Downstream Public Policy Implementation to Combat Individual Carbon Emissions and Climate Change

    Hello blog viewers!  I'm really proud of this paper as I believe there could be legitimate implications for a concept similar to this in the future.  I managed to reach out to my environment professor, Dr. Mike Stukel, in regard to the content of the paper.   He gave me excellent feedback and mentioned the application of critical thinking within American educational systems could alleviate some of the impacts of climate change, which I explain in detail below.  I had a blast making this, as I interviewed my professor and a teaching assistant in the process, each giving me insight.  They are listed in the bibliography.  If you take the time to read this, I really appreciate it.    

Downstream Public Policy Implementation to Combat Individual Carbon Emissions and Climate Change

Noa Batista

Florida State University

ENC2135

Ifeoluwa Komolafe

October 7th, 2024

Introduction

Anthropogenic climate change, or human-caused climate change, has led to an immense increase in global temperatures throughout the mid-20th and 21st centuries (United Nations, 2023). As humans continue to deforest, burn fossil fuels, develop industry, and engage in agricultural practices, vast amounts of greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide and methane, are released into the atmosphere. These gasses trap excess sun heat, leading to unprecedented side effects. James Anderson, a graduate student studying Environmental Science at Florida State University, mentions the detriments to humans and the environment climate change holds. As the Earth reached record-high temperatures in 2023 (United Nations, 2023), we should expect more intense droughts, hurricanes, vector-borne diseases, wildfires, heatstroke, sea-level rise, and much more (Anderson, personal communication, 2024).

In a 2018 TED Talk, climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe stated, “The most important thing you can do to fight climate change: talk about it.” Dr. Hayhoe emphasizes the necessity of conversing about this critical issue. In a world where many feel disconnected from the scientific language of global warming, accepting the potentially disastrous effects and acknowledging our role in contributing to rising temperatures can be challenging. Although it might not seem significant, individuals have substantial carbon footprints—the total amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases emitted due to one's behavior—often without realizing it. Whether it’s from frequent flying or eating meat (Wynes, et al., 2017), we all play a role; highlighting the urgent need to converse and learn more about climate change. 

Public policy offers numerous potential solutions to combat climate change, including regulations, resource allocation, research, innovation, and education. By focusing on targeted education, however, individual human behavior could be altered; creating a population that is much more adherent and compliant to climate-conscious regulations in the future.  

Downstream Public Policy Concerning Carbon Emissions

Introducing climate change policy immediately faces a major challenge, however: individuals tend to pursue their self-interests, even when working together could have better results for everyone.  Casey Frock, a graduate student at Florida State University, has a master's degree in Political Science and is currently pursuing another master's degree in International Affairs.  During an interview, he noted that climate change is often overlooked from a political perspective due to its gradual heating effects, making immediate intervention difficult as the general population struggles to grasp the long-term consequences of slowly rising temperatures (Frock, personal communication, 2024). Additionally, policy geared towards combatting climate change is inherently complex, as achieving cooler temperatures, despite being a widely regarded issue, takes time for politicians and government officials to properly address and tackle.  Consequently, this prompts politicians and leaders to ignore the issue altogether; instead focusing on short-term, individual interests rather than long-term, group benefits. To create a policy that can be easily understood and adhered to by the general population, education is a vital starting point in current climate change policy and future implementation.

From a policy-making perspective, education reform can be referred to as a downstream measure to shape and solve societal issues. In comparison to midstream and upstream interventions, downstream mediations mainly focus on creating informational measures to form individual decision-making.  An example of this could be courses offered by certain universities on issues like alcohol and sexual abuse; as these courses aren’t necessarily laws or policies, but instead informational measures implemented to inform the student body and potentially shape individual behavior.  Midstream and upstream measures, on the other hand, are the policies that average citizens think of when society pushes toward a more green initiative.  This includes actions like regulations upon businesses and more sustainable options for consumers (Hampton, et al., 2023).  Downstream policy implementation in particular, especially on a complex topic like one’s individual carbon footprint, plays an incredibly critical role and actively prepares future generations to become receptive and attuned to midstream and upstream policy measures.  

Current State of Downstream Public Policy Concerning Carbon Emissions

Because of this, it is essential to determine the current state of downstream measures to tackle this issue.  Education, despite being the dominant guiding force for the future generation, unfortunately, lacks heavily in terms of commentary that is critical to fighting climate change.  According to an article written in 2017 by Seth Wynes and Kimberly Nicholas, a large majority of content related to climate change action in youth education is missing information that is vital to raising a population that is more cognizant of the issue and reducing their carbon footprint.  After scanning for measures an individual can take to reduce their carbon footprint from a variety of school textbooks and government documents, they concluded that focusing on actions that have the most detrimental effects on the atmosphere was vastly ignored (Wynes, et al., 2017).  Actions like recycling and saving lightbulbs were seldom highlighted.  While those actions are generally sufficient, they are minimal compared to the overall effectiveness of other actions that individuals can take.  Major contributions to one’s carbon footprint, like reducing air travel or having one less kid (Hampton, et al., 2023) are imperative in fighting climate change; yet little to none of these suggestions are present in school textbooks.  

