Some people say that there is not much that individuals can do to tackle environmental problems, while others believe that individuals should also be making effort to solve environmental problems. Discuss both views and make up your opinion.

Some people say that there is not much that individuals can do to tackle environmental problems, while others believe that individuals should also be making effort to solve environmental problems. Discuss both views and make up your opinion.

Environmental degradation is one of the most pressing issues in the twenty-first century and has opened a public discourse about the roles of individuals and institutions in combating it. While there are those who insist that actions of individuals do not matter in an atmosphere with systematic problems, and reductions would only be a lethal compromise, someone argue that without ubiquitous individual commitment to contribute to the work liaising to good environmental improvement on as many levels as possible there will be no true eco-solution. After weighing these two sides, I have come to the firm conclusion that while individual action can not be enough in isolation, it is vital for all significant planetary solutions.

Resistance to the idea of effective individual action is well-founded. Never mind climate change, ocean pollution and deforestation are terra incognita environmental problems created chiefly by large-scale industrial activity, corporate greed or government policy failure. Take a single multinational corporation, and the carbon emissions they pour into our planet are thousands of times greater than what millions of private citizens ever used to generate. When viewed in this broader context, assigning moral blame on individuals while our biggest polluters bubbles and squeaks nicely out of the iron cage seems both disproportionate and a little bit daft. Critics of the individual-action model have also noted that, in terms of energy infrastructure, agricultural practices and manufacturing regulations, systemic change can only happen through coordinated institutional intervention not aggregating personal lifestyle choices.

Additionally, socioeconomic inequality further complicates the expectation for individual action by everyone. For very many living in poverty or from parts of the world where access to sustainable alternatives is poor, green consumption, simply put, is not an option. Requiring that every individual be equally sacrificed without consideration of the structural conditions that limit requisite choice is likely to disproportionately impact those least responsible for environmental degradation.

However, it would be both intellectually and practically wrong to completely disregard individual action. The data, aggregated consumer behaviour has a massive effect on corporate decision making. Millions of people changing consumption, using renewable energy providers, using less single-use plastic or buying from environment-friendly businesses all act as market signals that make companies adjust. The unprecedented growth in the sales of electric vehicles and the rapid expansion of plant-based food sectors in recent years is evidence that through unity consumers can effect systemic change.

Also, individual action goes beyond our personal consumption. Citizens vote for political candidates committed to environmental protection, advocate in communities, donate time and money to environmental organisations that drive change at scale, exercise activist talk and media pressure on corporations — such citizens shape the institutional responses required by global environmental challenges. Individual action and systemic change are not mutually exclusive approaches; they are interconnected forces.

Conclusion: Individual action cannot solve global, environmental problems. When personal decisions are aggregated and supported with strong institutions, they provide a vehicle for environmental impact that is both robust and reinforce each other. Several however distinct responsibilities belong to each of governments, corporations and individuals where all three will need to act together if we are to secure a sustainable future.