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https://www.sustainabilitybynumbers.com/p/the-false-dichotomy-of-systemic-and>
"There is often a polarising debate about who is “responsible” for climate
change, and ultimately, who should fix it.
There is the “systemic change” camp who tend to put the focus on big
corporations, governments, and economic systems. You see this narrative in
popular headlines such as “Just 100 companies responsible for 71% of global
emissions”. Or claims that BP and other big oil companies promoted the personal
carbon footprint to shift the blame onto consumers.
Then there is the “personal responsibility” camp which puts focus on individual
lifestyle changes: driving a petrol car, flying, and eating lots of meat leads
to a carbon-intensive lifestyle; so we should cut back to live more
sustainably.
I often get questions that suggest people view this as a binary. “Do you think
individual actions matter when systemic change is what we need?”
But this is a false binary. It’s not one or the other. It’s both.
To be clear, I’m not deluded into thinking that we will solve climate change if
we all just recycle our plastic bottles and compost our food waste. To get
emissions to zero we have to rebuild and transition almost every part of our
economy, from electricity and heat, to transport, agriculture and construction.
But it also seems wrong to suggest that individual actions — especially as
larger collectives — don’t matter at all. Individuals are, after all, part of
the system. We’re one of the cogs. Not nearly big enough to get things moving
on our own — which is why us all “doing our bit” is not going to cut — but
certainly capable of slowing things down if we’re not willing to budge.
In this post I’ll lay out some reasoning as to why I think systemic versus
individual change is the wrong framing; the limits of behaviour change; and
what really matters when it comes to personal impact."
Via
What Could Go Right?: More Insurance, Less Violence
https://theprogressnetwork.org/more-insurance-less-violence/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