Additionally, while green actions a student can take have been ignored in education and government documents, there is also an incredible lack of social and scientific discourse about the issue entirely.  Climate change is rightfully a confusing and complex topic.  However, considering the massive benefits increased environmental awareness can have on the issue, such as changed voting behavior, political activism, psychological decision-making, and social engagement, shying away from this topic makes current situations worse (Hampton, et al., 2023); instead leaving the later generations to the responsibility of having to tackle this issue head-on as opposed to easing into a world that already targets the main problem.  Because of this, the lack of green practices discussed above represents the general lack of knowledge and urgency on this issue entirely.  So while there is a lack of information on green practices, it almost seems as if there is a lack of general information on this topic as well that needs to be addressed.  

Consequently, this lack of targeted education on actions an individual can take to reduce their carbon emissions creates a future population that is, unfortunately, less receptive and aware of climate change and related policies.  It also represents the main issue that is curtailing present efforts toward fighting this issue, which seems so hard to solve.  If students aren’t exposed to the detriments of climate change on humans (primarily through sea-level rise, infectious diseases, and harsh weather) and the environment (loss of biodiversity, pollution, high temperatures) (McMichael, et al., 1997), nor the possible solutions they can choose to enact, we should expect a generation that is less cognizant of the issue entirely.  This would lead to a lack of initiative, discussion, and positive reception of future policies.  If a major reason why climate change is so devastating as of right now is due general lack of knowledge from current generations, “adolescence is an ideal time for intervention” to change societal norms and encourage large and personal responsibility for carbon emissions (Hampton, et al., 2023).

Main Issue Around Climate Policy 

A major problem nowadays that stems from policy to fight climate change is an issue called cooperation dilemmas.  Cooperation dilemmas are the notion in which individuals will tend to pursue their self-interest, even though working together could yield better results for everybody else (Barrilleaux, et al., 2016).  Climate change policy suffers heavily from this as it requires the cooperated effort of many for long-term and not immediately visible goals. It is in someone's best interest to simply “defect,” and discount other’s potential to cooperate.  

A practical way of seeing this can be viewed from the idea of recycling.  Recycling is essentially the process of collecting certain non-biodegradable materials, like plastic and synthetic rubber, and processing them to reuse them; therefore reducing waste.  While recycling sounds like a great idea on paper, it faces issues that make it less efficient than it can truly be.  For example, let’s say recycling might not be offered within certain areas around where someone lives.  Once introduced, the idea of recycling deviates away from the norm that people are used to.  As opposed to simply throwing out all their trash at once, people are now required to separate certain items, clean them, and deliberately decide where their waste goes after use.  This inconvenience that comes from having to recycle ultimately leads to cooperation dilemmas. People aren’t able to properly commit to recycling, which means some people do it, while others don’t.  The people who recycle have to dedicate resources and time to do it, which helps the environment.  However, the people who don’t practice recycling still get the benefits of others recycling, while not allocating resources and time themselves to recycle.  This deviation and disparity between how individuals respond to recycling creates a cooperation dilemma.  

This is why education is so important when it comes to implementing current policy.  Policy nowadays isn’t inherently ineffective, it’s simply targeted to an audience that is unable to truly act receptive to it, unfortunately falling into these cooperation dilemmas.  The example above focused on the practice of recycling, however, this idea can be applied to any sort of initiative that properly reduces the carbon footprint of the individual, such as reducing car travel or meat consumption.  

In a large survey from 2015, it was reported that overall concern and awareness vary greatly depending on which country you look at.  And, unfortunately, some of the countries that have the biggest carbon footprints, like The United States and China, seem to have significantly low concerns about climate change (McSweeney, 2016).  Around 64% of the population in the United States had a general concern about climate, while in China only 36% (Lee, et al., 2015).  Current concern rates don’t react well when regulation and environmentally conscious policy is enacted.  However, if targeted education is instilled, this would foster future generations that can react much better to policy that is aimed towards fighting climate change.  The first step is to pass policy within education that makes it so policy in the future can be much more easily recieved.

Focusing on Downstream Education Implementation

Overall, downstream education implementation has to stress the importance of creating an educational environment that fosters discourse and initiative on actions that pertain to climate change and one’s carbon footprint.  

