Why don’t people take action on climate change?

One reason is that we want to follow social norms. For example, if everyone else in a shared home is cleaning the dishes, you will do it too. If everyone else is just leaving their stuff, you won’t bother either.

Someone has to break the cycle and wash the dishes first. Nobody wants to be the person to stand out and do something by actually washing the dishes and asking everyone else to do the same, despite everyone wanting the system to change. But, once you've done it, everyone will be grateful.

You can be that person to break the silence about action on climate change and create a new social norm. Talk about climate change, take action and tell all your friends to do the same.

Remember:

• 89% of people around the world want more climate action but most think that few other people want the same.
• More than 99% of climate scientists believe that man made climate change is happening.

There are many excuses for not acting on climate change. Here are some that I have heard and some responses that you might like to try.

Change needs to come from the top down. There’s no point in making lifestyle changes.

In some ways this is correct. Only governments can change policy on energy production, environmental protection, taxation on aviation, licences for new oil fields etc. There are a lot of things that need to happen that we can’t directly make happen. So when we vote in elections it’s important to learn what each candidate is promising to do for the climate so that we can prioritise this in our decision making.

We also need to tell our government to do the right thing. Despite about 85% of people around the world wanting more to be done for the climate, politicians often find other things to be more important and fail to take the actions we need. 

But, we all need to make some lifestyle changes so which would you prefer? For lifestyle changes to be imposed by those in authority or for you to tell those in authority and everyone else what they should be doing? Neither one is ideal. On the one hand we don’t want to be told what to do with no say in it. And on the other hand, few of us want to do research into what’s effective and become campaigners for climate action. Actually what’s needed is both of these at the same time.

People-power is incredibly persuasive. As consumers we can be very effective at changing what is being offered to us. As an example, if more people buy electric cars, manufacturers will build more electric cars and EV charging infrastructure will be installed more quickly. Also, we’re all micro influencers. We can talk with all our friends and colleagues about driving an EV and encourage them to do so too.
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Plus, it’s very easy to write to your MP. Contact details are easy to find online and you can send an email or go to one of their surgeries and speak with them face to face. If we campaign for change it can happen quickly.

China is emitting so much greenhouse gas that it's pointless for us to change anything.

In the last few decades China successfully raised millions of people out of poverty, which is an amazing achievement. And it’s true that they did much of it with coal. But they are now leading the world in renewable energy production and manufacture of renewable energy infrastructure like wind turbines and solar panels. China’s total emissions have declined in the last year despite strong economic growth.

China now leads the world in wind and solar energy production, with twice as much capacity under construction as the rest of the world combined. Between March 2023 and March 2024, China installed more solar than it had in the previous three years combined, and more than the rest of the world combined for 2023. 

But comparing emissions of countries is not very helpful because of the different sizes of the countries. It would be pointless to say that an apartment block uses more electricity than a bungalow. Instead we need to compare emissions per person. Each person living in the USA and Canada emits far more than each person in China. USA and Canada’s emissions have been dropping over the last few years and it looks like China’s will drop as well.

China has a long way to go but is now moving in the right direction at a very fast pace.

We're such a small country it's just vanity signalling. Our impact on the planet is tiny compared to big countries.

Yes, UK emissions are small on a global scale but in many ways we're leading the world by showing responsibility and by developing technology that other countries can use instead of coal. Renewable energy production is now far cheaper than coal.

We are responsible for much of the historic emissions over the last 180 years so we have more responsibility to show leadership in changing to sustainable practices.
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There’s also nothing much to lose by making the changes necessary. If we do it right we will have better quality houses, cleaner air, cheaper electricity, greater biodiversity and many other benefits.

The climate has always gone in cycles.

More than 99% of climate scientists agree that man-made climate change is happening and current global warming is not part of a natural cycle. 

Milankovitch Cycles take place over time spans of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years and are due to slight changes in the earth’s orbit and tilt along its axis.  In just the last 800,000 years the earth has been through eight cycles of ice ages and warmer periods. These can be attributed to Milankovitch cycles.
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The current warming is different and is clearly the result of human activities over the last 180 years due to greenhouse gasses released by us. The effect of carbon dioxide trapping heat in our atmosphere was first demonstrated in the mid 1800s.

We're stuffed anyway, it's too late.

It’s not surprising that many of us feel pretty despondent. We are being bombarded with news stories and images of the impacts of climate change but never with any positive actions that we can take to do something about it. We also think that few other people care about the climate.

However studies have shown that about 89% of people around the world do want more action to be taken to address climate change. Politicians still don't understand this and are heavily influenced by very large corporations that actively push against climate action. 

We are very close to triggering social-tipping dynamics. A concerted effort to correct these misperceptions could be a powerful intervention, yielding large, positive effects. Instead of following social norms towards inaction, we can unlock potent, self-reinforcing feedback cycles that drive people towards taking action for the climate.

Positive changes are happening. Worldwide GHG emissions per person are reducing. The USA has reduced its GHG emissions by 22%. Renewable energy production is now cheaper than fossil fuels. Technology is moving very fast and becoming far cheaper. The cost of solar EV cells and electric batteries for vehicles have dropped by 95%.

Change can happen very quickly. Do you remember we had a big problem with holes in the ozone layer? You don’t hear about it any more because we changed the things we needed to in order to repair the ozone layer.
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So, what do we need to do?

• eat less meat
• fly less
• tell people you want action to be taken for the climate, especially your MP
• donate to very highly effective charities such as Clean Air Task Force that can change government policy