The middle class climate crisis

Comfortable, well-to-do middle class guy talking about fixing the climate problem: The solution is voting for Democrats, especially Biden. Your lifestyle changes are ridiculous.

Second well-to-do middle class guy: Ha, yeah, so true. Way better than adopting a vegan or vegetarian lifestyle.

Me: It’s not a problem, it’s an emergency. Taking all possible action on all levels is critical.

First middle class guy: Yeah, no kidding. It’s just performative virtue signaling.

Second middle class guy: Yep, we can’t be purists about this. The real game in town is voting and policy. Sure, they’re not perfect but better than the other guy. Your actions don’t matter and may do more harm than good. Hold your nose and vote, that’s really the only way to go.

Me: It’s not a problem, it’s an existential crisis. I vote. But I also look at the track record of a governmental system that clearly has not, to this day, acted with speed and conviction. I vote but I also acknowledge the reality, the facts of the record of a broken political and legislative process that has been bought and paid for. But yes, yes, I vote.

But unlike some, I don’t stop there. I’m not willing to put my personal maximum comfort, my convenience, my hyper-levels of consumption, my assumed right to air-travel - above the future survival of my fellow humans. So, unlike some that will vote and call it a day, I’ll vote and do more. Unlike those that have what THEY need to be comfortable (for now) I’ll also consider those that do not and I’ll act in every other way that is possible including silly, quaint and trivial lifestyle changes.

I’ll live as though my ethical, daily choices matter because my conception of “We the people” includes me. My understanding of democracy means that I can act in more ways than one. As a citizen I refuse to offload my responsibility to the future to a limited electoral process. I choose to act as though We the people should be more than occasionally stepping into a voting booth.

Of course I’ll vote. I also protest when possible. I’ll also make phone calls, write letters to the editor (mostly a thing of the past) and send emails. I’ll act alone and with others to initiate local actions for local change.

And I will do everything else that I possibly can because decades of evidence shows me that voting alone is likely putting all our eggs in one basket, a basket that’s being held by a fox.