Tales from the Challenge
by Cara Lee Mahany Braithwait and Pat Patterson
Thoughts from some of the 45-plus Transportation Options Challenge participants who recently shared:
Unintended consequences: a tale of mindful consumerism, whereby a simple desire for a chocolate shake becomes a complex chain involving personal choice, business policies and governmental incentives and the customer gets a soupy chocolate shake.
A neighbor living near the UW–Madison campus wanted a chocolate shake. The neighbor called an ice cream shop in Fitchburg and placed an order for home delivery, triggering a complex chain of monetary and environmental consequences. Opting for delivery over a simple walk to the local shop was a choice of convenience over cost (in greenhouse gas emissions and the shake’s final price tag).
So . . . some things to think about:
Monetary cost of the delivery service
Does the service mitigate greenhouse gas contributions?
If we care about these factors, can we use our buying power to pressure businesses?
How do I find out if there are governmental policies that incentivize businesses to lower carbon emissions?
In The New Climate War, Michael Mann writes about his belief that adjusting our individual behaviors to live more sustainably has limited impact. Instead, he favors wider policy changes that adequately penalize emitters for the damages they cause. Of note, the fossil fuel industry, among others, has moved from problem denial to obstruction against climate change action by insisting that their customers don’t demand change. Denial has transformed into tactics of misdirection and division.
The sheer number of weather-related disasters this year suggests climate change denial has become absurd. Tom Yulsman writes in Discover magazine that it is increasingly difficult for most people to deny the impact of climate change. But, he also fears that deniers have morphed into delayism, embracing delaying strategies rather than support cures in response to the increasing weather disasters and climate change impacts.
Chief Scientist at The Nature Conservancy Katherine Hayhoe writes in The Nature Conservancy magazine that climate deniers are really those of us who fear the solutions—the impact on our finances and lifestyle. Change is happening because the impacts are closer to home, not in some faraway place. Now, it is us, our friends and neighbors and the businesses we patronize, who are being affected.
Hayhoe believes that, until recently, climate deniers were those who feared that the solutions were riskier than the effects of climate change. But now that danger is impacting everyone. Diverse, working-class coastal communities are at risk from rising sea levels, and stronger hurricanes and flooding are impacting high-end coastal real estate. And neighborhoods with few trees and a lot of concrete can be up to 20º Fahrenheit hotter in the summer.
Our small personal actions—reducing our food waste and energy consumption, trying more veggie recipes, switching to clean energy—can send a market signal. Talking about your actions can inspire others to make changes. We can alter social norms. Our power multiplies exponentially when we advocate for climate solutions in our place of work or worship, our school, or our city or state—ordinary people pushing for change.
Thoughts or stories you’d like to share? Please email mbgordon721@gmail.com and together we will share them in the blog.
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