You Don’t Matter
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“Abandon all hopium, ye who enter here.”
The myth of individual responsibility for climate change is a strong and persistent one, and has been since the concept of a “carbon footprint” was introduced by British Petroleum in the early 2000's.
British Petroleum… hired the public relations professionals Ogilvy & Mather to promote the slant that climate change is not the fault of an oil giant, but that of individuals. BP first promoted and soon successfully popularized the term “carbon footprint”... The company unveiled its “carbon footprint calculator” in 2004 so one could assess how their normal daily life — going to work, buying food, and (gasp) traveling — is largely responsible for heating the globe. A decade and a half later, “carbon footprint” is everywhere. — Mark Kaufman
We’re told that we are individually responsible for climate change and that only our individual actions can stop it. It’s become almost hardwired into us — that’s how successful petroleum propaganda is.
We shame others for going on vacation, for driving a car, for eating meat — and tell each other to make the “moral choice”. If you do any of these bad, bad things you are a monster personally responsible for destroying the future. Climate change is your fault.
But there are a couple of problems with this perspective.
First of all, as LaUra Schmidt points out in her excellent book “How to Live in a Chaotic Climate”,
Judging others for their actions while living in a broken system is a form of moral superiority that only serves to further divide and isolate us. This is what our power — over systems do: blame us as individuals for toxic systems. Cultural messaging tells us that it is up to each of us to measure our carbon footprints, conserve water, use canvas shopping bags, decline plastic straws, and move toward a zero — waste lifestyle and that, until we have reached perfection, we have no right to critique systems [emphasis mine].
But the fact is that we all participate in this broken system, so we are all guilty to one degree or another. None of us is morally superior. And none of us created this system, so none of us are to blame for it. As I say over and over, our choices are bounded by the systems we are embedded in.
The other problem with this perspective — and the one I want to focus on — is that you are literally too small to matter when it comes to climate change.
Let me demonstrate.
Economy Class
Say you hop on an airplane. In economy, the space you’re given is typically 18 inches wide, with about 32 inches of legroom. That’s exactly 4 square feet (0.37 square meters).
Many of us have been in economy class at some point in our lives, so spend a second feeling what it’s like sitting in an airplane waiting for takeoff. Not particularly comfortable, but doable. Let’s just hope it’s a short flight!
If we sat all 8 billion of us down in economy class, the area covered would be about 1,150 acres… that’s about 1.5 times the size of Central Park.
Big, right?
Just kidding!! LOL.
The area covered by 8 billion economy passengers would be 1,150 square miles (nearly 3,000 square kilometers).
If it were an airliner, there would be 200,000 rows, each 40,000 seats wide. With standard economy seat dimensions, each row would be 11.4 miles wide (18.3 km) and the seating area on the plane would be 101 miles long (163 km). Good luck getting to the bathroom! The total length of the plane would be over 150 miles.
At a typical walking pace, it would take you 34 hours to walk from the door at the front of the plane to your seat in Row 199,999. But hey, at least you’d be close to the bathroom!
Getting the idea yet? There are a hell of a lot of us.
The problem of climate change, the problem of pollution, the problem of overshoot — are each billions of times bigger than us as individuals.
But that’s not right, you say. Not all 8 billion of us are equally responsible for climate change, for pollution, for overshoot.
Fair enough. So let’s look at it based on CO2 emissions, our “carbon footprint”, as BP would have us do.
It’s a Snap
The average American emits about 14.4 tons of CO2 per year.
In 2023, the entire world emitted about 37.55 gigatons (Gt) of CO2.
Assuming that I’m an average American, my footprint is 0.0000000383488% of the world total. Seems small, but that kind of number is hard to understand.
So, let’s say I want to do what I can to delay hitting the 1.5°C limit.
Unfortunately, at our current rate of emissions, we’ll hit that mark sometime in the middle of 2030. That’s not much time for me to contribute, so I’m going to do like everyone else is doing lately and pretend that 1.5°C was never a thing.
2°C is, was, and always will be our goal! Anyone who says otherwise is a liar and a scoundrel!
So, assuming a 1% annual increase in emissions (and please don’t tell me that renewables are “replacing” fossil fuels; they clearly are not) and a carbon budget of 1,200 Gt, we’d hit 2°C around 2050.
Sadly(??), it’s unlikely I’ll live that long, so instead let’s go with my expected life span, just for illustrative purposes. That’s 17 years, which puts us in 2041.
Assuming that the world keeps increasing emissions by 1% per year, and I emit a steady 14.4 tons of CO2 per year, by 2041 that works out to:
- Globe: 760.6 Gt of CO2
- Me: 244.8 tons of CO2
In order to delay irrevocable climate tipping points, I want to reduce my carbon footprint as much as I can.
I recycle. I installed a heat pump. I considered buying an EV. I’ve thought about becoming vegan. But none of those are enough.
The best way for me to decrease my carbon footprint is to not exist at all.
Sounds grim. I like being here and my cats would miss me.
But what actual difference would my not existing make in delaying climate tipping points?
Over that 17 years, my contribution ends up being 0.000000032185% of the world total.
So, if I suddenly disappeared today, in 17 years my complete absence would delay disaster by… 0.2 seconds. Zero point two seconds.
About the time it takes to snap your fingers.
