Wynes - SOS : what you can do to reduce climate change - simple actions that make a difference

You might have seen recent press around individuals choosing to not have children for environmental reasons. The decision of how many children to have is deeply personal, and each person is going to weigh many different considerations when they make this choice (and climate change might be one thing that they want to consider). So let's look at what we know.

The more people there are on the planet the more resources we will consume and the harder it is to reach climate targets. One study looked at the carbon legacy of having an additional child, finding that under current conditions, each child in the United States can be expected to add 9441 tCO2e, both through their own actions and the actions of the children they are likely to have themselves.

But that number decreases by up to 17 times in a scenario where society acts quickly to drastically reduce emissions. We want to be in a society where having more children does not mean such a huge burden on the environment. And you can help to make it happen.

In terms of reaching our short-term climate goals (which is the purpose of this book), population is not going to be the difference maker. We already have enough people on the planet to blow past the climate targets that the international community has agreed upon, and so what is really needed in the here and now are changes in technology and consumption. You can affect consumption by choosing how you live (what you eat, how you get around) and you can affect both technology and consumption by putting pressure on your government through collective action.

As you wrap up this book, I want to leave you with a few parting thoughts concerning what scientists understand about change both how individuals change and how society changes.

The first thought is something of a warning. There is a phenomenon in social science known as moral licensing. Its the idea that doing one thing thats good might give people the feeling that they can then go on to do something thats bad: well I went for a run earlier, so its fine to eat a slice of cake. This does not work so well when dieting and does not work for climate change either.

There is also some evidence of moral licensing happening with the environment. In one study, people who received feedback on their water usage, and went on to lower it, were found to increase their home energy use. This is not ideal.

Moral licensing is somewhat related to the rebound effect. In the rebound effect, energy efficiency improvements lead to greater energy use overall. Take an example: you buy a hybrid vehicle that uses less petrol. But when you have a more fuel-efficient vehicle, you can drive it further for the same cost of petrol, so you drive more. Now the environmental savings are gone. Or lets say you switch to a plant-based diet and begin saving money because meat is more expensive than beans. You might not even realize why you have the extra money, but at the end of the year you go and spend your savings on a flight to Rome. Then the good that you did for the environment has been largely erased.

We can avoid this by focusing on those high-impact actions: live car-free, avoid air travel and eat a plant-based diet and youre less likely to get that kind of backfire effect.

In the same way that researchers study the interesting and unpredictable impact that an individuals changes can have, researchers also investigate group dynamics. Tipping points are an example of an interesting social dynamic with big implications for the climate movement.

Researchers believe that tipping points are more likely where a silent majority agrees with the goals of the social movement. This is the case for climate change generally, as well as for movements like the Fridays for Future protests. If you are at a school where only a dozen students go on strike for the climate every Friday, it may be socially costly to join in because its not a very popular activity. But as more and more students take the day to protest for the sake of the future, the social cost of joining becomes lower. At some point, the movement reaches a tipping point where it may be more difficult not to join, and suddenly you see thousands of students in the streets, media attention spikes, and politicians are forced to reckon with the issue of climate change.

You can imagine the same pattern playing out in other areas. At first only a small portion of a community eats a plant-based diet. But some people join for health reasons while others see a film about the industrial meat industry and decide to try a new diet as a result. That little nudge might create enough of a market for the first vegetarian restaurant in town to open and soon every fast food joint needs to at least offer a veggie burger. Now the costs of acting are much lower because you can go out with your friends for a meal and always find a vegetarian option, but also because what is socially acceptable has changed. Our political and social systems may reach tipping points sooner than we realize, and thats a good thing, because theres no time left to waste.

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Copyright Seth Wynes 2019
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First published by Ebury Press in 2019

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ISBN 9781473574250

Based on a typical car with an average UK value of 1.57 passengers per vehicle.

Assumes a 150 W High Definition television

Nothing about climate change is easy. But thats where we are, right now, at the most important moment in human history. Our planet, the only place in the known universe capable of harbouring life, is in a crisis of our making. If we dont act immediately, together, with everything weve got, we have a good chance of losing everything.

Thats the difficult, terrifying reality of our time.

Weve reached a moment in our multimillion year history as humans where every action and every life in every corner of our world are intimately connected. In miniscule and enormous ways, humanitys decisions have altered our collective fates, and were now at a crisis point.