Demystifying climate change

The impact and limits of individual engagement

I was having lunch with a friend the other day and we started talking about the environment and climate change. “I really want to do something about it, but I don’t know where to start”, she told me. Just a few days before, I had been having the exact same discussion with my husband. The three of us live in Europe where this has become a key topic in many conversations; and while we usually feel well informed and well versed, this subject that is so fundamental and that has huge consequences on our future lives and the lives of many generations to come continues to disconcert us. Why?

There are clearly different reasons that make climate change a less appealing topic for us, as humans, to address. First, we are wired to react to imminent threats and are not able to respond to abstract things in a far future, all the more so when we are extremely busy dealing with the challenges of our daily lives. And even when we witness hotter temperatures, more hurricanes and floods, the complexity of the topic makes it difficult for us to draw the connections and sense the urgency. In addition, as environment changes happen slowly, we tend to adapt to these changes and consider them as the new normal. Looking at the photo series the glacier melt 1999/2019 by the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson exposed in the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, I was struck by how much happened in only 20 years. These changes will only accelerate in the future. Finally, and very importantly, even when we decide to take action, we generally lack complete and easy-to-grasp information on what should be done.

In this context, I decided to embark on a journey to strengthen my understanding of climate change. The aim of this quest is to learn more about the topic from the social, economic, and environmental angles and be able to take more informed actions to preserve our planet Earth. As the renowned scientist and policy analyst Vaclav Smil put it “We will never leave this planet”, so we’d better stick to it and protect it.

There is a fact in physics associated with the “oxide nature” of the CO2; once it is emitted in the atmosphere, it persists for a very long time. Therefore, no matter what we do today, the impact of the CO2 increase in the atmosphere over the next 20 years has already been dictated by past actions. However, if we don’t start taking concrete actions today, the impact could be far more tragic for us and our planet for many generations to come.

Did you know that from now on and for the rest of humanity’s foreseeable future on planet Earth, the climate will never be stable again? And that the hurricanes, fires and floods we’ve been witnessing in the recent years (Australia, Siberia, the US…) that killed, damaged & displaced many individuals, are a side effect of this instability and are only a “taste” of things to come? Did you know that an increase in temperature by a few additional degrees does not only lead to hotter summers in some places but also to temperatures that will attain lethal levels in certain countries and will make them literally unlivable by the end of the century? That the heating of the planet could dry up the Mediterranean Basin, leading to a huge impact on agriculture and forests in all surrounding countries? I let you imagine the level of tensions and hostility that could reign in such times, times that could be only a few decades away… It’s now that we should act. NOW.

Bill Gates recently wrote this article in which he presents some concrete examples of the impact of climate change. Gates talks about two aspects, loss of life and the economic impact. He draws a useful comparison between climate change and COVID-19 to explain the consequences that will emerge if no actions are taken to halt global heating. And on both aspects, the picture is dire. By the end the century, mortality rate increase due to climate change could be five times as high as the one caused by COVID-19 (by the time the article was written in August 2020). On the economy side, he mentions that “in the next decade or two, the economic damage caused by climate change will likely be as bad as having a COVID-sized pandemic every ten years”. All this to say, COVID-19 would look like an easy problem to face compared to the challenges climate change could bring if we don’t act urgently and immediately.

So how do we move from here? And how far can we as individuals make a difference?

An interesting resource I came across is Jonathan Safran Foer’s ‘We are the weather’. It helped me quantify the impact of industrial farming on climate change. Foer points out that while we focus on fossil fuels which contribute to 25% of greenhouse gas emissions, industrial agriculture is almost as harmful, at a 24% contribution. Deforestation to clear lands in order to feed and grow large number of animals as well as the extremely high emission of some harmful gases like methane and nitrous oxide produced through the livestock digestion process make the industrial animal farming one of the leading causes of climate change. This is a great example because it opens the debate regarding individual vs. global actions that could be led to address the issue:

• At an individual level, reducing our consumption of meat and animal products like milk, eggs and cheese could play a crucial role in limiting climate change. Following this, I decided to act, and I considerably reduced my meat and animal products consumption. But this kept me wondering: is my individual contribution really going to make any difference?
• At a global level, drastic changes need to be made in the industrial agriculture sector to make a noticeable impact. Naturally, this reveals fundamental challenges since meat and animal products are essential in our diet today and industrial farming plays an important social and economic role. Transforming the animal farming systems in ways that are environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable involves multiple actors and a wide range of dependencies that cannot be addressed at an individual level.

