Yes, I'm an environmentalist. Yes, I'm also a hypocrite.
It's time to get comfortable living in hypocrisy as a climate activist, because it's pretty much unavoidable.
The journey of a climate activist–or someone who is just generally interested in doing their bit to support the planet–often goes something like this: You’re minding your own business when you come across a news article, a headline, a social media post declaring that climate change is ever looming and you, yes you, should probably do something about it. Yeah, you think I really should try to lower my impact. Off you toddle to do some research on what actions you can take, probably Googling something akin to “what can I do about climate change” as thousands have done before you. You probably buy a reusable coffee cup, perhaps grabbing yourself one of those produce bags to save on plastic waste.
Then the next time you go to the coffee shop and proudly hand over your mug, you see the barista make your iced latte in a plastic cup, only to pour it into your travel cup to pass back to you. A bit miffed, you walk into the local supermarket and whip out your produce bag to buy some fruit and veggies, but you notice half of what you want to buy is only available in plastic packaging. Undeterred, you do some more research on what other actions you can take. You learn about the woes of fast fashion and tell yourself you will no longer buy it. The next day you find yourself in Primark on your break, because you need some new leggings and the £85 price tag online for the organic bamboo ones was too much to bear.
Then it starts getting confusing. You read that almond milk actually uses tonnes of water to produce, so one article tells you to drink cows' milk, and another suggests oat milk instead. You realise that eco soap you bought still has palm oil in it, which is bad. Oh no wait, it’s okay. No, actually you were mistaken, it is actually bad. You sign a petition to stop a new oil pipeline from being built, then feel criminal as you get in your car to drive to work. You feel confused, helpless, guilty, and like a big fat hypocrite.
A word that gets thrown around a lot in the climate space. X is a hypocrite for doing that climate talk, and then taking a cross-country flight. Y is a hypocrite for going to a climate protest, and then ordering off Shein the next day. I’m not saying these aren’t valid criticisms. It’s important to look at your own actions and understand where you’re going wrong but to call hypocrisy on these actions and ignore everyone’s personal journey is a disservice.
We need to get a few pretty morbid facts straight: pretty much everything we do is “bad” for the planet. Up to 99% of the things around you are made directly from or through the use of fossil fuels. You cannot live a “pure” sustainable lifestyle in our economy.
Let’s focus primarily on that last point. Because, as environmentalists, we will always be fighting an uphill battle as long as we live in our current financial system. We’re made to feel guilty (by others, and by ourselves) for our polluting activities whilst living in a system that practically compels us to partake in these activities.
Our activism isn’t meant to be about pursuing purity, it’s about doing–and being–better. I may be writing this on a machine (albeit, a second-hand one) that contains conflict minerals mined by slave labour, but this machine is the only reason I know about any of the environmental problems we face, and it’s one I use to help others understand these issues, too.
In the book Climate by Charles Eisenstein, he discusses how hypocrisy is a double bind. This is a situation where you are presented with two conflicting demands or a choice between two undesirable courses of action. Our current ecocidal economic system puts us in a double bind in our daily lives: success in meeting one imperative (financial and personal security) creates failure in meeting another (servicing planet Earth). He goes on to say:
“It might be helpful to illuminate hypocrisy as a means to reveal the double bind beneath it, to say, in a spirit of alliance, ‘Let us do something about this dilemma together.’ But attacking people or corporations for their hypocrisy does no good whatsoever. If the underlying dilemma is not addressed, at best they will make superficial changes to avoid the appearance of hypocrisy. So both greed and hypocrisy–the favourite targets of environmental righteousness–share a common root in our economic system. If greed drives the consumption of nature and if hypocrisy enables it to continue, then we must transition to a different kind of economic system, one that no longer generates greed by separating us from the real wealth of human and natural relationship, and that no longer feeds hypocrisy by facing us with an impossible dilemma.”
None of this is to say you shouldn’t do anything if you can’t do everything. It’s just to emphasise that it’s okay to pick your battles sometimes. I, myself, eat vegan, don’t buy fast fashion, and take public transport, but I’m still pretty bad with plastic waste. Whereas someone else could live a plastic-free lifestyle, but still drive a gas-guzzling truck. Who can decide which is ultimately better for the environment? Do we have to get into an argument about carbon calculating, or can we agree both of us are trying to do better?
It’s important to focus on the thing(s) you’re passionate about, and doing so will help keep you on track. If you’re really passionate about orangutans, then ditching palm oil might be in your ability, but if you’re more drawn to keeping plastics out of the ocean, going plastic AND palm oil free might be too much for you.
So get comfortable with hypocrisy, because you have to live in it as a climate activist (environmentalist, tree hugger, or whatever you want to call yourself), and understand that climate action is more than making eco swaps, it is a continuous process which will involve a lot of introspection and unlearning.
Be kind to yourself, don't judge others, and support your fellow environmentalists when they ask for it.
Inspiration and resources
Thanks for this reminder that it's impossible to be perfect, and that we need to design systems without the double bind (living at an ecovillage was a foray into one such system where it was a lot easier to be sustainable). I think perfectionism is what makes me feel guilty about the double bind. Instead of realizing that I'm in a double bind I turn the dagger on myself. A poem I wrote about eco-perfectionism, which echoes what you've written about here:https://open.substack.com/pub/environmentalhealth/p/the-diaper-at-vernooy-kill?r=1yt4v&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web . Thanks for writing this! It's nice to know I'm not alone in these struggles. Also, there is the book "no impact man" which for me showed how hard it was to have no impact in the current mainstream extractive civilization
Brilliant!