more environmentally sustainable practices to meet your demand .
Vote if you can!
As 55% of voters consider climate change a “very important or extremely important” issue in the US , politicians face pressure to form policies that appeal to these voters .
As well as voting with our wallets, we can also vote with our … votes! By voting for politicians that support emissions-reducing policies, such as carbon taxation and tighter environmental regulations, we can hope to see governments taking sufficient action against the climate crisis .
Governments can then use policy to influence personal action by increasing taxes on high-emission goods, or clear labelling to show the emissions produced in making them .
Can donating to climate change charities help?
Yes, hugely. But the impact depends on the charity. It’s important to research exactly what a charity does and how they spend their money before donating. Possible methods to do so would be to refer to independent charity watch-dogs which let you know how efficiently a charity will use your donation to fund the programs you want to support .
Conclusion
Personal action still has a role to play in reducing carbon emissions, but is not enough by itself . To make a noticeable difference, we will need systemic change.
This brings us back to the climate equation we introduced in the crash course: total emissions is the product of the population, consumption and emissions produced per services :
People in developed countries can and should reduce their overall consumption . But, as a more scalable measure, humanity will need to shift consumption to sustainable products. This means eating low-emission diets, taking low-emission transport, etc.
Another great way to help solve climate change is to choose high-impact careers that work to find solutions to our current sustainability problems, or raise awareness in others. (See our ‘Open problems’ chapters in other courses!)
Go to quiz!
