Rather Suspect

Why do people bother to vote?

I mean this question quite literally. It’s estimated that nearly 160 million votes were cast in the 2020 American presidential election. I was one of those who cast a vote, and so I moved the needle by 1/160 millionth.

Though of course that’s not quite true, as the Electoral College system makes it so that a vote cast in, say, Ohio has a much greater influence than a vote cast in, say, California. But even an Ohio voter’s ballot sat beside over 5.8 million others in the ballot box.

Which again begs the question: above a certain scale, why do people bother to vote? Or, to put it another way, why take an action when you know the maximum impact of you individual action is not just small, but trivially so?

But clearly at least 160 million people in the U.S. believe it’s worth it. Presumably they don’t think it’s worth it logically — but, rather, they believe in the fundamental story voting represents. That is, one might say: ours is a representative democracy, and in a representative democracy many of us believe it’s one’s duty and responsibility to vote.

What does all this have to do with climate change? Simply that it seems that — above a certain scale — numbers themselves begin to lose their ability to motivate people to action. Scientists publish a multitude of papers detailing the risks and consequences of continuing to burn fossil fuels — but given there are nearly eight billion people on the planet today, it would seem that any individual choice would only have the most trivial of impact.

So how can people be motivated to action? If voting is any guide, there needs to be a story — one that doesn’t only describe the benefits of taking action, but also perhaps the duty and responsibility we might have — to each other, to future generations, to other species.

As the United States approaches its two-hundred and fiftieth year, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights still holds incredible sway over so many aspects of American life. Perhaps if the goal is for the planet to take significant action to address climate change, we need something of equal stature and power. We need something that speaks less to the scientific and economic impact and more to a set of common values — values that are resonant enough that people would be willing to sacrifice to uphold them.

If we wish people to act at scale, perhaps it’s time to write a Declaration of Independence, a Constitution or a Bill of Rights on behalf of the planet and its inhabitants.

What truths do we as humans on this planet hold to be self-evident? At a time where the globe feels so divided — is listing out those truths even possible?