New Year’s Review
Approaching New Year's Eve I isolate time to review the last year and think about the upcoming year. I enjoy exploring the most memorable and important events over the last year and thinking ahead to assure that I take memorable and important actions in the next year. I also review my financial situation - this effort is quantitative as I take the time to sort out what I spent over the last year, and how my budget looks for the upcoming year (and beyond). Reflecting on my actions and identifying actions I want to take helps me keep an honest assessment of my life and my budget and also helps me live the life I choose.
This year I added a new category to review that I’ll pitch as a meaningful process for others who are concerned about climate change: I evaluate my emissions of greenhouse gas over the last year, and I explore how I can further reduce emissions in the upcoming year. The actions I review include actions to reduce the emissions I cause as well as actions to support policies that would reduce our collective emissions.
Climate change can appear to be a massive, systems issue where my behavior doesn’t matter that much. But at it’s heart it is a problem of individual people acting without regard for the aggregate consequences. Stone, Patton and Heen have a word of advice for those of us engaging in this difficult conversation: “By identifying what you are doing to perpetuate a situation, you learn where you have leverage to affect the system. Simply by changing your own behavior, you gain at least some influence over the problem.” (Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton & Sheila Heen. 1999. Difficult Conversations; How to discuss what matters most. Viking Publishing. Chapter 4, page 70.)
I do put time into advocating for national, state and local policies aimed at reducing our collective emissions - but I will not ignore my own emissions while pointing the finger at others and implying my actions do not contribute directly to our emissions.
I also choose to leverage my own example. If I advocate for climate action yet I do not act to address my own contribution, my actions speak louder than my words. I don’t expect an elected legislature to pass meaningful laws requiring that I change behaviors I am not trying to change on my own. Furthermore, all of us look to our friends and peers to evaluate what is acceptable behavior. And just as I judge my behavior against friends and peers, others evaluate their behavior based on what I do.
“Even those who fully appreciate the extent to which our own behavior is influenced by peers have tended to ignore the significance of causal arrows running in the opposite direction: what we ourselves do also influences the behavior of others. Individuals naturally pay little heed to that reverse link because any specific choice has only negligible influence on social environments overall. But the aggregate effects of our choices on those environments are of course anything but negligible. They shape the very essence of social forces that influence us.” (Frank, Robert H. 2020. Under the Influence; Putting Peer Pressure to Work. P. 69)
I invite you to join me in this evaluation. As New Year's Day approaches, take time to explore your emissions from 2022 and think ahead to how you can reduce your emissions in 2023 and beyond. The emissions from our actions matter, and our example influences our peers.
A great place to start your review is at the CoolClimate Calculator - click and get started. The co2mmit blog has a couple examples of people exploring their emissions: Tom Moyer on August 1, 2022 and Don Addu on August 17, 2022. Please let me hear about your exploration through email or @co2mmit on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.