Throughout our discussions in class this term we have talked a lot about how many people are aware of climate change and yet they “don’t care” or “don’t do anything about it.” There are many explanations for this problem, some of which I am guilty of as well, that do not simply mean that a person does not care: not having the time, not having the resources, not knowing where to get involved, convenience. For example, though I am aware of the benefits of solar panels, I do not have the resources or ability to incorporate them into my life because I live in an apartment and I am a full-time student with a limited income. There are also the problems of people thinking that individual efforts mean nothing in the scheme of the world as a whole, or that people do not want to inconvenience themselves by make changes to their daily lives even if it would mean a better future: for example, buying a plastic bottle of water because your reusable one is in the dishwasher; instead of washing it, you choose convenience. In doing this, we are also supporting the companies that produce this bottle of water.
We live in a world where profit, growth and convenience are the goals, while damage to the environment such as climate change is the unfortunate byproduct. A new book, This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein goes further to say that our whole economic system needs to be changed completely because of the problems with our current addiction to profit and growth. Klein goes so far as to say that we need to “break every rule in the ‘free-market’ playbook” and that global warming “is not about carbon–it’s about capitalism.” Though she has a point that changes need to be made, creating a completely new economic system does not seem realistic in the short term.
On the other hand, an article by Rebecca Henderson from Harvard’s School of Business claims that dropping capitalism is not necessary. Simply, we have to stop thinking in the short term and make changes to help with our future. She writes: “Climate change is particularly hard to tackle because we’re not very good at trading off current pleasure to reduce future pain. We’re a species that smokes, fails to go to the gym, and takes on credit card debt. In the same way, we’d prefer to believe that climate change isn’t happening and that if it is we can delay dealing with it.”
I can relate to this attitude of “I’ll deal with it tomorrow”– as I’m sure many of you can–given that I put off doing some tasks just because I do not feel like dealing with them at the time–such as homework or laundry. However, the tasks then pile up and become much more time consuming than they would have been initially. One homework assignment becomes three, one sock becomes a basket of laundry; instead of putting things off, why not just put in a little bit of extra effort?
Henderson also claims that the amount now being spent on subsidizing oil, gas and coal is not much less than some estimates of building a carbon free economy. We need to stop adding more dirty socks to the laundry basket, and just start washing them already.
I agree with you about all the reasons people do not care and I do the same thing. I stopped buying water bottles and use my reusable one everyday. It’s true I always put things off and then I never get back to them and climate change is one of them. Sometimes I am too busy and don’t think of ways to help the planet. I feel like eventually this is going to turn into a huge issue and everyone is going to be aware. I think once cell phones stop working or electricity is out and no clean water. People will start to do something and not wait until tomorrow.
I posted about this topic as well a couple weeks ago, so I totally agree with where you’re coming from! I really like the points you made about putting things off and saying, “I’ll do it tomorrow.” I am definitely guilty of this in several different parts of my life, so I definitely think your argument about climate change was made even stronger because of this. I also like the comparison you made in your fourth paragraph when you said, “One homework assignment becomes three, one sock becomes a basket of laundry; instead of putting things off, why not just put in a little bit of extra effort?” I think this really helped to illustrate your point in a way that’s relatable to many people.
You make a really good point here because since we have been putting off climate change issues for so long, now the issues have gotten so large that we can’t fix them completely. Now people have to live with the regret of not changing simple things in their daily lives to help put an end to global warming. However, I think that everyone is guilty of this because there are so many different factors that contribute to climate change, so it’s very hard to change your daily life completely to where you are not contributing to climate change at all. But if we all did put in a little bit of extra effort, then we would be able to make a huge difference and that is what we need to do.
I appreciate the comparison you used between our daily lives and climate change. I put many things on the back burner until it becomes a problem. When I run out of dishes I’ll turn on the dishwasher or not starting a paper until it’s due. And I see that happening with climate change. I agree with everyone too; we are all guilty of this because there are so many contributing factors to climate change. However, if we all contribute a little effort, overall it would make a bigger difference than what’s today.
I really appreciated reading your post Maria because I too find myself letting “the important” get crowded out of my everyday life by “the urgent” and just assuming that I’ll deal with the big important stuff tomorrow. Personally, I think that the problem needs a solution that is some combination of Klein’s position and Henderson’s; that is, I think there are some really problematic aspects to our current capitalist system (that is not to say capitalism is itself bad, but that the current framework of unregulated free-market speculative capitalism poses some serious problems to the earth) but that there are also problems with human psychology–particular what you keenly describe as the “I’ll deal with it tomorrow” mindset.
Something that seems to connect with the “I’ll deal with it tomorrow” mindset is the “Someone else will deal with it” mindset. This is sometimes referred to as the “bystander effect” and it’s a huge barrier to getting people to address big problems like climate change. This article on the issue might interest you, and also maybe connect to some of what you’re developing for your “Climate Life Board Game”: http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/climate-action/why-we-find-it-so-hard-to-act-against-climate-change
Thanks for sharing this fascinating post!