We Are the Weather

It’s a shame that instead of having a minority of climate atheists, we have a majority of climate agnostics.

Not eating animal products for breakfast and lunch has a smaller CO2e footprint than the average full-time vegetarian diet.

We dramatically overstate the role of science deniers, because it allows science acceptors to feel righteous without challenging us to act on the knowledge we accept.

No animal products for breakfast or lunch. It might not amount to precisely the reductions that are asked for, but it’s just about right, and easy to remember.

When a radical change is needed, many argue that it is impossible for individual actions to incite it, so it’s futile for anyone to try. This is exactly the opposite of the truth: the impotence of individual action is a reason for everyone to try.

And we have to acknowledge that change is inevitable. We can choose to make changes, or we can be subject to other changes

Parks was brave for being the hero of her story, but heroic for being one of its authors.

“We have to do something,” we tell one another, as though reciting the line were enough. “We have to do something,” we tell ourselves, and then wait for instructions that are not on the way. We know that we are choosing our own end; we just can’t believe it.

We eat as families, communities, nations, and increasingly as a planet. Individual consumer choices can activate a “complex, recursive dynamic”—collective action—that is generative, not paralyzing. While the act of suicide can influence others, it is a final influence. We couldn’t stop our eating from radiating influence even if we wanted to.