You are not the problem – climate guilt is a marketing ploy
photo: Pixar
Over the years, like many people I know, I don’t think I’m a good environmentalist unless I bring a reusable cup every time I buy coffee, only buy second-hand clothes, and compost all food scraps, Bikes everywhere and pushes every other person in my life to do the same. If I’m not doing it perfectly, if everyone around me isn’t doing it perfectly, then we’re the problem…right?
Climate guilt, or guilt over our inability or unwillingness to effectively protect the environment, is becoming causes of increased stress。 Most of us either give up on our efforts to be environmentally friendly altogether or find ourselves annoyed every time we travel, bite, or make a purchase.
Feeling guilty every time we fail to be perfect environmentalists is not sustainable. The path to a safer climate doesn’t require consumers to take every action right, but it does require us to understand the scope of our actions in a larger crisis.
The problem is that social expectations are too high for any individual — and too high for the oil industry.
Do you remember when you first thought about climate change?
The oil industry has been thinking about this question since 1977, when james blackExxonMobil scientists report that the burning of fossil fuels is affecting the climate.
Do you remember the first time you felt guilty about climate change?
Since 2000, oil companies have been trying to through advertisingconvincing consumers that we should feel guilty.
But first, they sow doubts about the reliability of climate science. In the late 1990s, as public awareness of climate change grew, the oil industry was planning how to disrupt public understanding of the issue in order to ensure the safety of its operations. A 1998 Internal Memo Trade associations and lobbying groups from the American Petroleum Institute, which includes companies like Chevron and ExxonMobil, said “victory is won when ordinary citizens … recognize the uncertainties of climate science.”
This tactic of sowing doubt has worked well for a long time. But there are still people who believe in the science, so the fossil fuel industry uses its advertising power to blame consumers.
bp hire Ogilvy, an ad agency that singled out climate change in the early 2000s as personal fault. This is how the term “carbon footprint” was coined and popularized. They’ve even designed a carbon footprint calculator so you can understand your personal impact on the planet.
I used that calculator and mostly remember how it made reducing my carbon footprint feel overwhelming. The concept of a “carbon footprint” emphasizes personal impact, personal responsibility and personal guilt.
This guilt can lead to inaction. As I research more and more about the climate crisis, I go from doing what I can to limit my environmental impact to feeling like any action I take is pointless… so why try?
A very sound logic supports the personal responsibility argument.Oil companies and their supporters argue that they are simply service marketit is individual consumers who drive demand.
However, this argument falls apart when you consider that oil companies have actively misled the public for years about the reality of their industry’s impact on climate. If they made this information public instead of actively hiding it, there would be more time to get rid of fossil fuels.
Our consumers struggle with the use of plastic straws, a light on all night, or flying on an airplane. Meanwhile, oil companies continue to reap billions of dollars from fossil fuels.
Individual actions didn’t get us here, and individual actions alone won’t get us out, but there are actions we can take to help…very big. We can expose decades of hypocrisy and deception by responsible oil companies. We can elect leaders who don’t place climate change solely on the shoulders of individuals. We can take sustainable small actions where we can, learn about our history of feeling guilty when we can’t, and remind others that they, like us, are not the problem.
Helena Kilburn is a sustainability expert and a graduate student in Columbia University’s Master of Sustainability Management program.
