By John Crowley
John Crowley is a violist originally from Ballston Lake, New York. He is a member of the Maple Quartet and a long time fan of the string quartet repertoire. Year round, John spends a lot of time outdoors, and especially loves exploring mountains!
It’s Saturday, the 30th of November. Around 9am I wake up to the sound of my iPhone alarm, powered by a lithium-ion battery. I turn on the light at my nightstand, and walk over the lamp next to my monstera to turn on its grow light. I use hot water from the shower to wet my hair, and cold water to brush my teeth. My breakfast is the remaining two Eggo waffles from their package – Iheat them in my toaster, discarding the cardboard packaging and plastic bag. Around 11am is my first rehearsal of the day, which requires the use of about 2 hours of room lighting. After rehearsal, it’s time for some lunch, so I walk back to my apartment and use my gas powered oven to cook some chicken. In the afternoon, I have two more rehearsals totaling another 3 hours of room lighting. Later, I go back home and use my microwave to heat up a leftover plate of Thanksgiving food. In the evening, I drive my gas powered car to spend some time with a few friends, and then drive again to get insomnia cookies before heading home for the night. This is what I contributed to carbon emissions in one day, what it took to get my body through the day’s tasks. According to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, the average yearly carbon footprint of an American is approximately 16 tons, four times that of the global average1. In an era of widespread consumer capitalism, the American lifestyle calls for individuals to produce a higher carbon footprint.
The American answer to the consumerist demand for transport is overwhelmingly cars, with much less people opting for greener transportation options such as trains, buses, bikes, etc. For some, public transit is not even an option as it wasn’t even considered in the development of their community. For many years, American infrastructure has not been concerned with enhancing public transit options, instead opting to upgrade highway systems and expand road capacity. On an individual level, the convenience of a more flexible schedule is considered more important than reducing environmental harm. Highway traffic is not only spatially inefficient; it also contributes significantly to the American carbon footprint. For example, approximately 7.7 billion vehicle miles were logged on the New York State thruway system in 2022. If the average vehicle creates about 400g of CO2 per mile, that equates to over 3.3 million tons of CO22. Despite this, New York has some of the most extensive public transit systems. According to the MTA, the average subway commute is 10 times greener than a car commute. Additionally, in 2019 MTA riders were able to avoid 20 million tons of emissions through commuting by train3. Knowing that the constant need for bodies to travel is here to stay, the traveling body can be 10 times more efficient in a train than in a car.
I grew up in an area that is part suburban and part rural, where it is necessary to own a car to work and sustain a normal life. My house is about an eight minute drive from the nearest supermarket, a ten minute drive from where I worked, and a twelve minute drive to my former high school. The only way to truly get from place to place is by car, as there are not many sidewalks or trails. In order for my parents, sister, and I to most conveniently live separate lives, we all needed to have separate cars. I have a street bike that I used occasionally to travel, but it was not convenient for day to day life as commutes would be upwards of a half hour and highly physically involved because of the local topography.
Moving to Rochester for school has had a few minor impacts on my transportation habits. Having lived right across the street from the school for all four years, I have been able to reduce my car usage quite drastically. Additionally, there is a considerably larger number of businesses within a short walking distance from where I live in Rochester. Biking is also easier in Rochester because of bike lanes, and it is generally a bit less hilly. In my hometown, I would use my car nearly everyday, while in Rochester I probably use it closer to twice a week.
Consumerism also demands that our bodies be clothed in excess, with fashion trends changing constantly and personal wardrobes continuing to expand. Fast fashion companies like SHEIN perpetuate this demand with their ability to produce and market gargantuan amounts of clothing in a short amount of time. Up to 10,000 pieces of clothing are added to their website each day, and their catalog often totals over 600,000 items . The convenience and affordability of their clothes, however, come at a price: extremely high levels of CO2 emissions. From 2022 to 2023, their emissions nearly doubled (over 17 million tons in 2023), despite pledges to improve their carbon footprint4 5.
Additionally, a significant amount of fast fashion clothing ends up in landfills and illegal dumping sites very regularly. There are two primary causes for this: One, the customer is done with the clothing article and discards it. Second, the garment remains unsold and is discarded by the fast fashion company without ever having been used. This has proven to be highly detrimental for the environment as these clothes are made of synthetic material and do not biodegrade. In some cases, the clothes are discarded in the ocean, creating large buildups of synthetic fabric on the ocean floor. SHEIN is also facing allegations of child labor and poor working conditions, further demonstrating their exploitation of bodies for profit.
