Guilt & shame on Earth Day?

It’s Earth Day, as I write my first draft of this blog post. This past weekend, I found myself in nature and saw volunteers cleaning up trash, gardening in public spaces, and caring for our community parks. I also received oh-so-many emails about Earth Day sales from companies offering sales on products (and encouraging us to consume more). The coexistence of both Earth Day and related sales offer an opportunity to write about a common internal conflict for those of us experiencing (and sensitive to) eco-distress. We simultaneously realize the plight of the planet and the impact of humans’ choices and actions, and we acknowledge we are consumers, acquiring things in a capitalist system. Maintaining awareness of the impact of our actions while simultaneously engaging in these actions can be difficult because we may feel like hypocrites. Humans generally try to avoid such cognitive dissonance.

Cognitive dissonance & the climate

If you’re not familiar with the concept, cognitive dissonance is the discomfort we experience when we hold two (or more) thoughts or ideas that seemingly contradict each other. This tends to be such an uncomfortable state for some that they’ll do what they can to make their ideas seem more aligned, which can happen (generally) by either changing one’s thoughts or changing one’s behavior. 

In the context of the climate crisis, someone might not be able to hold both the belief they know the climate crisis continues to worsen and the knowledge they bought more stuff that will lead to more waste or more in landfills. To lessen that cognitive dissonance, the person might choose not to buy things through the Earth Day sales because then their beliefs are more aligned; they can think “I know the climate crisis is worsening, and I am not consuming more because of it.” Alternatively, someone could rectify the disconnect of their thoughts and consumerist action by saying, “I know the climate crisis continues to progress, which is why I’m buying these sustainable, fair-trade, responsibly produced products from this B corporation.” Or, they could believe, “I am overcoming my need to purchase this product by giving back to the environment, planting trees, and purchasing carbon offsets for that last flight my family and I took for our spring break vacation.” Our minds will often engage in thinking exercises (or distortions) to align our beliefs of who we are with who we perceive ourselves to be; or we may engage defense mechanisms (like rationalization, compartmentalization, denial) to protect our self-conceptualizations. 

Recognizing cognitive dissonance

Aside from spending time trying to rationalize your decisions, other signs you may be experiencing cognitive dissonance include torturously debating upcoming decisions, feeling guilt or shame, avoiding telling others about your actions or beliefs, or giving in to peer pressure rather than adhering to your own convictions (and then regretting that choice and chiding yourself).

In the context of the climate crisis, these feelings of guilt, shame, or regret are common; these feelings are heavy, hard to hold, and potentially even harder to admit out loud to another person. And! These feelings are normal. 

I’ve been attending some climate workshops, and one of the participants shared that she asked her sister about whether she’d be planting trees or taking some action in an attempt to neutralize the fossil fuels the sister’s family would be using for a vacation that involved flying from North America to Africa. The sister’s reaction embodied shame; shame wasn’t overtly identified as a feeling, but the sister’s responsive behavior demonstrated shame. Afterall, it’s difficult to hold the two truths that one actually cares about the planet’s future and the climate collapse and one is going on a vacation that involves significant air travel. Since we, as humans, strive to avoid cognitive dissonance, the sister’s potential options included: minimizing the impact of the family’s flights, stating she didn’t care about the climate crisis, choosing not to go on the vacation as planned, or taking some action to neutralize the impact of the vacation (or engage in some action to have an overtly positive environmental impact, including while on the vacation). Some of these options are easier than others to implement. 

If you’re in a potential option to try to neutralize actions, I’ll share I also recently attended a talk about ego-oriented travel vs. eco-oriented travel. The speaker, who wanted to travel to South America, spent a significant amount of time (i.e., weeks) caring for endangered species and restoring habitat while traveling to ensure her actions benefited the area she had the privilege of visiting. 

Addressing climate-related guilt and shame

None of us is perfect, and none of us can avoid fully taking actions that impact the climate. (I’ll admit, I have some habits I know aren’t the best for the planet–for example, consuming way too much coffee or flying to visit family on occasion–and also have some habits that are consistent with minimizing my environmental impact–for example, eating a vegan diet.) Guilt and shame are hard emotions to address because we’re so often embarrassed (or ashamed) of them that we remain silent about the behaviors or beliefs that fuel these feelings; the silence, though, often intensifies these usually unwelcome emotions, only making them more pervasive and potentially fueling anxiety or irritability. Guilt and shame can also lower our self-esteem, making us feel unworthy. This unworthiness may prevent us from acknowledging the complexities of the climate crisis; it may prevent us from feeling like we can connect to or work alongside others who are taking actions that can repair climate destruction. When we already know the climate crisis isn’t going to go away on its own, the best way of addressing cognitive dissonance may be learning to hold numerous truths, learning self-compassion or self-forgiveness as members of the systems in which we live, and accepting that, though imperfect, we can still play a role in mitigating some of our actions.