Op ed: Individual Responsibility around Climate change is a Myth- so why should we live sustainably?

This generation is statistically a lot different to those preceding it. We’re drinking less, smoking less (although vaping may soon unfortunately prove to reverse that change) and we’re more socially conscious. Intuitively, this makes sense, although millennials have grown up with the same seemingly boundless access to information, gen-z were born into it. This is an immense privilege that doesn’t extend completely across all gen-z. After all, we are not a monolith, and our access to this boundless ocean of information is inhibited by our geographical circumstance, our economic class, our physical and mental ability, the list goes on. However, it seems that on the whole there is an expectation that so-called gen-zers should be making better life choices, after all, knowledge is power. And to quote a classic film (yes Spiderman is a classic):  with great power comes great responsibility.

Or does it? This presumption is based on the implication that we accept the premise, that this knowledge at our fingertips, is power. Sure, on the whole, we are making ‘better’ choices- not having children as young and generally improving on family planning. 

But you see, this statistic is a direct product of individual actions, somewhat more within our control. But our powers, even as generation know-it-all, are limited by the influence our individual actions can have. 

I say this not to dissuade gen-z from making better choices, but to make it clear where our powers end, under the status quo. It is fair to say gen-z  is more informed about the climate crisis than its predecessors- that is not to say scientists weren’t issuing ominous premonitions about the impending global catastrophe that is climate change since at least the 1970s. And since we were but primary scholars, we have been educated through formal education, as well as via the internet, on the actions we should take and avoid as individuals, to better our climate. So we recycle more, we thrift our clothing, we’re vegan, vegetarian, pescetarians, we cut down on the waste we produce, we carpool more, use public transport, the list goes on. 

And yet, so does the list of exponentially increasing effects of climate change. Are we fooling ourselves into thinking we’re changing the world, when in fact in this regard, maybe we’re no different than the generation before us? Statistically, that is far from the truth. Closer to the truth, however, is that what is driving the climate crisis, is not the (in)actions of our generation, but a much bigger, more insidious reality: we are tiny gears passionately turning in one direction, while the cogs which actually drive the machine (i.e. the world) are turning in the exact opposite direction, not just with indifference, but with a short-sighted self-interest that can only be called inhumanity. 

It is inhuman, the speed at which the fast fashion industry produces clothes that ultimately just tonnes of waste. It is inhuman, the rate at which the fishing industry pollutes and kills our oceans, chokes our air with the by-products produced during the process. It is inhuman, the rate at which companies like Nestlé, ironically most recognisable for their labels on bottled water, waste and pollute otherwise viable drinking water. It is inhuman, that year after year developed nations fall short of their pledges to hold corporations and themselves fully accountable. All of this, for the profit of already ostentatiously wealthy millionaires and billionaires, whose action and inaction kill not only the planet, but jeopardise the lives of all the creatures on it, human and otherwise. 

Forgive my crude summary of Newton's third law, but of two opposing forces, the strongest will determine an object’s trajectory. I say this to say that as a matter of science, we are hurtling in the trajectory that the “winners” of global capitalism are dragging us. We, the somewhat nihilistic generation z, are the “losers” in this battle. 

Thus, the power cannot be said to be in our hands alone. But perhaps recognising the power held by global capitalists as being illegitimately held, and being a corrupting force, will inspire our generation to take even further action, wherever in our control, to follow the youngest and best among us, such as climate activists Vanessa Nakate and Greta Thunberg. We need to speak to this power in a language they can’t ignore. De-legitimize their power with the truth: they continue to be the driving force of the climate change disaster, to the detriment of our generation Elect into power a government who can be held accountable in their move away from coal and other non-renewables, and towards renewable energy. Keep on taking individual action, but perhaps with the knowledge that the responsibility to change the tides on climate change, is not this generation’s to bear alone.