We know that humans are herd creatures, we like to be the same as the people around us (even as we pretend we don't). This is one of the problems of combating climate change we think that what we see around us is normal and average. This means that Australians can be the highest carbon dioxide emitters in the world ( we just beat the US and Saudi Arabia last week) and think that we are not excessive. And yet two households living in the same suburb can have widely different carbon footprints due to different behaviours, house energy efficiencies, appliances and vehicles. To the general observer they look the same because so many of the ways to reduce your carbon footprint are invisible. No-one can see your electricity bills, your insulation, your car fuel efficiency, your choice of energy efficient appliances and lights and you turning them off at the switch each night. They don't see the things that you deliberately don't buy, the car and plane trips you don't take or the children you chose not to have. Also invisible are many of the collective climate change actions we can take. Other people don't see the way you vote, the petitions you sign or letters you write to politicians.
This invisibility acts to make everyone think that nobody cares about climate change, and leads to powerlessness and despair.
There are a few ways currently existing where people can see the efficiency of appliances with the star system, the Australian Capital Territory requires houses being sold to have a energy efficiency rating on the advertisement and electricity bills may have a household's energy use compared to the average for the area at that time of year. But if we are going to make having a small carbon footprint the societal ideal we are going to have to make the invisible visible.
The first and easiest is to talk about climate change and what we are doing about it. We can do this at home, work and in community. Talk about your worries about climate change and the individual and collective things you are doing about it. At first it can be hard to insert climate action into your conversation. There are quite often eco challenges you can do and get your friends involved it. This makes talking about climate action fun and competitive and normalises talking about it.
Talk about what you are doing on social media. Calculate your global footprint and post it along with your plans to lower it. If you get insulation take photos and post about it. If you go to a climate talk or march take photos and post them. If you have managed to drop your electricity consumption below the average for your area brag about it on social media. Friends and family will see you taking action and be inspired to take action themselves. Join groups on social media that are concerned about climate change and share ideas and challenges with them. Change your header and profile pictures to reflect your concerns. I share a graphic every day with what I have done to reduce climate change as a way of normalising that everyone should be doing something every day for climate action.
Invite people to your home so they can see the differences. This creates a natural environment to talk about changes in the house environment or behaviour that help climate action. At work you can ride your bike to work, bring your plant based lunch without plastic, bring a keep it cup or show pictures of your climate march signs. The idea is to start conversations.
Write letters to the local paper about climate change and what you are doing about it. Wear a t-shirt with a climate change message.
While most of your action is going to be invisible and you are trying to make it visible by talking about it, sometimes you need to be really visible. And the more establishment and higher up in societal structure you are the more important it is to be visible. You need to be seen at the talks on climate, the Climate Strikes, the Fridays for Future actions, the candidate forums and even the Extinction Rebellion events. The more "respectable" you are the greater the impact you have in being visible. People are more likely to change if they feel that "respectable" people who they admire are doing something. To get societal change we need 3.5% of the population to be actively involved in demanding change. that means we need you and we need to be visible.
What ways can you think of to make climate actions more visible?
This invisibility acts to make everyone think that nobody cares about climate change, and leads to powerlessness and despair.
There are a few ways currently existing where people can see the efficiency of appliances with the star system, the Australian Capital Territory requires houses being sold to have a energy efficiency rating on the advertisement and electricity bills may have a household's energy use compared to the average for the area at that time of year. But if we are going to make having a small carbon footprint the societal ideal we are going to have to make the invisible visible.
The first and easiest is to talk about climate change and what we are doing about it. We can do this at home, work and in community. Talk about your worries about climate change and the individual and collective things you are doing about it. At first it can be hard to insert climate action into your conversation. There are quite often eco challenges you can do and get your friends involved it. This makes talking about climate action fun and competitive and normalises talking about it.
Talk about what you are doing on social media. Calculate your global footprint and post it along with your plans to lower it. If you get insulation take photos and post about it. If you go to a climate talk or march take photos and post them. If you have managed to drop your electricity consumption below the average for your area brag about it on social media. Friends and family will see you taking action and be inspired to take action themselves. Join groups on social media that are concerned about climate change and share ideas and challenges with them. Change your header and profile pictures to reflect your concerns. I share a graphic every day with what I have done to reduce climate change as a way of normalising that everyone should be doing something every day for climate action.
Invite people to your home so they can see the differences. This creates a natural environment to talk about changes in the house environment or behaviour that help climate action. At work you can ride your bike to work, bring your plant based lunch without plastic, bring a keep it cup or show pictures of your climate march signs. The idea is to start conversations.
Write letters to the local paper about climate change and what you are doing about it. Wear a t-shirt with a climate change message.
While most of your action is going to be invisible and you are trying to make it visible by talking about it, sometimes you need to be really visible. And the more establishment and higher up in societal structure you are the more important it is to be visible. You need to be seen at the talks on climate, the Climate Strikes, the Fridays for Future actions, the candidate forums and even the Extinction Rebellion events. The more "respectable" you are the greater the impact you have in being visible. People are more likely to change if they feel that "respectable" people who they admire are doing something. To get societal change we need 3.5% of the population to be actively involved in demanding change. that means we need you and we need to be visible.
What ways can you think of to make climate actions more visible?
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