When I hear ppl saying that we need systems change and not culture change to address #climate breakdown, I think ppl overstate the ability of top down law reform to change culture. Law reform is not particularly effective and changing culture. 1/
Guess what - the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments did not achieve the end of slavery, equality, or the right to vote for African Americans. Slave state culture maintained near total African servitude, inequality, and vote suppression for a century b/c it was in the culture. 2/
Prohibition was written into the constitution. People did not stop drinking b/c it was in the culture, and the temperance forces didn’t give resources to enforce prohibition b/c it drinking really didn’t affect them except philospophically. 3/
And Brown v Bd of Ed did not end segregated schools in this country b/c integration was not part of the culture and still isn’t - de jure segregation gave way to residential segregation b/c few whites moved to neighborhoods for the benefits of integrated schools 4/
The #climate crisis - like segregated schools, flouting of prohibition, continued race discrimination - is an aggregation of individual choices w/o regard to societal consequences. Addressing it means changing enough individuals to change culture. 5/
Which is why I keep track of my climate footprint with a 4T direct budget and plan to cut that by 50% in ten years, and to zero in 20 hrs, as suggested by #IPCCreport #SR15 and I encourage others to do so and to talk about it. /f
