It's Not Your Fault

When I come home from college, the amount of recycling my family does rises exponentially. I worry about the impact of things like my takeout boxes being thrown away and will pull recyclables out of the trash if I see them. Meanwhile, BP, who hired a PR firm and created the concept of a carbon footprint (Solnit, 2021), is causing more damage than I could ever do. Big oil companies are notorious for spreading disinformation and have been a huge barrier to action. Their scientists predicted almost exactly what would happen with global warming in the 70’s and 80’s, yet companies like Exxon pretend that the science is unclear (Supran, 2023). When it comes to fighting climate change, there is a great focus on the individual: YOU need to go vegan, not drive a car, etc. However, what we need to be addressing is systems and structures. Unfortunately, the focus on individuals and their choices goes beyond Big Oil trying to redirect blame. It also shows up in our policy. Under Obama, the chief regulator in the US, Cass Sunstein, promoted nudges instead of effective, yet likely unpopular regulation (Chater et.al, 2022). Nudges try to influence people (like putting disturbing images on cigarette boxes), but don’t stop you from making that choice (Chater, et. al 2022). Again, all the responsibility is put on the individual to do the “right thing.” We’re supposed to eat less meat, yet the US government subsidizes the meat industry, making it a cheaper option for people to buy (Rosenberg et. al, 2024). Considering that Americans (and people around the world) are suffering from a cost of living crisis, it makes sense why people would buy meat. We are part of a system that conflicts with our morals and it is very difficult to avoid, so try to have grace with yourself and remember that the biggest changes need to come from systems and corporations. After all, during this cost of living crisis and the planet reaching its hottest temperatures, fossil fuel companies are reaching record high profits (Artis, 2024).

Image from Aron, Chapter 5: Skepticism, Misinformation, and Motivated Cognition

References:

Artis, Z. (2024, February 29). Big Oil made billions amidst the hottest year on record. Natural Resources Defense Council. https://www.nrdc.org/bio/zanagee-artis/big-oil-made-billions-amidst-hottest-year-record. 

Chater, N., & Loewenstein, G. (2023). The i-frame and the s-frame: How focusing on individual-level solutions has led behavioral public policy astray. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 46, e147. doi:10.1017/S0140525X22002023.

Rosenberg, B., & Hayes, J. (2024, October 28). USDA livestock subsidies top $72b. EWG. https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2024/10/usda-livestock-subsidies-top-59-billion 

Solnit, R. (2021, August 23). Big oil coined “carbon footprints” to blame us for their greed. keep them on the hook . The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/23/big-oil-coined-carbon-footprints-to-blame-us-for-their-greed-keep-them-on-the-hook.

Supran, G., Rahmstorf, S., & Orsekes, N. (2023). Assessing ExxonMobil’s global warming projections. Science. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abk0063.