the world?

we do to save it?

Editor-in-Chief

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If not the individual, then
who's killing the world?

|! seems utterly pithy to say that the relatively broad concept
of capitalism is destroying the planet, but, well. It is.

Climate change researcher Richard Heede concluded
years ago that only 90 fossil fuel and cement producers are
responsible for nearly two-thirds of overall carbon dioxide
emissions from the past two centuries. Many of these
companies are investor-owned and have very familiar names:
Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP. Shell. State- and nation-owned
fossil fuel companies also account for a good portion of this
number as well. These companies are still extracting fossil
fuels despite the fact that even burning just our remaining
reserves would be enough to push us over a two-degree
Celsius rise. It's undeniable that corporate industry is largely
responsible for the oncoming climate disaster. Without
serious intervention on the part of our governments and
global treaties, it won't matter how many Meatless Mondays
we partake in or the fuel economy of our personal vehicle.

Returning to an individual level, there is also a wealth
discrepancy between individuals who have a higher impact
on the environment and individuals who have a lessened
impact. According to a report by British charity Oxfam, the
richest 10 percent of the global population are responsible
for approximately 49 percent of total lifestyle consumption
emissions. It's easy to see how this might be the case—at the
end of the day, a private jet or personal yacht will consume
and produce far more carbon emissions than your 20-year-old
Honda Civic.

[Climate change] is a crisis driven by the ‘haves’ which
hits the ‘havenots’ the hardest,” the report stated.

For us to have any real hope of combatting this issue,
we need to hold those truly responsible for global carbon
emissions to account.

  

The impact of the
collective

ur power and our greatest hope are in collective action.

Climate change has been cited many times by many
people as the greatest threat to our species right now, and it's
a threat that we have very little time to mitigate.

Climate change must be one of our biggest priorities
when voting—and yes, whatever your feelings on the state
of our undeniably problematic voting system, we have to turn
up to vote. Question candidates on their ties to the fossil fuel
industry. Demand better practices and stricter regulations
on all carbon-producing industries. If you have money to
invest, invest it in clean energy initiatives. It's been proven
that people, when given an affordable option, will purchase
ecological and environmentally conscionable goods. The
fossil fuel industries have throttled these options in the past,
and that's not just a paranoid statement. The General Motors
EV1—a mass-produced electric car option that was scrapped
in the '90s—is a good case study for how large corporations
have hamstrung  environmentally-friendly consumable
initiatives. We can’t let this happen in the future.

Educating yourself on and supporting Indigenous land
rights and laws is also directly tied to combating climate
change, since much of traditional Indigenous law concerns
the preservation of the land. Show up to protests, be loud,
and be an “obnoxious environmentalist.” Talk your friends
into coming with you and be frank about the reality of
impending climate change. There’s a sweet spot between the
two poles: Comforting people into inaction by assuring them
that humanity on the whole might survive despite the looming
threat of climate change-induced global catastrophes and
scaring people into inaction by making it sound like it’s too
late to do anything at all. We need to find that middle ground
that will sour people into doing what needs to be done while
we still have time.

In some ways, yes, it is already too late. Climate change
is already occurring. But we have this slight chance, this scant
decade left in which we can salvage what's left before all hope
is truly lost.