One possible solution is to shop for clothing in second hand stores. Not only does it prevent clothes from ending up in landfills, but it also stops contribution to the harmful fast fashion cycle. It is also often much cheaper than purchasing brand new clothes! For the past four or five years, I’ve tried to do most of my clothes shopping at second hand stores. This is convenient for me as I have an interest in vintage fashion, which is often fairly easy to find in thrift stores. In recent years, vintage stores and boutiques have become more widespread and offer a wide selection of curated vintage fashion. The advantage of these stores is that you have to do less digging to find great styles, and there are often a lot of trendy items to choose from. The pieces are comparable to that of new clothing, but are often much more well made and are likely to last longer.
In my experience, the most difficult part of shopping second hand is finding pants that are the right size. Vintage pants tend to fit a bit tighter than modern pants of the same size, and the cuts are much different. Recently, I have been buying new carhartt jeans because they fit me more comfortably for daily use and are well made. I still have a selection of vintage jeans and flare pants that I wear on special occasions, but they are less comfortable for daily use. I think that buying second hand clothing whenever possible is ideal, but sometimes for personal comfort it is necessary to buy new clothing to supplement.
Having considered how much the average American body contributes to carbon emissions, there is one kind that creates more emissions than any other: billionaire bodies. Take for example, Elon Musk – a billionaire known for his connection to Tesla, supposedly an environmentally conscious car company. In 2022 alone, Elon Musk took 171 private flights, burning 221,358 gallons of jet fuel and emitting over 2,112 tons of CO26. This fact does not account for emissions in other aspects of his life, such as power for his properties, ground travel, sea travel, etc. If we were to only consider his yearly jet emissions, in one year Elon Musk has contributed as much CO2 as 132 average Americans. Another billionaire, Taylor Swift, is known for her significant carbon footprint. Her private flights in 2022 amount to 8,293 tons of CO2 emissions, which is equal to the yearly carbon footprint of over 518 Americans7. In considering the investments of billionaires, their carbon footprint becomes significantly higher. Elon Musk’s stake in Tesla is responsible for over 79,000 tons of CO2 emissions.
While there is responsibility for everyone to bear, there are specific bodies that pull more weight in fixing the climate crisis. A billionaire’s body is a certain order of magnitude more damaging to the environment than the average American’s body. The top 1% of the richest people in the world produce the same amount of emissions as the lower earning ⅔ of the population, or approximately 5 billion people8.
Having now considered the impact of individuals on the environment, it is important to acknowledge that a majority of the problem goes beyond how one person chooses to live their lives. Most of all emissions come as a result of large corporations and their production processes. In the eyes of corporations, the prioritization of profit over environmental consciousness is very widespread, especially in energy and oil. On a broader scope, the profit interests of oil corporations is a driving factor in the expansion of car transportation over public transit. The U.S. government has the power to regulate these companies and reduce their power, but big oil is funded in part directly by the government.
Exxonmobil’s emissions from oil production in 2023 totaled over 98 million tons of CO2. An estimated 540 million tons of CO2 were emitted in the same year from consumption of their products9. These statistics speak to the fact that systemic change is required despite blame regularly being passed on to the individual. It would take 6.125 million Americans achieving net zero emissions to erase the damage that Exxonmobil causes from production in just one year. To add insult to injury, we are guilted into being perfectly environmentally conscious by the same people who enable such harm. At what point will our government and corporations around the world consider environmental protection to be more important than good business models?
The harm caused by climate change goes beyond just protection of ecosystems, it directly creates issues which threaten the lives of substantial parts of the population. In 2024, five hurricanes made landfall in America. One of these five, Hurricane Helene, was estimated to have been at least 10% more intense as a result of climate change10. The warmer sea temperatures acted as fuel for the storm, making it much more powerful and producing more rainfall. As a result of flooding and intense storm conditions, at least 230 people died.
The warmer and drier climate as a result of CO2 emissions has also been a cause of more frequent and extreme wildfires. These fires have a severe impact on multiple aspects of daily life, including air quality, damage of property and infrastructure, and contamination of runoff and water supply. In the summer of 2023, I remember experiencing air pollution throughout multiple parts of New York as a result of wildfires in Quebec. The impact of these wildfires were seen thousands of miles away from the source and affected millions of people. It created many hindrances to daily life – I remember not being able to exercise outdoors, and wearing a mask when I walked outside.
