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The standard for change isn’t “is my doing this going to change the world?” The standard is “is my doing this part of the shift I want to see my community make?” And if the answer is yes, I do my best (thelemmy.club)
submitted 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) by to c/solarpunk@slrpnk.net
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I love that analogy. No, you're not going to personally save the world by reducing your carbon footprint. But you know what you are going to be? One leaf on a tree in a forest, making that little bit more oxygen that helps collectively make the world a better place.

And that's worth doing. Especially if you can encourage other people to be leaves too.

A screenshot of a Tumblr post. The text reads: I keep seeing posts claiming that x y or z action you can do to build a better world won’t matter. That capitalism doesn’t care, and your own actions dont amount to much. It’s so painfully individualistic. Of course me doing that thing isn’t going to save anybody or anything. Im not trying to be a superhero who personally saves the say. I am one leaf making oxygen in a massive forest of other trees making oxygen. I am doing my best and having faith that millions of others will do their best as well. Because that can and has made big changes over time. Like. That is just how change happens. Thats cultural shifts. Thats political shifts. Thats how lasting changes happen. I don’t plant milkweed because I’m personally gonna save monarch butterflies. I plant milkweed because I know thousands of us are gonna plant milkweed and send money to the people fighting horrible pesticides in court. The standard for change isn’t “is my doing this going to change the world?” The standard is “is my doing this part of the shift I want to see my community make?” And if the answer is yes, I do my best.
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[–] 6 points 4 months ago (2 children)

It might've been invented by Big Oil, but if you keep giving money to Big Oil to buy fossil fuel you're at least partially responsible for the carbon emissions released by burning that fuel.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    People have trouble with the concept of partial blame, they want to feel innocent. Black and white thinking, low-resolution ethics.

    It's a necessary suppression to underpin individualist ideologies, I think.

    Nevertheless, remember that the 'footprint' decisions of one oil exec outweigh the decisions of thousands or millions (or billions if you include descendants) of ordinary folk. But we do also outnumber them to that extent, so we have adequate power collectively.

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    People always take private jets as an example. And while they are very polluting, air traffic is only responsible for 2-3 % of all CO2 emissions. Transportation in general is responsible for almost a quarter of all emissions, and almost half of that is just regular cars, road freight is a third and the rest is aviation and shipping. So all the passenger cars are responsible for around 12.5 % of all emissions. That's mostly just people going to work or grocery shopping.

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