Alone, I Feel More Connected Than Ever
The public response to COVID-19 revived my trust in human nature
In January, my friend Itsik and I had a mini-fight via email about how the public responds — or fails to respond — to the looming threat of climate change. We disagreed a bit on whether individual people have a moral responsibility to take steps to mitigate .
Itsik was dismayed by how little his friends and coworkers were willing to alter their lives in order to help the environment. I was inclined to give everyone a pass for their inaction, because small, personal steps seemed to matter so little.
“I’m so frustrated by this super pervasive thing I see all over leftie, progressive spaces,” Itsik wrote, “of emphasizing over and over that it’s too late for individual choices around the environment to matter. I still don’t see how that fact absolves us of any responsibility to look at what we could do differently.”
I told Itsik I understood why people felt dejected and powerless in the fight against climate change. It’s challenging, time-consuming, and expensive to make eco-friendly…
