First of all, I’m not going to pretend things are good. Climate action now is minuscule and insufficient for the size of the problem, and has been since I was 10 years old. However, there are, in my opinion, a few very important things to remember:
1. You are not alone
It can often feel like you are the only one in your family, class, neighbourhood, or country that cares about climate change as much as you do. However, this is definitely not true. Almost everyone in Canada is aware of and most worry about climate change. One of the best ways to deal with this feeling is to talk about it.
Ask your family and friends about their own feelings about climate change. Talk to them about how it makes you feel and what you most worry about. Be sure to listen without judgement (see below on why they are not to blame for climate change). Getting mad at people for not thinking the same way you do can make them less likely to open up and less likely to listen to your own fears.
Talking about climate change with others is probably the strongest action you can take for climate change as an individual. The more we talk about it with each other the more we are more likely to get those in power to take the action that is needed.
Find those in your neighbourhood or school who are as concerned as you. Join a club or create one. Reach out to organizations like Youth Climate Lab to see who is organizing in your neighbourhood or city. Hanging out with people who are as concerned as you, not only will help you feel less alone, but can often spur collective actions that can pressure those in power to make meaningful changes.
2. You and your family did not cause climate change.
Unless you or your family were in leadership of an oil company, where in provincial or federal cabinet, or led the US Military (which emits more than Denmark!) between 1988 and now, you did not cause climate change. The podcast Drilled covers this well, but might be for when you’re a bit older. Basically, oil companies lied to us for years about the danger from climate change, all the while selling more and more oil. The Canadian and Alberta governments have continued to fund development of the tar sands and Canadian oil production more generally, even as our knowledge of climate change impacts have increased. Provincial and municipal (city) governments have developed North American cities in a way that makes it impossible to live without a car. Car companies have pushed back against electric cars and improved transit systems. Private electric companies have fought against home solar installations to maintain their control over electricity, resulting in power grids requiring oil or coal as electricity sources.
Do you know about your Carbon Footprint?
You write out your actions and calculate how much damage you are doing to the earth. Do you know who invented this? BP did! That’s right the oil company that brought you the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, thought it was a good idea to let individuals worry about their own actions instead of focusing on the companies that are selling the stuff.
You and your family did cause climate change by going on vacation to Mexico or driving to the grocery store, and certainly not by using a plastic bags. Did they help and were they necessary? Perhaps not, but we all have to live meaningful lives and focusing on the big structural barriers to climate action are much more important than our own individual steps to reduce climate change.
We as individuals didn’t cause climate change. As a white settler with a car and a gas furnace who has flown around the world and often on unnecessary trips, I am more responsible than those with less power and privilege in our own or other countries. This is my climate shadow and something I think about. As a kid, you don’t have any of this baggage, so you don’t have too hold that guilt in any way.
3. Individual actions will not stop climate change
To slow climate change and lessen its impact we need governments and corporations to act, not just individuals. You and everyone you know could go live in a cave and eat grass for the rest of your lives,but that will not cut emissions enough to slow global warming. However, if we all do what we can, talk about what we are doing and organize to put pressure on those in power, the trips to the grocery store in a car are less important and make it more likely in the future most people will be able to walk or bike to the store.
The best things you can do to help in the struggle for our future is to 1) not give up and 2) organize. We tend to get hung up on the perfect response that slipped through the world’s fingers 10 or 20 or 30 years ago and think, “Oh no, we are doomed!”. However, we can still shape our future and every change our society makes and every action the world takes now to reduce carbon emissions will make that future better than it would be if we did nothing.
What will set us on the path to a better future is if we work together. This means getting together with your friends or people who think like you and make some noise! Write letters to your councilor about why you need better transit or safer bike lanes. Attend protests and talk about it afterwards at your school.
Individual actions are important, but they’re much more important if you talk about them. For example, one of the more effective individual actions is cutting out meat and dairy. However, you don’t need to become a vegan. Just learn some vegan and vegetarian recipes and try them out. Share what you learn with your friends. That takes a small individual action and increases its effect three or four times.
As a kid, you don’t always have control over your emissions. But talking to your family about how a decision that goes against your values makes you feel can have powerful impacts. In my experience, judging, criticizing, and giving facts doesn’t work in the long run as it makes people feel bad and people don’t like to feel bad. Save the criticism and anger for those in power. They should feel bad and they are the ones that need to feel our anger if they are going to make those big changes that can really help improve our future.
This article got me thinking differently about climate action and is worth reading or giving to your parents to read: https://heated.world/p/what-can-i-do-anything
Climate anxiety is real
Fearing for the future is a normal reaction to the world right now. However, don’t be afraid to get help from a therapist if it feels like your fear for the future is becoming overwhelming and you can’t find anything that helps. There are therapists that specialize in climate-change anxiety and they can help you with those big feelings.