We are on the precipice of ecological crises unlike anything we’ve ever known. Earlier this month, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that we only have 12 years to keep global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius, a figure at which there would still be extreme changes in the global climate and losses of species. There would still be exoduses by millions of refugees forced to leave the only homes they have known because they have become unsustainable as a result of climate change. Coral reefs would still be stressed, if not wiped out. All this and much more, even if we take action to remain at 1.5 degrees of warming.
So how do we stay at that 1.5 degrees Celcius cap? Suggestions that I have seen from some have given me pause. They seem to take a more individualist approach to tackling the crises that lie ahead. But such an approach will be insufficient, and could harm marginalized communities that will also bear the burden of our inaction on climate change and other ecological crises.
Take, for example, the debate on banning plastic straws from being given out, as Seattle, San Francisco and our own Marketplace have already done. The rationale is as follows: People aren’t great at recycling plastic straws to begin with, and when they get into the ocean, marine life may mistake them for food and eat them, ultimately causing them to get sick or die. But there are other plastics in our oceans — many more. In fact, if all plastic straws ended up in the ocean, they would only account for 0.03 percent of the plastics that enter the ocean each year.
Some state that banning plastic straws is a way to bridge the conversation toward tackling the other plastics that pollute the seas. However, this method has largely ignored people that need plastic straws because they have a disability. This could range from a physical inability to lift a cup to fluid possibly leaking into the lungs. And there is the fact that alternative materials — like paper or metal — are insufficient for people with disabilities, with the former dissolving upon use, and the latter getting intolerably hot or cold. These people are neither “lazy” nor “ambivalent,” and they absolutely should not be viewed that way. They function differently than people without disabilities. The movement to ban plastic straws has ignored that, and it hurts the movement to preserve the environment. In that quest, harming the most vulnerable of our society is absolutely unacceptable.
With climate change, the situation is much the same. Many preach the ways in which we, as individuals, can reduce our own impact on the climate, such as eating less meat, driving less (or carpooling/using ride-share apps), installing energy-efficient light bulbs and so on. But individual actions like these cannot possibly reduce the degree to which our planet warms. Not when just 100 corporations contribute to more than 70 percent of emissions, as is happening according to a 2017 report. The Guardian reports: “ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and Chevron are identified as among the highest emitting investor-owned companies … If fossil fuels continue to be extracted at the same rate over the next 28 years, global average temperatures would be on course to rise by 4C by the end of the century.” Four degrees — 2.5 more than the 1.5 we need just to avoid ecological disaster!
Individualism in the ecological context also ignores the actions of our own government. The U.S. Department of Defense is one of the world’s largest polluters. The military consumes more than 100 million barrels of crude oil annually; to clarify, the Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that it would be the equivalent of over 4 million trips around the Earth going 25 miles per gallon.
With all this in mind, it appears we cannot act individually to keep the Earth that we have. It will take a collective effort to demand climate and ecological justice. We must demand 100 percent renewable energy use and we must demand changes in our economies to help, not hinder, that transition. Yes, we must demand that corporations that pollute pay the price, but we also must demand that they become unable to pollute more than they already have. All of this takes a collective; it is on all of us, together and not apart, to demand a sustainable planet. It’s the only one we have.
Jacob Hanna is a junior majoring in economics.