Powerful people and organizations like to hide behind the concept of individual responsibility. The destruction of our environment is made to look like the result of individual choices, when really it is the result of the values and actions of corporations and governments. While we all bear a collective responsibility to protect our planet, the vast majority of us don’t have the individual power to make a meaningful difference, while those select few that do have that power are wasting it.
Who is more responsible for pollution: the consumer who buys milk in a plastic bottle and may or may not recycle it, or the corporation that chooses to sell milk in plastic bottles instead of returnable glass bottles? Who is more responsible, the commuter who takes a plane flight because it is cheaper and more comfortable than a train, or the government that chooses to subsidize air travel while ignoring railways?
Systemic change does not result from individual choices; it results from collective action. Saving our planet is cheaper than killing it, and a renewable, sustainable world is far more comfortable to live in than a dying one. The changes that we need are broad and systemic, but they are doable. We have to demand change at a systemic level, and not just ask the people with the least power to change their actions.
Jadzia is a Fulbright scholar and environmental justice activist pursuing a PhD in Ecology. After growing up on Martha’s Vineyard, she attended college at Caltech and University College London, before moving to Australia for a Fulbright scholarship at the University of Melbourne. Her work has included developing advanced imaging techniques for chronic bacterial infections and studying the microbiomes of coral symbionts to develop probiotics to support reef health in response to rising ocean temperatures.
Photographer Robyn Twomey’s Portraits on Purpose profiles people carving their own destiny in order to have a positive impact on the world. They are changemakers, cultural innovators, and sometimes troublemakers, but always good trouble.