Treehugger writer Sami Grover recently wrote a post titled “Lifestyle Versus Political Activism: Uniting the Factions Is Essential” in which he describes his new book, “We’re All Climate Hypocrites Now.”
I was reticent and nervous about reading the book for a long time, having coincidentally just written a book, “Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle,” which was all about the importance of individual action. In fact, as Grover noted in a recent tweet, “It’s funny to me that yours and my books would even be considered to be taking opposite sides - where I see them as very complementary.”
This is, in fact, very much the case. Grover makes the important point that the ability to make lifestyle changes depends on circumstance.
Grover actually does take individual actions seriously: He insulated his house, drives an old electric car, and has an e-bike that he tried to ride to work one day. His wife warned him “you are definitely going to die” and while he was riding, he was concerned that she was probably right.
This is the essence of the issue. It is easy for some, like me, to give up driving and just use my e-bike. I live close to downtown, I work from home, and when I am teaching, I can use bike lanes, albeit generally crappy ones, all the way from my house to the university. Grover couldn’t go the same distance without taking his life into his hands. Different conditions lead to different responses. Grover writes:
Grover interviews many individuals who work at reducing their personal carbon footprints while being loud and effective climate activists. He notes that even Michael Mann, who has written that those who make a big deal about personal choices “are playing into the inactivist agenda” avoids meat and drives a hybrid. Everybody is doing it. And in the end, Grover and I end up in the same place: We need both systems-level activism and we have to make changes in our lives.
We both say much the same thing, for example, about bikes:
It’s activism that gets the safe bike lanes that Grover needs to get to work and changes the system. This applies to all aspects of the carbon footprint:
So we are not in some bunfight of different views: We come to the same conclusion. As Grover writes: “What we do know is that humanity can and must dramatically reduce its collective carbon footprint.”
We have to do it fast and we have to do it fairly. We have written different books but they are, indeed, as Grover suggested in his tweet, complementary. And they are both short and easy to read, why not try both?
“We’re all Climate Hypocrites Now” is available in bookstores and from New Society Publishers.
