I have previously ranted against those who tackle the climate issue by changing their own consumption patterns, declaring their actions pointless. I will now clarify my position on this matter.
Let me start by stating very clearly that I do not condemn the act in itself of changing ones consumption habits to reduce CO2 emission. While retaining that this is indeed pointless I find nothing immoral or detrimental about it, and indeed I have myself changed my behavior.
What is, however, both immoral and detrimental is an attitude which I believe myself to have observed, that wishes to reduce the climate question wholly to a question of personal consumption. This attitude is spread by stylishly political celebrities, holier-than-thou enviro-gurus, writers, filmmakers, journalists, former American vice-presidents, and members of the well-meaning public. It is immoral because it is perpetuated for the sake of personal gain. It is detrimental because it is fallacious and misleading. It is, in short, a myth.
"The myth of individual responsibility" echoes strongly the mores of contemporary Western culture. We live in an era where the great collective endeavors have all failed. Collectivism is seen as an abomination, liberal market economy as a nature-given norm, grounded in ineffable, transcendent ethics. Ours is a culture where no man ever has to bother with anything above and beyond his own personal, private life. Society is a self-adjusting system, governed not by the will of the people but by macro-economical feedback-loops, the invisible hand of the market economy which guides everything to its right place. We are adjusted to thinking, not in terms of how we, as a collective, should manipulate society, but only how we, as individuals, should behave ourselves inside the rules given by society in order to maximize our gain. Politics is reduced to mere fashion statements (and to the meaningless gesture of the election booth). And indeed, it is a functioning system. It is a system which has brought us quite a deal of material prosperity and, perhaps, happiness. But it is a system fundamentally unable to tackle climate change.
The citizens of the west are unable to deal with the idea of collective efforts. Faced with a threat, they do what they've always done, what they're raised to do: they adjust their private behavior. They swallow the myth of individual responsibility with ease. It becomes a sedative for their worried consciences, as they tell themselves: "at least no-one can say that I didn't do anything". And the people who work to perpetuate the myth profit: the writer who writes a bestselling book on how to live a "climate smart" life, the celebrity who gains publicity for his lifestyle changes, the neighborhood moralist who preaches to his friends in order to win moral points.
And the earth grows hotter.
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Nicely put. What comes to mind is the question of where collective efforts begin if not with the individual? Since I am an individual and cannot choose for others what they want, how am I to instigate change in a collective, if not by changing myself and doing my best to make other people change as well?
It is my belief that the only even slightly realistic way to bring about the necessary changes is through political action or technological innovation. Thus, the person willing to commit his life to this cause should point the edge of his efforts towards either of these two. I plan to engage myself in the latter of these two, because I believe myself to be more of a technological than a political mind, but for those interested in the political route, the recipe would be organization, education, lobbying, activism, participation in mainstream political elections, extra-parliamentary action, and so on.
Small things matter. If something has a nonzero change of having an effect, it, by definition nonzero, matters.
I am extremely unlikely to become a significant political figure. I am unlikely to make a relevant technological advancement.
I am also not hugely motivated to save the environment; humans are part of nature (by any non-arbitrary definition of nature), as is everything humans do. Given my lack of burning passion regarding the subject, I am not willing to do anything big (in terms of money, time, or trouble). Doing the small things is likely to not help, but it certainly won't hurt and it is easy. So I'll keep doing small things.
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