The trend of climate change affecting daily life is not only unique to America; it is widespread across the world. Air pollution is also a significant issue in China, caused by their industries and coal power plants. According to the World Health Organization, air pollution is responsible for 2 million deaths in China per year11. The smog in China is known to be a hindrance to life on a regular basis, impeding people’s ability to spend time outdoors. In 2016, a picture that Mark Zuckerberg posted of him jogging in Beijing on a foggy day went viral. It is reported that at the time of the photo being taken, air pollution was 15 times the healthy level12.
It came into question whether there was an ulterior motive for this post, potentially Zuckerberg was trying to please the Chinese government in order to help his social media company break grounds of censorship. Regardless of the motive, the “smog jog” started a trend of Chinese citizens logging their experience with air pollution on social media. These people shared their embodiment of the pollution on a day to day basis, tracking the air pollution and the distances of their runs. Online unification around the issue of air quality made a difference in how the Chinese government reported air pollution in 2012, when citizens voted to adopt the reporting method of PM 2.5.
The “smog jog” example demonstrates the impact of corporate and government interests benefitting on the neglect of working class citizens. The position of countries and corporations on the global market are prioritized at all costs, even if it means harming the general population and decreasing the standard of living. In order to properly combat the issue, people must not remain silent about their experience with climate change, and especially cannot buy into the message that it is a hoax. This only continues to enable and perpetuate the global mishandling of the crisis.
A systemic shift in dealing with the climate crisis is required to make any sort of meaningful change. While individual efforts do help and can make a large difference, governments worldwide must produce and enforce regulations to monitor emissions by corporations. In a consumer capitalist economy, there must also be incentive to invest in greener options – the government is responsible for this. It is also possible to de-incentivize wasteful processes through added fees and taxes.
We are seeing the direct impact of Climate Change in our daily lives. In spite of this, the global mindset is to ignore the issue and continue perpetuating wasteful practices. It is important to remain vigilant in advocacy and outwardly express dissatisfaction with the status quo.
Sources:
- “Climate Change – Carbon Footprint.” Dep.nj.gov. Accessed December 10, 2024. https://dep.nj.gov/climatechange/carbonfootprint/. ↩︎
- New York State Thruway Traffic and Revenue Report. Stantec Consulting Services, Prepared for New York State Thruway Authority, 2023. ↩︎
- “MTA 20-Year Needs Assessment.” Improve | MTA 20-Year Needs Assessment. Accessed December 10, 2024. https://future.mta.info/improve/#:~:text=1%20of%204-,Sustainability,emissions%20per%20year%20by%202040. ↩︎
- Kitajima Mulkey, Sachi. “Shein Is Officially the Biggest Polluter in Fast Fashion ” Yale Climate Connections.” Yale Climate Connections, September 18, 2024. ↩︎
- SHEIN 2023 Sustainability and Social Impact Report, 2023. ↩︎
- Milman, Oliver. “Don’t Call Elon Musk a ‘Green’ Billionaire.” Mother Jones, November 24, 2023. ↩︎
- Faecks, Benja. “Taylor Swift and the Top Polluters Department.” Carbon Market Watch, February 13, 2024. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2024/02/13/taylor-swift-and-the-top-polluters-department. ↩︎
- “Richest 1% Emit as Much Planet-Heating Pollution as Two-Thirds of Humanity.” Oxfam International, November 20, 2023. https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/richest-1-emit-much-planet-heating-pollution-two-thirds-humanity.
↩︎ - “Metrics and Data.” ExxonMobil, April 26, 2024. https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/sustainability-and-reports/metrics-and-data#Scope3emissions. ↩︎
- Borunda, Alejandra, and Rachel Waldholz. “Climate Change Made Helene More Dangerous. It Also Makes Similar Storms More Likely.” NPR, October 9, 2024. https://www.npr.org/2024/10/09/nx-s1-5144216/climate-change-hurricane-helene. ↩︎
- “Air Pollution.” World Health Organization. Accessed December 10, 2024. https://www.who.int/china/health-topics/air-pollution. ↩︎
- Liu, Xin. 2021. “Keeping Fit in the Smog: Health, Self-Tracking, and Air Pollution in Postsocialist China.” Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience 7 (1): 1–20. http://www.catalystjournal.org | ISSN: 2380-3312 ↩︎