Think about that. The first iPhone was released 17 years ago. Snap your fingers. That’s the difference of me not existing since 2007.
That’s not me buying an EV. That’s not me recycling. That’s not me going vegan. That’s me not existing at all for 17 years.
I don’t matter.
It hardly matters even if we went full Thanos on the entire United States. Snap of the fingers. Poof! 330 million people gone.
Let’s do the math. The US emits about 13.6% of the world’s CO2, or about 5.1 Gt. Assuming that steady percentage and a 1% annual increase in emissions, Thanos-ing the entire population of the US would buy the world only about 2 and a half years in avoided emissions.
The point is this: I don’t matter. You don’t matter. And you can’t stop what is coming.
The Push Back
By now, some of you are in denial, “Nope, nope nope. Those numbers can’t be right,” you say. I’m happy to have you check my math. Let me know what you come up with.
And some of you are furious — not with me obviously, since I’ve just been doing some basic math — but with your assumptions about what you think I’m saying.
Maybe you think I’m saying that “There’s nothing we can do, so there is no other choice but to be hopeless and apathetic”.
I am most emphatically not saying that. Hopelessness is a step on the path to collapse acceptance, but it is not a destination. The realization that nothing you do will change the ultimate outcome actually frees you from the illusions of hopium and false “solutions” and allows you to focus on the here and now; the things you can affect and the things you can change.
We live in a beautiful world and we were always going to die, so nothing has really changed. Yes, the future looks bleak, so focus on making the world around you better today. Plant some flowers, clean up litter on the side of the road, volunteer to help those in need. Whatever works for you to lessen the coming pain. It’s valuable and fulfilling work. And it’s the only work that will actually make a difference.
Or maybe you think I’m saying “There’s nothing we can do, so party to the end of the world!”
If you think that, then you know nothing about doomers. Doomers aren’t really the partying type. The fact that you believe accepting collapse leads people to move to Cabo and spend the rest of their lives destroying their livers and collecting venereal diseases just means you have no idea of what collapse acceptance really means — or how it really affects people.
You should absolutely enjoy your life. Absolutely. Create things. Make beauty. Have new experiences. Be kind to others and help those in need. Practice self-care. Have gratitude for every day. Give thanks for each meal you eat. We live on an extraordinary planet and should enjoy everything it gives. And oh yeah, and have a party every once and a while if you want. Life is a miracle and you should enjoy it.
Or maybe you think I’m saying that “There’s nothing we can do so we’re absolved from responsibility for our own actions”.
I know a fair number of doomers, and the doomers I know are some of the least apathetic, most responsible, most engaged, most concerned, and most caring people I’ve met.
If anything, collapse acceptance leads you to care more about the suffering in the world. It leads you to understand both your role in collapse and your helplessness to stop it. It’s almost inevitable that you begin to feel greater compassion for others and a responsibility to do what you can to mitigate suffering — given that there is so much suffering to come.
Or maybe you think I’m giving deniers a reason not to care. “You’re just playing into their hands!”, you say.
Deniers already don’t care. And I don’t care what deniers think, honestly. They are hopeless. They will never accept the truth, even when it becomes obvious. They will blame collapse on immigrants, liberals, the woke mob, and trans kids — just like they are already doing. That won’t change. If they want to use these facts to “further their agenda”, I can’t stop them.
What I *Am* Saying
So now that we’ve addressed some of the things I am not saying, what am I saying?
- It isn’t your job to pass judgment on others. You don’t have that right. So stop it. You’re not morally superior because you drive an EV or don’t eat meat. You have no idea what others have been through or are going to go through, so you don’t get to police their lives. This is my number one pet peeve. If you do nothing else, stop judging others.
- Have compassion for the suffering to come. Someone cuts you off on the freeway and you flip them the bird. But maybe in 6 months they lose everything in a wildfire or a terrible flood. You don’t know what suffering others will face, so the least you can do is have compassion. It’s one of the few things we’re going to have left.
- The same goes for yourself. You have no idea of the suffering you may face, so have compassion for yourself. Practice self-care, whatever that means to you.
- You are helpless globally, but not where you are. Make the world around you better. Create beauty. Paint, write, whatever. Grow beautiful things. Donate your time or money or whatever (I am universal blood donor so I give blood every chance I get. It isn’t much, but it is something.). Our immediate surroundings and ourselves are the only things we can affect, so affect them for the better. Will it save the planet? No. But it might help one corner of it.
- If you want to drive an EV or become vegan, by all means do it, but accept the fact that you aren’t “saving the planet”. Do it because it has meaning and value to you, not because it makes you feel morally superior.
- Cultivate gratitude and grace. I am thankful for every day (except the really really cold ones, but I’m working on that). I am thankful for every meal. I am thankful for a roof over my head. When you have lost everything, gratitude for what little you may have comes a bit easier, but I hope you never experience that. I know that — even with all I’ve been though — I’m lucky compared to others, and I acknowledge that fact every day. That can change in an instant. When you live with that awareness, gratitude comes easily.
Ultimately, what I am saying is that you do matter. You matter to your family, to your friends, and yes, to your pets. You matter to the place you live. You matter because you can create and witness beauty and joy.
Can you save the planet? No. No one can. It’s too big to save. But you can do what you can to help yourself and the people and places you love.
At this point, that’s all any of us can do.
