Individuals and Climate Pollution
Hope and Justice Series Post #3.3
In the previous post in this Subseries exploring individuals and climate accountability and responsibility as part of the larger Hope and Justice Series, I was quite critical of the individual carbon footprint scam, stating: “We’re done with this bogus individual-guilt con game!”
Given this, as individuals do we simply get a free pass to pollute?
No.
Should individuals work to reduce their own pollution?
Of course.
Scaling the Inaction Barrier
Individual actions to reduce pollution can be one’s first choice to scale the inaction barrier — and doing so is often the most crucial step. It can make us feel better (and this positive power should not be underestimated), gives us confidence and skin in the game, and can help set us on the right path. Many times we start with such individual actions, and as we learn more about the true nature of the problem, this leads us to collective action and joining the Climate Movement.
However, we must be very careful here. Reducing one’s pollution can lead some individuals to oppose government action. These individuals think they’ve done enough through their personal behavior, and don’t want the government to make them do more. Given that it is impossible to overcome climate change without government action, this is a very dangerous dynamic — but fits perfectly with the Big Producers agenda and their carbon footprint scam. This can be ameliorated and even turned positive if people see themselves as part of and are encouraged by a self-identified climate action group1 — in other words, if they join the Climate Movement and find their Olympian Fields of Action.
Perceptions of Integrity and Hypocrisy
Perceptions may not be reality, but they can impact reality — and we must keep this in mind. We want the perceptions of others to view our actions as having integrity as we simultaneously guard against perceptions of hypocrisy.
Individual pollution reduction can strengthen the integrity of one’s witness in the eyes of those who don’t yet understand that it is a systemic aggregate problem that can’t be solved by individuals. To such persons, congruence of a Climate Movement member’s words and deeds can lead to respect and a willingness to listen.
Looking at integrity’s opposite, the other side of the coin, reducing our own pollution helps us avoid the perception of hypocrisy and bogus charges of hypocrisy.
First, it helps us avoid the perception of hypocrisy by those who don’t yet understand the nature of the problem.
Second, it helps protect us from disingenuous charges of hypocrisy by our opponents, who look for anything they can find to discredit us.
Third, no media trope is easier for journalists to employ than the perception of moral hypocrisy. Some of our opposition will even take perverse pleasure in seeing us wrongly taken down a couple of pegs by journalists who haven’t really thought this through, or worse, don’t care or are opponents masquerading as journalists.
“Buycotts” and Boycotts — Building Market Share For Climate-Friendly Products and Reducing it For the Unfriendlies
Helping build a market for climate-friendly products is beneficial. While our collective actions as individuals in the Climate Movement utilizing the power of our citizenship is the most important thing individuals can do to reduce pollution, our consumer choices can help build market share for pro-climate products and services.
But we must be under no illusions: given the speed and scale of transformation needed, on its own disconnected individual consumer choices as the way to overcome climate change is a fool’s hope.
Better to join together in what I call a “buycott,” a branded campaign where many of us buy selected climate-friendly products.
Participating in major boycott campaigns to reduce market share of products and companies causing climate change can also be beneficial.
However, to be worth everyone’s time and effort both buycott and boycott campaigns must be strategic, well organized, and involve large numbers of people.
How Individual Action Can Be Most Effective
Ultimately, it is through the government channeling market forces into climate action that overcoming climate change will happen. This is especially true when government has begun to restructure the system to reward clean energy and climate-friendly consumer products, as the US Inflation Reduction Act did.
This is both government and individual action working together in a plan designed to dramatically reduce climate pollution. In this case, individual actions are part of collective action to transform the system — exactly what’s needed.2
However, let us be quite cognizant that this is completely different from the Individual Carbon Footprint Scam — which is intentionally divorced from government policy and reduces all efforts down to lone individuals ineffectually acting on their own.
If it were up to me, I’d have individuals skip feeling guilty about their own pollution — remember the tilt of guilt is away from sustained action3 — and instead channel all that emotional energy into being a part of The Climate Movement and a Climate Action Team. That’s the most important thing you can be doing as an individual.
Our power to create change comes from two sources: our numbers, and that we are a moral movement. We must be big and broad and active enough, the first of our seven characteristics/imperatives/goals of The Climate Movement. That means 400 million worldwide by 2030. And we must claim who we are, a moral movement, because climate change is a wrong that must be made right; our cause is just.
So as individuals we must be doing a lot of actions, but they must be together to overcome climate change at speed and scale. That’s why our sixth characteristic as The Climate Movement is to be together enough through shared goals, action events, and meeting together regularly.
Jilt the Guilt — Join the Cause
As individuals we are not accountable for causing climate change, but we are responsible for joining together to overcome it by creating a just and prosperous sustainability that enhances wellbeing for everyone and everything. And in so doing we make the impossible possible and the possible actual and the actual beautiful and our future come faster. Every step we take together creates justice and is a victory of the human spirit. And that gives us hope. Join us!
If you are new here, check out our Intro Series, as well as other posts in this Hope & Justice Series. If you like this post, please “like,” comment, and share. And thanks for all you’re doing.
Seth H. Werfel, “Household behavior crowds out support for climate change policy when sufficient progress is perceived,” Nature Climate Change (2017); Heather Barnes Truelove, et al., “Positive and negative spillover of pro-environmental behavior: An integrative review and theoretical framework,” Global Environmental Change (2014).
For a helpful resource check out this report from the Behavioral Insights Team, How To Build A Net-Zero Society.
How nice to find out that science backs me up on this. Prof. Heather Truelove, reflecting on her recent research on environmental action, says this: “Guilt effects are often short-lived and fade pretty quickly.” For her study, go here: Heather Barnes Truelove, et al., “Do identity or guilt-based appeals lead to environmental spillover effects?” Current Research in Environmental Sustainability (2025).