Activist Cara Augustenborg says individual action to cut greenhouse gases is essential, but it won't be enough without political engagement and system change.
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Climate scientists' integrity is at stake over their own action to reduce emissions, says Cara Augustenborg, a Dublin-based climate scientist and activist.
"I'm kind of approaching my carbon footprint like I approach my weight, going to the gym regularly, watching what I eat, and realizing I'm not going to lose that 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) all at once, like I want,” said Augustenborg, who is chair of Friends of the Earth Europe. "I'm going to chip away at it."
Individual actions can make a difference, Augustenborg insists. But she says that it has to come with action that brings about broader change.
The average Irish citizen has a carbon footprint of around 13 tons per year. To meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, that needs to come down to around 4 tons.
Cara Augustenborg: "The best thing you can do for the climate is have less children"Image: Scott Butner Photography Ltd.
Augustenborg has calculated she can reduce her footprint to about 7 tons, but can't achieve the rest unless Ireland's energy and transportation systems are decarbonized. She described her recent switch to an electric vehicle on her blog.
"We can be pushing all these individual change things on people, but unless the government steps up, we won't be able to reach the target," she said. "So maybe the one biggest thing you can do is to get politically engaged, because behavioral change is really slow. Too slow to stop runaway climate change."
The topic of having children is also important, but can be politically sensitive, especially if men are doing the talking, Augustenborg said. She questions whether it is right to have children at all.
Women should also speak out more about climate issues and embrace the power they have to shape climate-friendly household decisions, she added.
"There are so few women talking about it, and that means fewer women are engaged. And a lot of the big things we are talking about as far as household carbon footprint are shaped by women. Things like which car to buy, what to eat or where to go on holiday," she said, adding that her family no longer flies overseas for vacations.
The Earth is exhausted!
Globally speaking, by today — August 1 — we have used up all our natural resources for the entire year of 2018, according to the Global Footprint Network.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Living large
Each year, the Global Footprint Network — an international think tank with more than 90 partner organizations — calculates the so-called Earth Overshoot Day. This marks the date when we have used as much from nature as our planet can renew over the whole year. Think of it as a bank account with a certain budget for the year. Starting on August 1, 2018, humanity is in the red.
Image: Fotolia/Yanterric
Who needs how much?
Today, all of humanity consumes resources equivalent to 1.7 planet Earths. Needless to say, there are big regional differences: If all of mankind lived and did business like Germans, we would need more than 3 planets; the American way of life would require 4.9 planets.
Image: picture alliance/landov
Dirty work
Burning fossil fuels and wood makes up 60 percent of our ecological footprint. In absolute terms, China, the United States, the European Union and India are the world's largest CO2 emitters. Per capita consumption, however, puts those figures into perspective.
Forests under pressure
Trees provide timber, an invaluable raw material for items such as paper. But they also prevent soil erosion, help replenish the groundwater and are indispensable in climatic cycles, including as CO2 reservoirs. In Germany for example, forested area binds a mere 15 percent of the country's annual CO2 emissions. Nonetheless, 3.3 million hectares of forest are lost worldwide each year.
Image: DW/K. Jäger
Enough to go around?
Humanity is growing. New crop areas are sprouting up everywhere — and at the same time, the world is losing farmland to urban development, soil erosion and soil degradation. At the moment, each EU citizen uses an average of 0.31 hectares of farmland for the food they consume. But if resources were distributed equitably worldwide, everyone would be entitled to only 0.2 hectares.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Büttner
Overfished oceans
As we catch ever more fish, stocks are not able to recover adequately. By now, almost a third of the world's fish stocks are considered overfished, and far more than half exploited to their maximum. CO2 emissions are also acidifying the oceans, resulting in ever more difficult living conditions for marine creatures.
Water scarcity
The United Nations Environment Program estimates that almost half of the world's population will suffer from water shortages by 2030. Groundwater reserves are becoming increasingly scarce, and are often contaminated. The level of pollution in from farming and household waste in rivers, lakes and other bodies of water is in some places so high that this water is not even suitable for animals.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Gupta
Self-sufficiency on 1.8 hectares
In mathematical terms, every human would have 1.8 hectares at his or her disposal in order to satisfy basic survival needs in an ecologically sustainable fashion. But the average German, for example, consumes the equivalent of 5.1 hectares. In 2018, Germany already exhausted its bio-capacity on May 2 — and has since been living at the expense of other countries or future generations.