The main ways that we contribute to carbon emissions aren’t entirely explicit within the field of education, however, make up a significant portion of the greenhouse gasses emitted today, as ⅔ of total emissions can be traced back to household consumption.  Believe it or not, the four massive ways in which individuals contribute to carbon emissions are: 1) airplane travel 2) having children 3) eating meat, and 4) heavy car usage.  These four actions alone add literal metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere, as these lifestyle choices alone contribute nearly 50% of emissions (Hampton, et al., 2023).  

These actions, along with the immense hazards that come with climate change, should be at the forefront of discourse when talking about implementing climate-conscious ideas within education and government documents.  This would actively create a population who is aware of not only the potential lifestyle choices they will have to inhabit in the future but also the potential downsides if they choose not to work together.  If the four main ways that average humans contribute to climate change were taught in schools, it would make logical sense for these students to expect legislation and rules that curtails specific amounts of air-time travel or meat consumption; about the benefits it enacts for the environment.  Allowing these individuals to be more aware as to why the government is instilling regulations on certain ways of living could potentially increase cooperation and concern rates.   

Offering incentives, or something that motivates or encourages someone to do something, is also an effective measure for avoiding cooperation dilemmas (Barrilleaux, et al., 2016).  Going back to the example of recycling, an incentive could be used to create an environment that is more prone to the practice.  On one side, education and informational measures about the health-related side effects of climate change in early education could create a population more prone to comply with one another.  If individuals were informed of the risk of “mortality and morbidity” from “heat waves and thermal stress,” due to rising temperatures, education would allow for conversation, psychological development, and political activism that could potentially sway someone to chuck their plastic bottles in the blue can (McMichael, et al., 1997).  

Another incentive can be monetary.  Issuing money to alter human behavior is common practice, and can be applied in the future to sway individuals towards more green practices.  However, the amount one is willing to accept could be reduced if one is more aware of climate change.   If the current price to have a city convince its constituents to adopt recycling bins or a green practice would cost an X amount of dollars in incentives, future educated populations could be incentivized with less money or X-C; C being the money that could be discounted with a more compliant and receptive audience.  

Conclusion

In the future, as conditions and temperatures rise due to the effects of climate change, we will most likely see a spur of policy that is implemented solely to fight climate change.  However, if current the situation stays the same, in terms of lack of awareness and initiative, these policy efforts are doomed to fail due to an entirely wrong and unreceptive audience.  Focusing on education now to create a population that feels more inclined to tackle the issue ensures a future in which climate-conscious policy can be well-received and effective.  

References:

Hampton, S., & Whitmarsh, L. (2023). Choices for climate action: A review of the multiple roles individuals play. One Earth. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2023.09.015

Wynes, S., & Nicholas, K. A. (2017). The climate mitigation gap: Education and government recommendations miss the most effective individual actions. Environmental Research Letters. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aa7541

McMichael, A. J., & Haines, A. (1997). Global climate change: The potential effects on health. https://www.bmj.com/content/315/7111/805.short 

Barrilleaux, C., Reenock, C., & Souva, M. (2016). Democratic Policymaking: An Analytic Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

McSweeney, R. (2016). Global survey: Where in the world is most and least aware of climate change?Carbon Brief. https://www.carbonbrief.org/global-survey-where-i n-the-world-is-most-and-least-aware-of-climate-change

Lee, T. M., Markowitz, E. M., Howe, P. D., Ko, C.-Y., & Leiserowitz, A. A. (2015). Predictors of public climate change awareness and risk perception around the world. Nature Climate Change. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2728

United Nations. (n.d.). Key findings on climate change. Retrieved [September 9, 2024], from https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/key-findings

TED. (n.d.). Katharine Hayhoe. Retrieved [September 9, 2024], from https://www.ted.com/speakers/katharine_hayhoe

Additional Comments:
In conducting research for this project, I interviewed two individuals who provided valuable insights into the topic, despite not holding traditional academic credentials typically cited in research papers. Their contributions helped shape my understanding of key aspects of this paper, which I detail below:

Casey Frock:
Casey Frock is a graduate student at Florida State University, currently pursuing his second master's degree in International Affairs, focusing on Central and Eastern European and Russian security studies. He previously spent two years in the Political Science Ph.D. program, earning a master's degree in Political Science, with International Relations as his major field and Comparative Politics as his subfield.
Our conversation covered crucial topics such as norm life cycles, international efforts to combat climate change, the role of individuals, commitment problems, and other challenges related to implementing climate change solutions—all of which were essential to the development of my paper.

James Anderson:
James Anderson is a first-year graduate student in Environmental Science at Florida State University, specializing in Ocean and Atmospheric Science. He currently serves as a teaching assistant for Dr. Rob Spender, collaborating on research related to Arctic biogeochemistry, particularly the effects of climate warming on the Arctic carbon cycle.
James provided in-depth knowledge about climate change, the current global situation, future projections, and potential solutions. His input reinforced the importance and urgency of addressing climate change, a critical aspect of this research.