It’s not perfectly affirming to be only a little bit evil. It’s like saying you’re a bank robber, but when you empty the safety deposit boxes you only steal the gold bullion contained there, and nothing else. Refusing to cross that particular line wouldn’t make me feel much better about myself. How about you?
Similarly, it makes people feel only a little better about their impact on the environment when they reduce their carbon footprint. I personally try to turn the lights off when I leave a room because leaving them on usually causes wasteful CO2 emissions. However, I still turn on the lights in the room where I am, which causes emissions. Am I really that much better than I was?
The answer is, “yes, you should feel better about yourself, a lot better.” Reducing carbon emissions is the first step towards reducing climate change. And yet, there is more to be done. Today, a whole lot of excess carbon dioxide has accumulated in the air, built up over several hundred years. Simply reducing our carbon footprint causes the excess carbon dioxide to build up more slowly. However, it does not reverse it.
No matter the positive steps I take, The simple act of living prevents me from being completely carbon neutral or even better, carbon positive. It’s sobering to understand that individual carbon neutrality occurs only when we die. I don’t want to believe this, but unless I can think of a way to compensate for the carbon I produce by simply existing, it’s an inconvenient truth.
At LOT we believe individuals and households should strive for ‘reversal,’ not just ‘reduction,’ impossible as that sounds Reducing one’s carbon deficit is good, but even better would be to reverse the deficit and accomplish carbon positivity. Today, individuals can pay cash to buy carbon offsets, which connect to well-measured industrial and volunteer projects around the world. Buying enough offsets can turn a carbon footprint positive! Congratulations!
Even better would be offset projects to which individuals can contribute more than money. Forms of payment could include physical labor, brainpower, or influence. LOT’s mission includes the formation of such projects for active participation. You’ll contribute by organizing your group to do some labor. You’ll organize a company event. You’ll design a contract, You’ll build an algorithm. You can be a part of the reversal.
Now doesn’t that feel better?
This is the first in a series on the psychology of climate change.
