Student Series: The Urgency of Sustainability (Part II)

Student Series: The Urgency of Sustainability (Part II)

Isy Osubor is the MITOS Writing and Digital Engagement Fellow studying Mechanical Engineering with minors in Management and Literature. This post is the first in a series on the “Urgency of Sustainability,” where Isy will explore some of the impacts of anthropogenic climate change.

Isy Osubor is the MITOS Writing and Digital Engagement Fellow studying Mechanical Engineering with minors in Management and Literature. This is Part II in a series on the “Urgency of Sustainability,” where Isy will explore some of the impacts of anthropogenic climate change, how one person’s sustainable changes can make an impact on the environment, and finally what MIT is doing to combat climate change and support a more sustainable campus, city, and globe. Explore Part I here


Government interventions have so far proved insufficient
What have governments done to ward off these most detrimental effects of climate change? According to a report recently published by the UN: not enough. As of 2019, The Gambia and Morocco were the only two countries with a plan to reduce their CO2 emissions to a level consistent with limiting warming to1.5 degrees Celsius.  Overall, governments and international organizations are making incremental change, but these changes are inadequate in reversing the damage done since humans started consuming more than the Earth could provide over 50 years ago.  

Unfortunately, as a society, our economic system also rewards environmentally damaging actions—a tree, for example, is worth more, monetarily speaking, dead than alive.  Our value systems do not often align with an environmentally-friendly world. Fast fashion is on the rise, convenience and ease of access motivate many of our purchases, and global meat consumption alone is expected to increase by 1.4% each year.  To address these issues we need to create incentives for participating in sustainable behavior for both individuals and corporations alike. 

For decades now, Earth has been giving us warning signs about what is to come if we continue down this road. But, despite these many alarming findings there is still time to address damage to our planet and build more sustainable choices and policies. 

One simple thing individuals, institutions, and government can do? Talk about climate change. 

Talking about sustainable solutions
In addition to passing more environmentally friendly policies, research has indicated that there is another solution government could turn to: fostering dialogue about climate change and its impact among citizens. For example, in the US, there is mounting evidence that despite the billions of dollars’ worth of damage caused by natural disasters each year, less than 40% of US voters are “very concerned” about climate change and only about 37% of people believe that climate change will pose a threat to them in their lifetime.  

The science of climate change is complex. Compounding this is the fact that understanding the connection between the hurricane in one part of the world to the coal plant in another can be hard. One big way in which the government can help drive better knowledge about climate change is simply by fostering conversations about it. 

In a series of Yale studies, researchers found that the influence of close relationships on people’s perceptions of climate change was “massive.” In fact, “experts have long suspected that the more people discuss the topic with friends and family, the more convinced they become that climate change is happening, caused by humans, and something to be worried about.”  The problem is that too many people aren’t having these conversations, which is in part because of the “spiral of silence”—a phenomenon that says when everyone is quiet, it’s harder to speak up. As humans, and especially in countries where climate change is seen as a polarizing topic. By depolarizing climate change and making it less of a partisan topic, countries can actually accelerate each person’s commitment to a greener future. This would lead each person to lend more support for green initiatives and to be more concerned about the individual effect of their actions. 

Raising awareness is just one step. In the next blog post in this series, we’ll discuss more of what individuals can do to lessen their contributions to climate change. 
 

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