Hooked on Emitting CO2, Making Change Is Probably Already Too Late

The average American produces an additional 1,400 pounds of CO2 emissions during the holiday season. That is the roughly the equivalent of driving around in a car for three weeks. How you ask? Wrapping paper for one — in the UK 226,000 miles of decorated paper is used each December. Christmas and the lights and decorations that cover them add to the total. Food waste. Driving to the shop to the in-laws house adds up, also.

I wonder was Christmas, Hanukah and the other end-of-year holidays discussed at COP26?

The Glasgow Moment

The big climate meeting in Glasgow, Scotland is in the books and the world’s leaders have returned to their respective capitals to issue statements about how so much good was accomplished. I am sure they believe that — hope dies last.

I would like to believe it, also. My need to believe is not so much for me but for my son. The reason why I am skeptical, however, is two part. Firstly, so far nothing they “leading” countries have agreed to so far has been enforced in any way to make a difference.

Secondly, none of us are ready to do what really needs to be done. We are so entrenched in our habits, which really aren’t morally bad ones, that we just can’t fathom how all-encompassing, how completely uprooting the effect will be in our lives.

Take the meeting itself. While there are no statistics yet available on how many CO2 emissions were generated by delivering tens of thousands of our fellow humans from all over the planet to Scotland, we can look at past events. The Paris Climate Talks of 2015 generated 300,000 tons of CO2 emissions.

That sounds like a crazy amount, right? It’s not really, though, and that’s the problem. Nothing any one thing any of us does, not even that historic event, which led to a legally-binding agreement between 196 nations to cut emissions, ever seems like it’s so much that we shouldn’t go on ahead and continue the behavior needed at the moment. The prevailing mentality seems to be that, well, once everyone else gets on board, then I’ll change.

Alone, that (300,000 tons) looks like a really big number. Compared to the entire world, which produces about 80 quadrillion pounds of CO2 each year, it’s not much. In fact, all the travel for all the people to and from Paris equals about 22 seconds of global CO2 emissions. Add in two weeks of hotels, taxis, espressos, pastries, and wine toasts, and you can probably tack on another half second or so (Paris Climate Talks).

See, not much, right? But it is because we have been doing those annual numbers, or something like them, for the past 150 years at least. With each new discovery that the best of humankind came up with since the 1870’s or so, life was made better and easier. Life expectancy was vastly increased and we were doing amazing things with our abilities.

Eventually, however, the model chosen for humanity’s future, the American one of mass-consumption, began to take it toll on the earth’s ability to remove that waste. Most world economies now look at consumer spending as one of the most important indicators of positive growth. Supply has to exist and demand has consume those goods for people to have jobs — happiness is always the next model of whatever.

Photo by Laura Rivera on Unsplash

Each year sees the production of 20–25 million tons of e-waste, categorized as unwanted electronics such as computers, phones, printers, and fax machines. Households, businesses, and governments all bear responsibility for this figure. As the amount of e-waste increases, it has also spread across international borders, with large amounts being transported overseas for disposal to lower income countries. As a result, e-waste is becoming a global problem, with its disposal releasing ever higher levels of greenhouse gasses (E Waste).

The “next model” phenomenon is not limited to just cell phones and PC’s, however. It is for everything. The purpose of the marketer is to sell to you Brand A and then slowly convince you why Brand A version 1 is actually better — many of us feel the pangs of inadequacy because we don’t have the next and the best.

Driving, Food Waste and Just Life in General

Not all the world drives as much as Americans. Much of the world, however, would love to drive as much but either they are predominantly set in extreme urban environments and so just can’t; or, they are set in extreme and poor rural ones and so also don’t have the luxury of owning a car. Nevertheless, the “carred” countries, the G20, for example, do enough driving for everyone else and then some.

71 million new cars will be made in 2021, an increase from 63 million during 2020. We have all heard about how hot the new and used car markets are in the US. People are paying full price for cars they don’t always meet their specifications because the demand is greatly outstripping supply. But my question is, aren’t people paying attention to what is going on around us? Doesn’t the rapidly deteriorating climate make anyone hesitate for a second before buying another car?

