In April 2015, amidst a looming and ongoing drought, the governor of California, Jerry Brown, ordered the State's first water-usage regulations for local water suppliers in its history, mandating for a total of a 25 percent reduction in water usage for the wider California population, leaving millions to skimp on watering lawns, washing wars, and even taking showers. Hefty fines and other repercussions impended that general population for those used too much water.
Have the people of California become victims of a systematic misdirection of appropriate methods to saving the environment? Here, the government of California assumes blame on the individual for harming the environment in their day-to-day lives, instead of blaming those people who hold power in real and larger environmental destruction. This is a classic example of a "what-you-can-do-to-save-the-earth" guilt trip for undisclosed larger systematic environmental harm. Errick Jenson is notable in summarizing these issues in his essay Forget Shorter Showers.
Let's take a look at waste reduction. In 2005, per-capita waste production in the US yielded about 16,000 pounds. Those motivated and passionate environmental activist who succeed in maximum reuse, reduce, and recycling, reduce this amount to zero. They even pitch in to help other larger corporate buildings and offices, and head to government buildings, throwing out their trash, with waste reduction pamphlets on hand. But hold on, municipal waste only accounts for a mere 3 percent of total waste production in the US. Some unknowing environmental activists might not want to hear that.
An Inconvenient Truth by Davis Guggenheim narrates Al Gore’s mission to inform the world about the perils of global warming, climate change, and looming environmental catastrophe. Though the movie touches on some great facts and analysis of these issues today and how once can help the environment on a personal level, is fails to mention larger key areas of improvements and cuts. Even if every American did everything the movie suggests to cut their carbon footprint, carbon emissions would only fall 22 percent. Statistics say that emissions need to fall 75 percent worldwide for significant improvement in global warming. Most emissions come from vastly unregulated modern industry today.
One key word used in this conversation is "systematic". Let's look at Capitalism. Capitalism, after the fairly recent industrial breakthroughs like the steam engine, sewing machine, telephone, and computer, has now outlived its usefulness for humanity. Because all decisions under it are made in spite of human and earth conditions and with a profit motive, the now global system is harming the environment and climate, leading billions of people to starvation and malnutrition all over the world, while others gorge thanks to unregulated food industries and companies and change of lifestyle. Capitalism places no value on nature.
After 20 years of efforts to get legally binding agreements had unfortunately failed, voluntary national contributions to solutions to climate change had been adopted as a true fix to the issue at the 2015 Paris Agreement. The "much greater efforts to reduce emissions" is described as an historic "turning point for the world" by Obama and other politicians, referring to the 31-page climate agreement adopted at the meeting. If only our world leaders were correct, as promises made from the agreement have yet to solve larger environmental problems.
Nearly all global government contributed to a launch of a 1.5°C global increase target. The agreement allows for the US to refuse to agree to compensate for low-lying island states and impoverished states most susceptible and vulnerable to climate change. Climate aid of only 100 billions was promised for developing countries by the year 2020.The agreement also allows to the gas and oil industries to hide behind a green disguise. The writing of the agreement has no mention of "fossil fuels", and what remains is a vague agreement to “achieve balance” for the "second half of the century" in carbon sinks, Anthropocene emissions, and more. Oil-producing states actually succeeded in declining to accept the proposed target to slowly reduce actual CO2 emissions by 70-95 percent by 2050. That indicates influence from those industries behind the scenes and their financial interests. Frankly, that may have been the only opportunity for governments themselves to save the ozone layer, but let’s hope not.
However, throwing out all of modern civilization, born out of tremendous wealth and innovation that humans could have only dreamed of, as some suggest we do, is ignoring the potential for another way out of climate catastrophe. Those who have and will suffer from climate catastrophe’s the most are the vast working and struggling people of the world. There needs to be organized resistance from all of us with a radical visionary perspective on to shift power away from corporations and force them to change. Why not also fight for a larger environmental demands for the government, like repealing fossil fuel subsidies, Create a Clean-Energy Workforce for more than 10 million, and tax polluters causing the climate crisis. These are some of the environmental demands and suggestions from Bernie Sanders. These demands correctly reach not only in the natural realm, but employ millions of Americans, creating larger societal economic investments as well, inherently strengthening the demands. But let’s not forget the potential power of grassroots movements to achieve these demands. Environmental innovations from plastic make from banana peels to solar runways, is also helping to erode the authority of those who say fossil fuels are necessary. Collective social responsibility vastly outweighs personal responsibility in modern industrial societies today when it comes with saving the environment.
One example of a current successful measure for the environment is the sHellNo! movement in Seattle, WA. The contract between the Port and Seattle and Shell subsidiary Foss Maritime to bring drilling rigs to Seattle’s Port Terminal 5 has already been signed, though five years later, is still not approved. Massive local grassroots activism has been building the opposition for over a year, and had effectively stopped all six projects to develop these export terminals. With support from Mike O'Brian and Kshama Sawat, the Seattle City Council unanimously passed a resolution urging the Port of Seattle to reconsider the lease.
On the Keystone XL project, a pipeline to transport Canadian oil sands crude to Gulf Coast refineries is well known to hold vast negative environmental impacts with minimal economic benefits. Though the future prospects of the pipeline are still uncertain, at least 20 proposed energy projects under the larger XL plan have been cancelled. Activists haled these decisions as a success. There has been ongoing grassroots resistance public opposition battling the pipeline in relatively close solidarity. Though fossil fuel companies generally blame market forces, not public opposition, for the setbacks, The founder of Bold Nebraska Jane Kleeb told InsideClimate News said"in reality, I think it has a lot to do with the people power on the ground." The story will continue to be closely followed.
For those passionate about the future of the planet and of society as whole which is affected by it, ignoring the structural violence from the Capitalist system is a mistake. Only taking personal measures to save the environment is thus inadequate in solving this deeply rooted economic paradigm that guarantees exponential acceleration towards destruction. No matter which political party you belong to, which social outlets you can call your own, or your lifestyle, it’s important that you recognize and hopefully act upon the fact that without massive action on a grassroots level for environmental change, or we will continue to see environmental mass destruction.
