There is an ongoing debate in some environmental circles about whether we need to change our personal behavior to combat climate change, or if we need to stop blaming the victim and reform corporate behavior.
We all agree on one thing. If we are to save our planet, and everything as we know it today, we need to stay below the 1.5 degree Celsius rise in global temperature.
What seems to be the issue is that some are saying that we need to change corporate behavior. We need to make companies, and governments responsible for the mess that they make and continue to make. Climate change is here, and it is such an overwhelming problem, that it needs to be handled at a macro level. I agree totally.
100 companies are producing the majority of green house gases. Corporations have polluted our oceans, land and air with plastic particles, methane, CO2 and other toxic chemicals. This needs to stop, and the polluters need to be responsible. Their behavior needs to change.
At the same time, unless we change our personal behaviors drastically, we will never achieve sustainability and adaptability, let alone drawdown. It is our personal behavior that has the power. Every item we buy, use, waste etc. has consequences. I agree totally.
I think we as individuals drive what the government and consumer markets do. We vote not only in political elections, but with our buying power. Our thoughtless behaviors either allow continued fossil fuel markets, the filling of our landfills, factory farming, the incineration of our waste and the rising temperatures that they cause. Our personal behavior needs to change.
So, for me, there is no debate. If we really want to address climate change, it needs to be at every level, from our individual behavior, to corporate behavior to governmental intervention and it needs to start today.