What Can One Person Do?

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Janis Petzel, M.D.

Let me let you in on a little secret: you don’t have to suffer, go broke, or eat outlandish food to take personal action on climate change, no matter what internet rumors tell you. In fact, as weird weather gets worse and the price of electricity and gas go up, clean energy and old-fashioned energy conservation actually make your life more comfortable, less expensive and less stressful. Plus, you don’t have the ethical dilemma of harming other people to get your own needs met as you do when burning fossil fuels.

How often do you get such a clear opportunity to do well by doing good?

The catch? We need affluent people to buy into a clean, green lifestyle. Overconsumption by the top 10% of earners creates 50% of greenhouse gas emissions. In contrast, the bottom 50% of people create 12% of emissions. A 2020 article in Nature Communications states, “These findings mean that environmental impact is to a large extent caused and driven by the world’s rich citizens.”

This data gives new meaning to the term filthy rich. The higher your income above the 50% income line, the more damaging your lifestyle is likely to be to the environment. The CO_2-eq footprint of the top 10% in North America is 73.0 tons per capita per year, the highest in the world; the middle 40% of earners-26.7 tons; the bottom 10%–9.7. The world average is 6.6 tons CO_2-eq per capita per year.

If you’re living at or below a few times the poverty level, you are not the problem. You are, however, likely bearing the brunt of the health effects of petroleum and chemical pollution.

What can you do? Start with a personal commitment to do what you can. Starting today.

Vote and volunteer: Social justice, education, healthcare access, clean energy, and environmental stewardship all reinforce each other. Support organizations and vote for candidates with good track records in these areas.

Close to home: The items with the most bang for your carbon-reduction buck are what you eat (eat more plants, reduce beef and meat consumption); how you get around (avoid machines that run on gas, oil or diesel); how much stuff you buy (less is better), how much you waste (less is even better); how you heat your home (don’t use fossil fuels), and the electricity you buy (make your own with solar panels, sign up for community solar or chose your utility’s greenest electricity option).

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Why not be an influencer in your neighborhood? We know that once one house installs solar panels, more houses in the neighborhood get solar, too. It’s exciting to be first.

It’s even more exciting to be energy-independent. When gasoline got over $5 per gallon, our family didn’t feel it thanks to our all-electric car. When Central Maine Power almost doubled their rates? It didn’t affect us directly. We make our own electricity with rooftop solar. We pay less than $15 per month for our heat, cooling, hot water and fuel-power for the car (the grid connection fee).

As rates and gasoline prices go up, our payback times for our solar panels, heat pump, heat pump hot water heater, and electric vehicle have dropped and keep dropping.

An important note. Contrary to propaganda, our solar panels are not costing anybody else higher rates. For support, read Freeing Energy by Bill Nussey, which explains why this is much better than I can (see book review in G.E.T.’s February 2022 issue).

Even if you can’t afford green technology, energy conservation is the greenest of green actions. Good windows; insulated window shades; awnings and overhangs to cut down on heat gain in the summer; good insulation; LED lights; turning down the thermostat; energy-efficient appliances; line drying your clothes; and strategic planting of shade trees, all reduce your energy use.

Your actions and opinions are important to keep us, and our elected officials, moving forward into a clean energy future. As I write this, there is a glimmer of hope that the U.S. Senate will actually pass climate-oriented legislation

What can one person do? A lot. I urge you to do what you can to get fossil fuels out of your life. Today is a good day for the tail to start wagging the dog.

Janis Petzel, MD is a physician, grandmother and climate activist whose writing focuses on resilience, climate, and health. She lives in Islesboro, Maine where she advocates and acts for a fossil-fuel free future. She serves on the Islesboro Energy Committee and is a Climate Ambassador for Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Sources:

https://wir2022.wid.world/ World Inequality Report 2022

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16941-y Wiedmann, T., Lenzen, M., Keyßer, L.T. et al. Scientists’ warning on affluence. Nat Commun 11, 3107 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16941-y