Still, there’s a lot of important actions that we don’t have the data to quantify yet. And we know that bigger shifts need to happen to stabilise the climate. For example, how much is it worth to use your skills as a lawyer to help push the industry towards decarbonising as a whole, or as a creative to stop producing adverts for fossil fuels and shift the culture?
What if you earn less than $38,000, don’t live in liberal democracy and don’t have a university degree. Is there evidence you can still help shift the dial on climate?
Then you would see the role model actions, which everyone will see. These are about taking action yourself in your own life and inspiring others.
A lot of it is about creating climate community – that’s actually the number one action as a role model. So building a group of people in your context, whether that is people who love to knit or run, or a group at work, or your friends, neighbourhood, that you can actually talk about and do climate things with. I have a climate book club that I love, for example.
There’s lots of research showing the majority of Americans and of people around the world are worried about climate change and want stronger climate action to happen, but they underestimate how much other people care about climate change. It creates this kind of loop of silence where we think, “Oh, no one else is so interested. This isn’t a topic, I’m not going to bring it up. I’m not going to ask about it in the budget at work. I’m not going to mention it in my school meeting.” So bringing it up and having these conversations is really important climate action, and it does help to shift those norms over time.