Becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable
A view from Kansas with plenty of farmland, wind energy and cattle
{Jacob Miller-Klugesherz (personal website) provides some personal thoughts on his journey as he adds his name to the list of people who commit to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions}
I am among the alarmed, and have been since I was 12. I have dedicated most of my academic/professional career to addressing the socio-political barriers to climate change mitigation (CCM). I have published, preached, and professed about the urgency of reducing emissions. The urgency drove my master’s thesis and now my dissertation. I’ve worked to systematically reduce emissions with several organizations: The Land Institute, Environment America, the Sunrise movement, and currently Citizens Climate Lobby and Kiss the Ground’s Regenerate America. I view a carbon fee and dividend as the first pragmatic, political step. It is a bridge to radically necessary climate policies that will “cap and adapt.”
Despite dedicating much of my life to reducing emissions socially and politically, I am failing to reduce my own emissions. According to the Global Footprint Network’s Ecological Footprint Calculator, if everyone on Earth were to live like I do, then we would need 4.6 Earths to sustain that level of consumption. Certainly not the worst, but still far from sustainable. Sure, I compost, recycle, try to limit air and car travel, and eat healthy and locally. But I still live in a modern home with a plethora of energy-gobbling machines and screens. Our family has two cars. We eat meat daily and are dependent upon the electrical grid. Amazon packages arrive daily.
I am more talk than walk. I preach more than I practice. I am a luddite with a laptop, a hippie with central heating. I live with a level of cognitive dissonance that is uncomfortable yet bearable. Does this make me a hypocrite? Or am I a product of my environment? After all, the United States is among the top ten nations with the highest per capita emissions, and by far has the largest population. A bit of both. But as Co2mmit presupposes, the social system is a mirror. When we point a finger at it, it points it right back at us.
Are there elements of your emissions that you find harder to reduce? Why do you think that is the case?
I live in Manhattan, Kansas. Where I live can make it difficult to reduce emissions. The city and surrounding suburbs lack substantial and safe bike lanes. There are no bike lanes or even sidewalks from our suburbs into town. It costs extravagantly more to have the local trash service pick up recycling, and if you don’t have a car it can be difficult to take your recycling to the recycling center. During the pandemic grocery stores would not allow outside bags to be brought in, so I ended up taking home far too much plastic. Our HOA disallows lawns grown into natural prairies or gardens. No chickens either. They say to spray cancer-causing Roundup on weeds, encourage overwatering, and disincentivize solar panels. Kansas state law has historically not supported home solar power, even though our state is second (behind Iowa) in terms of wind’s share of net electricity generation (43%). We are a beef-producing state, so our family has always bought beef from local producers.
I often oppose technology, materialism, and hedonism, and realize my high-consumptive emissions are contributing to the climate crisis. And at the same time, I am so used to modern comforts. The inertia of the system is ingrained in me. My wife grew up in abject poverty, and now that she has the means to buy a better life, she does. And who can blame her? Modern comforts may be costly in terms of price and emissions, but they are convenient. And convenience usually quells cognitive dissonance.
The task, then, is to make the cognitive dissonance front and center. Don’t explain it away or avoid it. Feel it. Feel selfish, sinful, and guilty. This is what I am to do more of from this point on–live more of an uncomfortable life. Specifically, my pledge includes the following changes
Eat more pea and bean protein, less chicken and pork
Take public transportation more often. I will ride my bike even when it is dangerous
Rely less on the air conditioning even when there’s a heat index.
Disobey my HOA and welcome the fines.
These small acts of resistance and uncomfortability will not drop me below the one Earth consumption threshold, but they will ensure I’m doing better than 4.6 Earths. I must own these small changes and feel proud of them. I must become comfortable with being uncomfortable.