It would seem no, right? While there might be some good to the purchasing of newer, more green vehicles, what should really be going on at this stage of the impending climate catastrophe is that governments should both be motivating people for not using cars; and, they should be making easier for people to not have to rely on cars for literally everything.

The car, though, is the perfect example of why our habits are simply too entrenched to make real, if any, changes. Since mass-production of the automobile began in 1913, the car has done more to alter the ways humans live than perhaps anything else. The only other thing that might have been more disruptive was electricity. In 2021, transportation accounts for 29% of all US greenhouse emissions. Electricity accounts for 25%.

The car led to the creation of the strip malls, convenience stores and fast food with the drive-thru, etc. and Americans all over the country, rather than walk a few blocks to these places, drive to them. Everything about our economy and mindset craves more comfort, more convenience and both of those things require the generation of more CO2 emissions.

It’s peanuts, you say, right? One person not driving to the 7/11 that is literally less than a quarter of a mile away is not going to safe the earth. One person not choosing not to buy water in plastic bottles will have no effect is not going to safe the earth. The problem is that hundreds of millions, even billions, suffer from that same doubt each day — and most people also aspire to have more comfort, more convenience and to acquire more goods which poison our climate.

Let’s think about how food gets wasted every single day by each of us. Let’s think about how many appliances, computers and lights are currently being fed electricity at this moment. Think about the list of things you hold in your head that you want buy.

Almost every single one of us tomorrow, even if we tried, could not live a fully CO2 emissions-free day. We don’t know how to that and really we can’t do that. Everything we do produces CO2. Our aspirations produce even more — one person dreams of taking a trip around the world on a plane and another dreams of owning her own private plane. Every act we take emits carbon.

Simply put, the epidemic of obesity results in higher carbon emissions than that of a non-obese person.

I have been told that altering personal behavior has almost no effect on combatting climate change. Cutting out one “bad” habit, on a daily basis multiplied by 8 billion could have an effect.

Think about the epidemic of obesity that is unfolding worldwide. The carbon footprint of an obese is probably higher than that of a non-obese one — assuming that the non-obese person isn’t a frequent flyer.

What’s important, however, about getting people to make the small changes is that we can start thinking differently. Today, climate change activism for many begins and ends with recycling. Some go a step further and don’t use plastic bags of straws. These actions are great but what many of these “activists” are not understanding is that air conditioning being run nearly year round is bad — “oh, I know, today’s not so hot but it will waste more to open all the windows and then re-cool the house on the next hot day.”

Not too long ago, we sat on porches, slept with windows open and if really hot used fans. Some people use a fan and the AC. People aren’t thinking that maybe they should drive less — have no drive days; but then again, is that even possible in the US? In many cases, our habits are actually necessities for living.

The Holiday Season

Every single appliance in your home, TV’s, ovens, PCs, WIFI, etc. is creating CO2 emissions. It’s the holiday season and now many of us are going add to the more emissions waste. in 2020, CO2 emissions increased by 2% worldwide when compared to November.

Most us do more of something in December. Many people around the world buy more food in December to make sure they have everything covered — the “just in case” theory. We eat more and that means we flush more which means we make more waste. Everything is more.

Trying making this holiday season about less: take some car-free days; have just enough food; don’t wrap gifts but maybe cover them in decorative blankets that signify one member of your household. Don’t buy those glossy gift bags people use for presenting gifts; only turn the holiday lights on for a few hours each day; get creative and thing how you can give back to humanity rather than taking from the future.

We aren’t bad people because we consume so much — we are acting the way we have been taught. We are doing what humans have done for millennia. It is now time, however, that we fight the urges to always seek convenience and comfort and all of the “gadgets” that make those states of being possible.

Humans will change, though, but only after too many of us have been wiped away by the unforgiving anger of mother nature.

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This post was previously published on Medium.

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