An Average Person Ruminating on Climate Change and Double-Doubles
Irvine, CA
2022, Senior, Creative Writing
Hi! It’s me, an average person who can do nothing about climate change or pollution. I’m just waiting for the corrupt, evil corporations to do something about it. Either that, or for the world to end. I know all about how terrible climate change is; I’m very educated on the crisis. It will cause extreme weather patterns like hurricanes, droughts, and wildfires. Water sources will dry up; by 2050, hundreds of millions of people will be displaced by “natural” disasters. It has the potential to be a full-on apocalypse. Isn’t it so terrible that big corporations aren’t doing anything about it? We’re talking about the potential deaths of fellow humans, puppies, and children here. Why won’t the big businesses do anything about it?
Clearly, the oil industry isn’t helping. They spend $200 million a year to lobby against it, actually. The industry has repeatedly spread misinformation about climate change, while pretending to support climate change action. But the oil industry is still a single industry. What about other giants like Google, Amazon, or the government? If they all team up, surely they can do something about this. They’re the ones who have to make changes in their business models, or invest in something more environmentally friendly. Why aren’t any of these guys doing anything about this? They’re so rich that a guy like Jeff Bezos can get in his own personal rocket and ride off into space, leaving the rest of us poor schmucks choking in the dust. If they can afford a spaceship, why can’t they make a few changes, especially if it will go towards saving our planet?
I, as an average, ordinary person can’t really do much, so these corporations have to step up their game. Well, I guess I can retweet some posts. Or even tweet some myself—an emotional, angry post about these corporations. Hmm, what else? I can also rant about the topic at great length whenever it’s brought up by my ignorant, stupid relatives who don’t believe it’s urgent—or don’t believe it’s even real. It is very real, guys, and it’s destroying the world. All 9.8 million people in the oil industry should have thought more about their career paths before choosing such vile, horrendous, rain forest-killing jobs.
At the end of the day, I’m still just one person. What can I do? Nothing, really. Maybe I have some financial issues and can’t afford all these changes. Maybe I’m just a kid. I would change to cheaper, energy-efficient LED lights, but I just don’t know how to change light bulbs. And I would eat a low-meat diet, which can cut my carbon footprint by one-third… it’s just that burgers are too juicy to give up. Not to mention BBQ ribs and fried chicken—meat tastes so amazing.
It’s a shame I can’t finish all that delicious food, though. It’s normal that I throw some away; on average, Americans throw away 40 percent of their food. A study estimated that the equivalent of 96 gigatons of CO2 emissions can be avoided by 2050 if we cut down on 50-75% of all this waste. Food takes up a lot of farm land, after all, and who knows how much energy is required to clear the fields of manure and fertilizers that bleed into our waters, polluting them with diseases and toxins. But I’m not a farmer, so I really can’t be held responsible for all the methane that is produced by the food I happily consume. It’s delicious! Want some?
I, as an average person, can do nothing, so I will do nothing about the situation, except be filled with considerable, indescribable rage and despair because the Evil Corporations—who are the only ones who can make real change—are doing nothing.
Air drying clothes? It takes so much time. And I know that my shampoo doesn’t need to arrive tomorrow, but one-day shipping is so convenient. I know trucks cause six percent of global emissions as a whole, and that my shampoo might have a few chemicals that poison fish—some of which end up in our guts—but like I said, as a single person, I can’t do anything of real significance or importance! I can’t part with my overnight shipping and plastic, one-use bags, or my chemical-laden hot dogs slathered with mustard. It’s totally different from those mustache-twirling corporations that are too lazy to make any real changes.
Anyway, what’s even the point? It all seems so hopeless, the Earth’s already destroyed, we’ll eventually die, so why bother? And I can’t believe gas prices are rising again! Not to mention taxes. Those venal, greedy government officials just want to fund their private jets. I can’t believe I voted for climate change, and they’re doing something real about it, which has an actual impact on my checkbook. Another tax raise is terrible for the economy, I say.
What’s that? Oh, my cousin just posted a picture of himself speed-boating across Newport Bay. Not a sailboat or a paddle board, but a diesel-burning motor boat spewing out carbon monoxide and leaving a scummy sheen of oil in its wake. Appalling! Absolutely appalling! Doesn’t he know that we all have to pitch in to make an actual difference? How will anyone take the cause seriously if none of its supporters do anything themselves!
We all need to make sacrifices and find creative solutions for our communities in order to lower our overall energy consumption and reduce our waste. A UCLA study found that a dorm building had a 20% decrease in energy usage by using competition and social psychology. What they did was very complicated: using a sticker chart, researchers gave each dorm room a red, green, and gold star sticker based on energy consumption (kind of like the ones we had back in first grade, now that I think about it).
The company Opower used the same idea and gave it a more real-life application. Partnering with over 100 utility companies, Opower added in the customer reports how they compared with their neighbors. I’d say it worked pretty well—in 2016, Opower saved two terawatt hours of electricity. With that, you could power an entire city’s worth of houses for over a year! All of those households found ways to cut back. Air-drying clothes. Turning off unnecessary lights. The average person is not powerless. We can all do our part against climate change. Even my idiotic, empty-headed cousin. If we all pitch in, we can make a difference. Remember, there are about 8.7 billion of us humans on the planet. If we all—
Wait! My 5-minute DoorDash double-double patty burger just arrived in its cozy Styrofoam container. Oh my goodness, look at how big it is! I’m just going to cut off 40% of it now and throw it into the trash to save some time. I’ll catch up with you later!
Reflection
I’m not saying that companies should get away without any scrutiny of their actions; the oil industry has a lot to answer for. My point is that everyone, not just companies, can do more to combat climate change. My goal in writing this was to try to get the reader to think about what they’ve done to actively fight against climate change. I’ve known many people who passionately believe that climate change is terrible, but if asked what they’ve done against it, they can’t really come up with a concrete answer. I am one of those people. Sure, I do things like picking up my trash and basic recycling, but it doesn’t feel like much. We’re always told how bad climate change is, but not much on what we can do about it. Researching for this Contest, I realized that little actions make up a lot of the affordable, efficient things that the average citizen can do. The more changes you make, the better. I found at least five changes I can make in my life over the course of writing this essay. These changes in our lifestyle may not seem like much, but they all accumulate over years as more and more people and communities join in the effort.