BASIC COACHING

Take the long view. The climate crisis is so very weird—the slowest train wreck imaginable. Multigenerational, even. Today’s heat and smoke events are the culmination of our own, our parents’, and our grandparents’ carbon emissions. We are now in the era of climate consequences, of great urgency, but—still—this is a long-term process of transformation. Even the marathon—rather than a sprint—analogy isn’t right; it's much longer than a marathon. It’s more like an entire sports career. As such, we will rise and fall, ebb and flow in our efforts to change.

Steady, fact-based, planful progress wins the day. Resist the urge to launch too many projects or actions at once.  Push, but pace yourself. Take one to two actions at a time. It’s easy to overestimate what you can do in a year, and underestimate what you can do in five. 

There are no silver bullets: big reductions come from taking action consistently across a spectrum of priorities. A lot of folks think buying an electric vehicle (EV) grants them a carbon dispensation for life—sorry, but no. While EVs are awesome, the average American converting from a gas to electric car powered by 100% renewable electricity (note: requiring two major steps) reduces their carbon footprint by 26%—that’s awesome, and there’s more to do. For most people, the most impactful individual actions (like not eating beef, shifting heating from a gas furnace to an electric heat pump, or radically reducing flying) each result in a 15-20% reduction in carbon footprint at best. This is one of the toughest things about climate action—there are so few things that seem like that big a deal on their own, and it’s too easy to just write it all off. Consistency and completeness over time is what will get us there.

Create your ideal end state and plan how to get there (Zero Over Time). Thinking through where you’d like to end up on your decarbonization journey, and calculating that carbon footprint, will get you thinking about how to get there. Even a basic plan outlining what you’d like to do in specific years inspires action; for many, a more detailed plan will allow for a more complete, thorough approach. 

Anticipating long-term purchases of items such as furnaces, cars, appliances, etc., where both fossil fuel and electric fuel options are available, is important. Across the US, 25% of our electricity is already produced by renewable sources, and this is rapidly accelerating—in many places you can specify/upgrade to 100% renewable electricity today. Major purchases last a couple decades, and if you are replacing gas items, now is the time to electrify, rather than waiting until the next replacement. We need to see this as a 10- to 20-year process, and start acting now on the transition as opportunities arise.

Less is more. I shy away from spiritualizing or philosophizing decarbonization, but I do think it brushes up against those worlds. If there is a change in values that helps drive decarbonization, I think that change has to do with simplicity. Our world is just so busy, complex, exhausting—and super carbon intensive. Purging mentally and materially is a core strategy to have the clarity of mind and spirit to pursue a zero-carbon life.