Does reducing our carbon footprint really make a difference?

According to the Guardian, a third of the world’s carbon emissions are caused by 20 companies. Reading the list is like looking at a stock index of oil and gas moguls, with Shell, BP, and Chevron making the top 20. Some of these companies are state-owned and some are private. Since they keep pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, does it even matter if on an individual level, we try to reduce our carbon footprint? 

The blame game

The writers of the Guardian article say:

“The great tragedy of the climate crisis is that seven and a half billion people must pay the price – in the form of a degraded planet – so that a couple of dozen polluting interests can continue to make record profits. It is a great moral failing of our political system that we have allowed this to happen.”

Part of the problem with climate change is the lack of responsibility that government, corporations and individuals have. How can we all be held accountable?

It’s easy to blame others. Kiwis often blame China and the U.S – if they’re not going to reduce emissions, why should we? We can all blame Saudi Aramco and the other 19 companies who’ve created 480 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide over the last 50 years. We could say, “whatever I do, doesn’t make a difference.” It is demoralising seeing these figures. But if we carry on blaming each other, or arguing over the semantics and details of what could make a difference, things will only get worse.

We’re the ones buying petrol from these companies. It’s incredibly hard to change behaviour, especially when some people don’t think there’s a problem at all. It comes down to our focus on short-term behaviour as well as ‘cognitive dissonance’: if we’re consuming plastic goods, driving petrol-powered cars and travelling hundreds of kilometres in aeroplanes, it’s very difficult to admit that we are contributing to the problem. Even if we know climate change is a problem, often our brains don’t want to comprehend it, because our actions and thoughts are at odds with each other. 

A long-term view

In the book I’m reading at the moment, “Half-earth – Our Planet’s Fight for Life”, scientist Edward O Wilson talks about humans’ destructive impact on the planet. He asks us to consider the ages of the earth that have come before us, and all the creatures that have ever lived. We’re in the age of the human, the ‘Anthropocene’, but this doesn’t mean we have the right to use the earth for our own ends, heating and beating up the planet and destroying species’ habitats. 

 He writes:

“We are still too greedy, shortsighted and divided into warring tribes to make wise, long-term decisions. Much of the time we behave like a troop of apes quarreling over a fruit tree. As one consequence, we are changing the atmosphere and climate away from conditions best for our bodies and minds, making things a lot more difficult for our descendants. 

And while at it, we are unnecessarily destroying a large part of the rest of life. Imagine! Hundreds of millions of years in the making, and we’re extinguishing Earth’s biodiversity as though the species of the natural world are no better than weeds and kitchen vermin. Have we no shame?“

Despite the actions of large corporations, whether they’re creating greenhouse gases or mowing down rainforests, I do believe we should still be trying to change, for the animals and people that came before us and those that will come after.

 It’s doing small things, like using cloth nappies or trying to walk more instead of using the car. It’s not easy; the important things aren’t. In the meantime, and this is where lasting change will happen, we can vote for governments that want to drastically reduce emissions and try to keep the rising temperature to a minimum.