Individual action and system change - two concepts often pitted against each other. It is, of course, the latter we need and urgently too - and we here at Flight Free USA fully believe in individual choices and actions as a given part in that.
Professor Robert Frank’s studies of “behavioral contagion” support this idea:
www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/02/20/how-peer-pressure-can-help-save-planet/
From the piece:
"Human nature is more complex than assumed in the simple models once favored by most economists.
[...]
It’s when we consider the effects of our behavior on our peers, and vice versa, that the consequences of individual decisions to reduce carbon use start to grow in importance. We know, for example, that decisions about car purchases are influenced by the actions of neighbors. In a 2008 study, economists from UCLA and Helsinki [...] found that people were 12 percent more likely to purchase a car on a given day if one of their 10 nearest neighbors had purchased one during the preceding 10 days."
If we are more likely to buy a new car because our neighbor just did...then of course our neighbors are also more likely to change their habits if they see that we are doing it, first. “The system” is made up by people. And the ripple effects of our behavior are probably bigger than we think, many times. Individual action is not “enough”, by any means (in the sense, big corporations and politics need to change already) - but what we ourselves do is part of that whole change.
“I took the train”-bragging, “I have no car”-bragging, “I never fly-bragging”, “we’re saving water”-bragging, “we cut our energy-use by half”-bragging, “we’ve gone almost no-waste”-bragging...and so on. If there’s anything in the world that’s worth “bragging” about, it’s all the improvements we’re making, and which we can inspire our peers to do, too. The border over to virtue-signaling might feel thin (and we should stay very clear from shaming each other or neglecting to see our inherent privileges or other people’s different situations and capacities)...but it’s a fine line worth looking for, when the upside of it all is to have our neighbors join the movement...right?
If you haven’t yet pledged to go Flight Free, please consider doing so here - and the most important part of it all: tell everyone you know about it, and share your story with us!