Want to Stop Climate Change? Get a New Job!
The world needs your abilities
The more I read about climate change, the more I read about solutions that will not and cannot work. Some of the favorites include degrowth, carbon taxes, reduced consumption, veganism, cessation of burning stuff, transition, simplicity, population reduction, and more. Typically, they sound like this: “We need to…” fill in the blank… end our gluttonous ways, stop eating meat, tax carbon, get over the consumerist mentality.
I’m sorry, but it is time to call bullshit.
The problem with all of them is that they require people to choose against their desires and they require leaders to rise above the system to make changes that are good for the planet. When was the last time you saw a political leader do that? And when was the last time you saw people choose against their perception of what is good for them?
Let's get real. All these voices are selecting a philosophy and solution that works for them and then insisting everyone else should be like them. Advocating veganism as a solution? Good chance you are a vegan and you like it. Advocating population reduction? You probably chose not to have kids. Promoting degrowth? Good chance that, unlike most others, you are set up to thrive in a degrowing economy.
“We need to end consumerism,” someone said. Yeah? Who is this “we?" And what would that "we" actually do? Would we burn down the stores where consumerism occurs? End advertising as we know it? Stop producing food, clothing, shoes, and cars? Do "we" want to build a drab society of sameness—like Henry Ford's "you can have any color you want so long as it is black?"
You see, these are empty, vacuous calls for change. They are utterly meaningless. Everyone thinks they are “speaking truth to power” or “calling for change” but it is meaningless. There are no specifics. Nothing changes. There is no prescription, and no responsibility to actually change.
So, what do you do if you want to affect climate change?
GET A NEW JOB!
Get a job focused on the things that matter—new sources of energy and new tools and products that run on them. New sources of energy include solar, wind, geothermal, battery research, electric grid management, and more. New tools and products are everything electric—heat pumps, electric vehicles, electric water heaters, electric trucks, and more. Bring your engineering, marketing, business, HR, and other skills to those efforts because that's what is needed and that's what will make a difference.
Not in business? Teach kids the solutions to climate change. Preach to your congregation the solutions to climate change. Advocate policies that will enhance the real solutions.
Look, the only way to unleash the creativity and power of the human spirit in the service of climate solutions is to make the solutions the focus of our employment. All of us put our best energy into our jobs, and we put most of our energy into our jobs. If your job isn’t part of making the necessary changes in technology happen, then you, my friend, are part of the problem. If your job isn’t part of making the necessary changes in the world happen, then you, again, are part of the problem. The world needs your genius, your ability, and your unique abilities to solve this problem. Why do you hold them back? Sitting back and dictating to others that they have to live like you just isn’t going to cut it.
If you want to make a real commitment to climate change, get a new job so that you can commit forty, fifty, or sixty hours a week to it. But focus on real solutions, not unrealistic campaigns to get everyone to live differently. Those are doomed to failure.
What Henry Ford had right was this: If the system produces only one thing, then that is the thing people will buy. That is, you change things by changing the choices the system offers, not by getting people to adopt different lifestyles. When all our electricity comes from wind, solar, geothermal, hydro, and nuclear sources, people's lifestyles won't matter—they will only be able to buy renewable energy. When the only cars out there are EVs, just as for the last 100 years they were only internal combustion engine cars, that’s what people will buy. When heat pumps can heat any home in any place, and gas-burning furnaces are no longer available, people will be warm with heat pumps and they will not burn stuff to stay warm.
Friends, this is not rocket science. It is far easier to make a solutions-based technology ubiquitous than it is to take society back to caves. It is easier to give people better solutions and eliminate the stupid ones than it is to dictate their diets. But to do so, the world needs your best work, your best energy, and your best commitment. Make climate change solutions your job, and you will change the world.
Anthony Signorelli
See my other newsletters listed below. They are all free to sign up, but note that I would really appreciate your financial support with a paid subscription to at least one of them. It’s like public radio, and each subscription makes a big difference!
Poetry at Soul Food by Anthony.
Writing for Writers at Write On!
Arguments with Books that take on the biggest cultural ideas of our times.
“cessation of burning stuff”
Actually, this is the only thing that WILL work.