Stoic Climate Action
“The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own ...”
(Epictetus, Discourses. 2.5.4-5)
We often confuse two questions related to addressing climate change. First, what collective actions and laws can limit the magnitude of the upcoming change? And second, which actions should I, personally, take once I understand climate change? People often conflate the two and focus their personal actions on global or national policy solutions where they have some influence but little control - solutions like a carbon tax, or a cap-and-trade system, or payments for clean energy production, or prohibitions on using polluting technologies.
Stoic writers teach that a first step when approaching an issue is to determine which actions I control and which actions are external to my control. This approach directs us to answers for the second question - which actions should I take. Choosing my personal actions is also a critical component for a collective response to answer the first question too.
The actions most completely in my control are the actions I take which cause emissions of greenhouse gasses. Today, with no new laws, I can drastically cut my emissions below our national average. I can avoid flying on airplanes and either use virtual meetings, choose vacation destinations closer to home, or find alternative methods of travel which cause lower emissions. I can make a plan to convert my car to an EV and convert my space heating and water heating to heat pumps if I own my home. I can stop eating beef and significantly reduce my purchase of meats in favor of more vegetarian options. I can buy fewer consumer goods if I have a lifestyle matching a higher income household. These are choices I actually control. I do not need anyone to write and pass new legislation directing me to make these choices. And I do not need to wait - I can act today.
I can also directly control a second tier of choices to further support reductions in our collective emissions. I can stop allowing my savings to be used to fund fossil fuel exploration, extraction and processing. I can vote in every election - an extremely meaningful action - and consider candidates' positions on climate change when I vote.
I can also direct my career or my spare time in a direction that reduces our emissions. This may involve getting an engineering degree and seeking employment in a company working on solutions, or seeking a sales job selling a product I believe will help solve the issue, or running for public office.
I can also use my voice to advocate for policies I support by speaking up, making sure all of my elected officials understand my opinion and my views on upcoming legislation, and by joining with others who share my concern. I control my voice, and I can train and practice to speak constructively.
A stoic response starts with recognizing which actions are in my control - and accepting responsibility for my own actions. Even if this involves changing habits that I may cling to as if addicted - like eating a hamburger at lunch, taking an annual ski trip out west, or attending an annual trade show in Las Vegas.
“We must give up many things to which we are addicted, considering them to be good. Otherwise, courage will vanish, which should continually test itself. Greatness of soul will be lost, which can't stand out unless it disdains as petty what the mob regards as most desirable.”
(Seneca, Moral Letters. 74:12b-13)
“Good people will do what they find honorable to do, even if it requires hard work; they'll do it even if it causes them injury; they'll do it even if it will bring danger. Again, they won't do what they find base, even if it brings wealth, pleasure, or power. Nothing will deter them from what is honorable, and nothing will lure them into what is base.”
(Seneca, Moral Letters. 76.18)
53% of Americans are alarmed or concerned about climate change. Yet only 16% of new car sales in the US are EV or hybrid and only 5% of Amerians report being vegetarians. The choices we make do not always align with our words and our concerns about climate change.
“Prove your words through your actions. They have a different aim, those declaimers who seek to win the agreement of an audience; a different aim, those speakers of the present day, who merely set out to produce a ... rant for the entertainment of the young without enough to do. Philosophy teaches us to act, not to speak. Its demands are these: each person should live to the standard they themself have set; their manner of living should not be at odds either with themself or with their way of speaking; and all their actions should have a single tenor. This is the chief task of wisdom, and the best evidence of it too: that actions should be in accordance with words, that the person should be the same in all places, a match for himself.”
(Seneca. Moral Letters 20)
The most predictable way to change our behaviors is to make a habit out of the new actions that reduce our emissions. We can explore how to make a habit of eating less meat and no beef. We can explore the habits that impact our choice of travel by internal combustion cars and by planes. Habits have a profound impact on our choices.
“Every habit and capability is confirmed and grows in its corresponding actions, walking by walking, and running by running... Therefore, if you want to do something make a habit of it, if you don't want to do that, don't; but make a habit of something else instead.”
(Epictetus, Discourses. 2.18.1-4)
In my life, I created a few habits I actively practice specifically to reduce my emissions of greenhouse gases:
Habit 1: To reduce the emissions caused by my diet I eat no beef and significantly less meat.
Habit 2: To reduce the emissions caused by my travel I research and plan out vacation destinations I can drive to and shift away from a desire to visit distant locations. This is complicated, as I had wanted to get back to Ketchum, ID; to Grindelwald, Switzerland; to Freiberg, Germany; to the Petrified Forest in New Mexico; to the Pacific Northwest - and I’d wanted to see other distant sites for the first time. But I can simply focus my attention and desires on the interesting locations within driving distance. I’ve found many drivable locations I enjoy visiting - like Seven Island State Bird Park in Tennessee and Blowing Rock in North Carolina, like hikes close to home throughout the Pisgah National Forest, like the historic towns of Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina. The simple habit and practice of exploring and then organizing trips to destinations within a day’s drive significantly reduces the emissions from choosing a more distant destination that requires air travel.
Habit 3: I reduce my future emissions by paying attention to three specific capital expenditures - replacing my car, replacing my furnace and replacing my hot water heater. I spend time before the need arises to research EVs and heat pumps. For a furnace and hot water heater, the need to act often happens when not expected.
A few years back I experienced what happens when I do not plan ahead - our hot water heater needed to be replaced and I hired a local contractor who recommended and installed another natural gas fired hot water heater. This appeared to be a rational and efficient way to get the hot water running again, but installed a gas-fired asset that typically lasts decades. My reflections back on this purchase convinced me that I need to explore options for purchases that impact my emissions over decades well before the time is upon me to make a decision.
“All you need are these: certainty of judgment in the present moment; action for the common good in the present moment; and an attitude of gratitude in the present moment for anything that comes your way.”
(Marcus Aurelius, Meditations. 9.6)
I have had more than one friend tell me that the problem is too big for their individual actions to make any difference. But that is a fallacy. Climate change is a complex problem specifically because it is the results of the actions of billions of individuals. All of the petroleum refined into gasoline would still be gasoline if consumers did not burn it in internal combustion engines. It is not about blaming myself (or blaming an oil company), instead the conversation is about acknowledging and accepting my contribution. If I don’t accept responsibility for my contribution, why should others accept constraints I lobby to put on their actions?
We need collective action to slow our global rate of greenhouse gas emissions. And today, right now, we can accept responsibility for the choices that are our own and reduce our emissions. If the 55% of Americans concerned or alarmed about climate change would act accordingly, we would collectively reshape our economy. This includes our purchases and our diet and extends to our votes, our investments and the use of our voice.
“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
(Marcus Aurelius, Meditations. 10.16)