Check if this argument sounds familiar to you: self-interested, short-term profit-driven billionaires sway global politics and hold all power over what large-scale actions are taken or not taken to curb climate change, and thus, we’re screwed.

If you’ve heard this before, that’s because it’s an incredibly common argument nowadays, particularly for young generations like ours. And it’s with good reason — it’s easy to feel that we have no control over what happens to the planet when we don’t have the platform or resources to make large-scale changes the way corporations do. Facts about political lobbying in favor of the fossil fuel industry and against climate science, for example, have been laid bare in recent years, lowering our faith in the political system that is meant to serve our best interests. In a world where human actions are gradually contributing to future conditions that will be largely unlivable for humans, addressing climate change seems like a rational step our representatives should take to serve our best interests. 

However, despite the ineptitude of those with the biggest platforms and the most influence, we should try our best to avoid abdicating our role in curbing climate change. Individual actions, like saving electricity at home, lessening our meat consumption, and shopping for less fast fashion, were touted as extremely important just a few years ago. The caveat was that the groups doing this touting, on the corporate or governmental level, often turned around and hypocritically invested in factory farming or other harmful industries. Responsibility for the future of this planet was pushed on us, the individual, uninfluential consumers, while major players continued to do whatever they wanted. This is one of the reasons many people have a sour relationship with individual actions and have given up on them.

It doesn’t help that recent data has not proven our individual efforts to be making a dent in the market. Take the meat industry as an example. According to a report from the National Library of Medicine, the number of Americans who follow a plant-based diet increased by 600% between 2014 and 2018, and interest in the plant-based food market has increased in the years since. However, the Guardian reports that meat production is still predicted to increase until 2025, at which point the U.S. may reach “peak meat” status, and production may begin to fall off. This shows that progress is slow in a time when solutions need to be implemented quickly. 

Despite this, we need to remain patient with progress. We should resist throwing our hands in the air and shouting “hypocrite” at corporations — it’s not going to move us in a productive direction any faster. When we are made to feel like our actions mean nothing, and that no one cares enough about this issue, paying more specific attention to the way we lead our daily lives can energize us. Often, the way we interact with our world is broken down into what we “should” and “should not” do, which is a perspective that can feel limiting and punitive. Why shouldn’t I use this plastic straw for my to-go cup when my to-go cup is plastic anyway? What difference does it make if I eat this burger — the cow is dead, and someone else will eat the burger if I don’t.
plastic cup and straw

What I want to propose is the cultivation of a more sustainable lifestyle that fully agrees with our morals. In other words, I think that living in a way that we can morally defend is the standard we should all set for ourselves when it comes to sustainability. This way of thinking is simple, but it has the potential to create larger ripples in society. 

If we went through our day thinking about what actions align with our values, rather than what actions matter on a global scale, we might find ourselves acting in much more conscientious ways. For example, I was raised in a house of arachnophobes who did not hesitate to smash any unfortunate spider that found its way into our home. For a long time, I normalized killing spiders, and I understand why my family members would too. What’s one spider in the grand scheme of things? If I hadn’t killed this spider, it might have been eaten by a bird or run over by a bike, so what’s the difference? The difference is that killing the spider is a decision I made, and I realized after thinking about the decision-making power that I wield as a human, that I would rather not normalize the decision to kill things. Killing seems a lot bigger than me, and definitely not something I should do for no reason other than, “This spider is ugly.”

The same logic can be applied to actions that impact our climate more directly, like eating meat. If I were asked to decide between ordering a veggie burger or a hamburger at a fast food restaurant, I might think that my choice didn’t matter. I’ve already chosen to eat at a fast food restaurant that sources from factory farms, so ordering the veggie burger won’t change how many cows were killed by the time I got here. Might as well get the beef. But where do my values come into play here? My decision won’t spare any cow’s life, but do I want to eat something that is a direct product of widespread suffering? Choosing the veggie burger in this instance makes virtually no difference in anything but my own mind and soul. I can amend my decisions, even in tiny ways, to better reflect what I truly care about.
cows feeding at factory farm

Once we begin applying this value-oriented thought process to one part of our lives, we will likely begin to notice it in others. I stopped eating meat at 11 years old and started thinking deeply about why that decision mattered to me, separate from any global pressure. Since then, I have noticed habits in more areas of my life naturally aligning with my core values, just as a result of paying more attention to them. Our core values as humans, like humility, accountability, and respect, tend to coincide with sustainable values. And, once we are able to stand by our decisions, people around us will be inclined to understand why, and they may look at their lives more closely as a result.

So, as we move through our daily lives, making decisions with the weight of the world on our shoulders, it’s worth asking; how will we avoid being hypocrites as the climate crisis progresses? How will we live out our values?