Living sustainably during the summer: the climate activist’s dilemma

Switching to electric/hybrid cars can reduce your carbon footprint, especially in seasons when travel is common.

Many people who care about the environment face a predicament: living sustainably during the summer. Increased travel characterized by more flying, driving, longer distances, and greater consumption leads to people having comparatively large carbon footprints. Furthermore, cooking less, ordering more takeout, and eating more red meat as a result contribute to this problem.

On the surface, the answer seems clear: biking instead of driving, cooking instead of ordering takeout, or traveling abroad less frequently. However, societal pressures, convenience, and generally wanting to have the same level of enjoyment as others make it difficult for people to make these choices. Some people in the Bay Area, including those who identify as climate-focused, feel that sacrificing their quality of life is not worth the environmental benefits.

“It's hard to do things like ‘Oh, I'm just not going to travel,’” said Aubrey Casper, a rising junior at Berkeley High School.

In addition to travel itself being detrimental to the climate, some countries that people visit use more plastic and non-renewable resources, making it even more difficult to live sustainably. For example, Casper and her family went to Argentina, their home country, and she reported that a lot of food was packaged in plastic bags and that red meat consumption is very high there.

“I'm currently in a Latin American country, so there's a lot of plastic… I also flew when we got here. It was like 16 hours, and we eat meat every day,” Casper said.

Countries like Argentina, where Casper visited, have very high rates of red meat consumption, leading travelers there to consume much more red meat than they usually do.

While flying and traveling abroad are among the largest contributing factors, simply driving around to summer activities poses similar challenges.

“I can improve a lot by getting an electric car or a hybrid car. My car uses gas, and it doesn't have amazing gas mileage, so that's definitely my biggest contributor to my carbon footprint,” said Benjamin Rubenstein, a rising junior at Sonoma Academy in Santa Rosa.

Although many people have a larger carbon footprint during the summer than any other season, some people find it easier to live sustainably during the summer. Without daily transportation needs such as getting to work or school, Giorgio Trebbi, a rising junior at Berkeley High School, says that his carbon footprint is typically lower in the summer than in other seasons.

“Typically, I take the bus or I carpool to different things… No Uber, and we also have a Tesla, which is electric,” Trebbi said.

Ultimately, there is no way to live completely sustainably during the summer with traveling, eating out, consuming more goods, and natural issues such as droughts and heat waves that cause a surge in energy usage. In addition, overall energy expenditures rise during the summer as a result of cooling demands. A course of action that is plausible is to not eliminate meat consumption or travel, but rather to practice climate harm reduction. Rather than abstaining from daily travel, take public transport or carpool when possible. Vacation in closer destinations. Try to eat at vegetarian, locally-sourced restaurants when eating out. Cool your house with fans more than with air conditioning. By making minor adjustments every day, we can achieve major goals.