On August 12, 2021, Hank Green, author and online science education content creator, posted a video on his TikTok account showing an image of what it would look like if all the humans in the world were compressed into one giant ball of goo. The goo ball, a giant spherical clump of scarlet-red human flesh visualized by reddit user “kiwi2703,” is remarkably only one kilometer wide. The image even shows it fitting above Central Park. Hank connects this to climate change, saying how absurd it is that “we have destabilized the entire climate of the planet for… the pleasure and comfort of the goo ball!”
We’ve heard this argument time and time again — that humanity has destroyed the planet. So we promote endless education campaigns and calls to action, especially around Earth Day, for people to stop destroying the planet and be mindful of their actions. “It’s on us,” is what they say. While individual-level action with the intent of helping the climate, like minimizing energy use, cleaning up public areas and reusing and recycling, are not inherently bad actions, the narrative that the responsibility is on everyone equally to address climate change is misleading and dangerous. Here’s why.
At first glance, this idea that humanity has made bad decisions throughout history that have neglected and even destroyed the environment, which humanity now has the responsibility to repair, makes sense. It did for me, too, until two years ago, when I took a class with sociology professor Jason Moore and was exposed to his work on how misleading it can be to use such abstract concepts as “humanity” to designate blame for an issue. In 2019, Moore wrote an article titled “Capitalocene and Planetary Justice,” in which he explores who is responsible for the climate crisis we are in. He says that “A world of political difference lies between saying ‘Humans did it!’ — and saying ‘Some humans did it!’“ Here, “humans” is a dangerously abstract concept. Moore prompts us to consider whether poor and marginalized humans are as responsible as rich humans for climate change. If they aren’t, shouldn’t we place significantly more emphasis on getting corporations and the rich to invest significant resources to alleviate their environmental impact rather than engaging in a general it’s-on-us campaign? I think Moore hit the nail on the head. The reality is that 71 percent of global emissions are produced by just 100 companies. Is that really “us”?
A quick look at history helps clarify who set up humanity to create so much pollution. Beginning with the rise of capitalism in the 16th and 17th centuries, the wealthy kept trying to find ways to make more money without regard for environmental impact. Over time, jobs and the way people worked evolved to allow the wealthy to profit more. This led to the generation of more wealth to fund the rise of highly polluting factories, cities, farms and the infrastructure and technology needed for them to function, such as transportation and roads. All the while, gross human rights abuses were being carried out and people were being exploited for profit. It was not the everyday person that benefited from these changes — they made a few people very, very rich. So even when you look at the “carbon footprint” many produce by just living and working, it’s important to realize that people today did not set up the world to be this way. The irresponsible choices made over centuries ago were not ours.
I am not advocating that we do nothing and leave the work of saving the planet to the rich because their economic class created the problem. People with money and power won’t just wake up one day and give it up — especially because climate change doesn’t affect them nearly as much as others, particularly marginalized groups. Rather, I think our role should not be solely to change our own footprint — though there is no reason we can’t do that at the same time — but, more importantly, to become politically engaged and advocate for changes that will reverse the impacts of climate change.
If people want to get involved in this work, potential actions to take are voting for politicians who will stand up to polluting corporations, engaging in activism to disrupt the building of new methods of pollution like pipelines and pressuring institutions like universities and governments to divest from sources of pollution. The actions won’t be the same for everyone — they depend on each person’s skills, connections, resources and capacity. No one can be involved in every issue all the time. Often, there is work already being done, and finding a group of active people to join is a great first step.
Exclusively telling people to change their daily choices severely misdirects efforts to combat climate change and is never an effective solution to any social issue, whether it be racism, sexism or climate change. We need to look at systems and those who set them up and benefit from them.
The narrative needs to be changed. It matters who we hold accountable.
So, the next time you see a dried up river, an eroded shoreline or the fifth “storm of the century” in a decade, don’t stare in horror at what you think we’ve done. We didn’t do that. The people who have gotten, and continue to get, absurdly rich from setting up the systems around us did. However, we can hold those responsible for this damage accountable through our votes, activism and intellectual work. We need to create significant change fast, and changing the narrative of collective responsibility is crucial to doing so successfully. Stop blaming the goo ball. The argument is as absurd as the image of a human goo ball itself.
Max Kurant is a junior double-majoring in English and an individualized major in social systems science.