This naturally led me to question the impact of individual actions as well as their limits in addressing the climate urgency. Getting in touch with experts has proved valuable. Jean-Marc Jancovici, an expert who is extremely active in bringing awareness regarding climate change and taking pressing actions to address it, shared with me a useful publication on the matter.

Although the scope of the study focuses on France, I find it gives great insights on the overall situation. In 2017, an average French citizen contributes to a 10,8 tons footprint of CO2 and 80% of this amount should be reduced by 2050 in order to be compatible with the obligations set and agreed in the Paris Climate Agreement and limit global heating to +2°C.

Three lines of approach are addressed:

• First, at an individual level, engaging in actions (e.g. reducing plastic use, relying on LED lighting) and changes in lifestyle (e.g. adopting a vegetarian diet, limiting air transport, opting for carpooling) could realistically contribute to 5–10% of the intended carbon footprint reduction. This relies on the individual efforts of all citizens while considering a “realistic” scenario, i.e. not all individuals will be able to completely stop air transport or will turn completely vegetarian. On the other hand, individual investments like renovated house heating or cars with low carbon impact, if incentivized by the adequate infrastructure and required public support, could contribute to another 10% reduction. This leads to two conclusions: 1) Yes, the individual contribution is non-negligeable and necessary, we alone are able to engage in these actions and investments to make a significant contribution and 2) it remains insufficient to reach the 80% target we set ourselves. The remaining efforts should be completed by enterprises and states.
• For enterprises, the first real action is to measure, with high granularity, their dependency on fossil energy in order to urgently address it and reduce it. They will need to be more creative, taking initiatives to optimize their waste, collaborating together to reduce their footprint. Several initiatives have started: Les deux rives in Paris has built a green business district based on the principles of sharing & recycling resources, minimizing waste and building an eco-driven and systainable network. We need to see much more similar initiatives.
• Finally and most importantly, the government will be required to fully play its role of regulator: put in place hard legislation to incentivise companies and individuals though taxes & adequate infrastucture, redirect the investments towards energy efficient supply chains, upskill its policy makers on climate change issues, condition the commercial trading to the climate implications and very importantly establish the right balance between the economic growth and the climate urgency. This could potentially mean to slow down the economic growth in the short term to favor climate-related initiatives.

What I retain from all this is that addressing the climate change challenge has never been more urgent. And while it’s very easy to point the finger on the “others” (others being individuals, policy makers, governments, international organizations, enterprises…), there is no “us” and “them” in this battle and we are only going to win it if we lead it as one global community and from all fronts. I started this blog by a simple question “What can a citizen like me do to be more ecologically engaged”? On one hand, I have a better understanding of the impact of my actions (e.g. minimize consumption of animal products, limit air transportation, reduce buying clothes, etc…) and it allows me to take informed actions for a more positive impact. On the other hand, I realize that my actions remain limited without the engagement of governments and enterprises. Government and policy makers will clearly need to step up, accelerate putting in place the framework and rules to ensure a sustainable transition and exercise the needed pressure on entreprises and individuals to follow suit. Businesses will need to urgently tackle reducing their footprint and collaborate together to build a real bioeconomy. And us as individuals also have a role to play not only in taking individual actions but also in voting for representatives that push for this cause and maintaining pressure on the political system to act. It’s all inter-connected and I am convinced that the change will as much be top down as it will be bottom up. We are all responsible and we should all contribute our share. A friend of mine recently reminded me of this quote “If you don’t take change by the hand, it will take you by the throat”, and I can’t think of better words to describe the way we must address the climate urgency.