Political and Social Strategies to Combat Climate Change

The Worldwatch Institute suggests moving toward collective direct action to successfully tackle key environmental issues

Political and Social Strategies: Why Green Living Must Go Beyond Individual Action

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Green living matters. However, environmentalists can miss the broader political picture when they focus almost entirely on small, day-to-day actions.

Recycling helps. Turning off lights helps. Driving less helps. Choosing efficient products also makes a difference.

However, those actions alone cannot solve climate change, pollution, resource depletion or environmental injustice.

In fact, individual action works best when it becomes the starting point for something bigger.

Green Living Must Lead to Collective Action

The truth is that most people want a cleaner environment. They want safer products. Likewise, they want better working conditions, healthier communities and a democracy that responds to public concerns.

Yet millions of people pursue these goals individually.

That’s the problem.

In State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible?, the Worldwatch Institute argued that society doesn’t simply need more environmentally perfect individuals. Instead, we need people working together to demand meaningful political, economic and social change.

Therefore, effective political and social strategies become essential.

Small Actions Are a Starting Point

Annie Leonard, a contributing author to State of the World 2013 and a leader behind The Story of Stuff, delivered one of the report’s strongest messages:

> “Small actions are a fine place to start, but they are a terrible place to stop.”

That distinction matters.

When society frames environmental decline primarily around personal behavior, responsibility can shift away from larger systems.

For example, consumers get blamed for leaving lights on. Drivers get blamed for commuting alone. Families get blamed for producing too much trash.

Meanwhile, power plants, transportation systems, industrial supply chains, building codes and corporate practices can have impacts far beyond the choices of one household.

Therefore, we shouldn’t abandon personal responsibility. Instead, we should connect personal responsibility with institutional responsibility.

Policy Can Multiply Individual Action

Consider energy efficiency.

One homeowner can install LED lighting. However, stronger efficiency standards can reduce electricity consumption across millions of homes and businesses.

Similarly, one family can purchase an electric vehicle. Yet charging infrastructure, cleaner electricity, vehicle standards and transportation policy can help millions of drivers make that transition.

The same principle applies to water conservation, renewable energy, recycling and sustainable buildings.

Individual choices create demand. However, effective policy can dramatically increase their reach.

Political and Social Strategies: The Stakes Are High

The environmental stakes continue to grow.

Therefore, society needs strategies capable of operating at the same scale as the problems.

Climate change offers perhaps the clearest example. No single household can stabilize the climate. Likewise, no individual consumer can independently transform the global energy system.

However, millions of people acting together can influence governments, corporations and markets.

We’ve seen that power before.

The Civil Rights Movement demonstrated how organized citizens could transform public debate and ultimately influence national policy. The March on Washington became one of its defining moments.

Environmental movements can learn from that history.

Organization matters. Persistence matters. Public pressure matters. Most importantly, participation matters.

Environmentalism Needs Political Pressure

Bron Taylor, a University of Florida professor and contributor to State of the World 2013, raised another important question: What happens when existing laws and political institutions fail to respond quickly enough?

That question forces environmental advocates to think beyond awareness campaigns.

Public demonstrations can matter. Community organizing can matter. Likewise, lawful direct action, voting, shareholder pressure and sustained engagement with elected officials can push environmental issues higher on the political agenda.

Moreover, businesses respond to pressure from customers, investors, employees and regulators.

Therefore, environmental advocacy needs multiple strategies working simultaneously.

Build Local Movements With Global Impact

Change doesn’t always begin in Washington.

Cities can strengthen building codes. States can expand renewable energy. Communities can protect water resources. Schools can improve environmental education. Meanwhile, businesses can reduce waste and rethink supply chains.

Local victories can then spread.

Consequently, political and social strategies don’t require everyone to participate in the same way.

Some people organize. Others educate. Some vote. Others develop technology, invest in cleaner businesses or work directly with policymakers.

The important part is connecting those efforts.

Green Living Is Still Part of the Solution

None of this makes personal green living meaningless.

Quite the opposite.

Personal choices can demonstrate that alternatives work. They can reduce household expenses. Moreover, they can create markets for cleaner products and technologies.

However, we shouldn’t confuse participation with completion.

Buying an efficient appliance doesn’t eliminate the need for stronger efficiency standards. Driving an EV doesn’t eliminate the need for cleaner electricity. Likewise, recycling a bottle doesn’t solve the larger challenge of designing products and packaging around waste reduction.

Therefore, green living should become a gateway to broader engagement.

From Individual Choices to Systemic Change

Ultimately, sustainability requires both personal responsibility and structural change.

We need individuals making smarter choices. However, we also need businesses changing practices, governments establishing effective policies and communities demanding accountability.

That’s where political and social strategies become powerful.

Start at home. Reduce waste. Save energy. Conserve water. Drive cleaner.

Then keep going.

Talk to neighbors. Support community programs. Contact elected officials. Participate in public meetings. Back businesses that demonstrate real environmental leadership. Most importantly, organize around solutions capable of reaching millions of people.

Because small actions can absolutely start change.

However, collective action can transform society.

Next Steps

Making broader change. To move people beyond the easy green actions, we need to put forward an inspiring, morally compelling vision. Once we have that vision we need to build a mass movement strong enough to make it a reality.

Building political strategies. In order to have a true and lasting effect on politics and policy, actions must connect the top-down and bottom-up approaches that currently embody environmental reform. Moreover, a diversity of styles and strategies will be needed to adapt to local contexts around the globe. In practice, these efforts depend on sound Political and Social Strategies that fit specific circumstances.

Mobilizing citizens. By implementing new technologies, shifting cultural norms, building a sustainable infrastructure, and creating new policies, we will be able to make the society-wide changes that are imperative to our success. This means calling people to action within broader political campaigns. These campaigns engage people to work together using the full range of tools available to them, including organizing, lobbying, legal actions, economic sanctions, and civil disobedience.

State of the World 2013

Worldwatch’s State of the World 2013, released in April 2013, addresses how “sustainability” should be measured, how we can attain it, and how we can prepare if we fall short.

Authors of mentioned chapters include:
Melissa Leach, Professorial Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex and Director of the Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability Centre and author of Chapter 22, “Pathway to Sustainability: Building Political Strategies.
Annie Leonard, Author and Host of the Internet film and book, The Story of Stuff; Co-director of The Story of Stuff Project; and author of Chapter 23, “Moving from Individual Change to Societal Change.”
Bron Taylor, Professor at the University of Florida, Fellow of the Rachel Carson Center in Munich, author of Dark Green Religion; Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future; and author of Chapter 28, “Resistance: Do the Ends Justify the Means?