In a recent AMA podcast, Ezra Klein shared two ideas that I can’t stop thinking about:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, he argued that\u00a0every individual’s habits and beliefs are contagious<\/strong>. Whenever we do, say, or believe something we infect the people around us with our beliefs and habits.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I stopped eating meat because my Dad stopped eating meat. Then I went vegan when I met my partner Hannah. Both of them infected me. And now I’ll go on to infect those around me (hopefully one of you!).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If COVID-19 taught us anything it is that one infection here or there doesn’t feel like much to any individual, but it can completely change a society given a high viral coefficient and\/or time.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second thing Klein argued is that\u00a0social change is a river<\/strong>. People often talk about politics being upstream of policy. But further upstream still is culture.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ok that’s a little wonky so here’s another way to put it: in a representative democracy you can’t pass policy unless the people \u2014 more specifically the people that actually vote \u2014 want it. There are of course distortions at the margin, but over the long-run, democracies prove responsive to voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words cultural change is a pre-requisite to policy change. And it’s our individual actions that change that culture in the first place.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s what I mean when I say individual and collective action are two sides of the same coin.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What you can expect in this newsletter<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This idea, that there is no seperation between individual and collective action \u2014 what I’ll refer to as “Both\/and climate action” \u2014 will be a central theme in this newsletter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next week, for example, I’m going to write about why heat pumps are one of the most effective ways to cut your carbon footprint. And then I’m going to share a story about a state that has passed some of the best electrification policy in the country (and why we should all encourage our state legislators to follow suit). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the meantime I’d love to hear from you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think about this idea of “Both\/and climate action”?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How have your beliefs and habits changed over time? What do you think you can attribute that change to? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you made it this far, thank you! And see you next week \ud83d\udc4b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the first edition of the new Carbon Switch newsletter, written by me, Michael Thomas \ud83d\udc4b In this first edition, I want to share a bit about what you can expect from this newsletter and make the argument for “both\/and climate action.”  But before diving in I want to share some exciting news:  A couple weeks ago Vox published a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":965,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"\n