There exists undoubted widespread recognition that climate change is an issue. Yet, the significance of individual actions is undervalued and understated because of a lack of awareness on the individual level. In fact, 45% of global emissions come solely from the production of things that we buy every single day. 99.9 percent of climate change is human caused, therefore human actions are significant and need to be addressed. Today, there exists a collective action problem in which individuals hesitate to act. This is either because of a belief that another will act, or because joint action does not occur. Hence there is an overall lack of action. The scale of this problem is huge, as climate change impacts can be seen across the world. However, the specific impacts are seen on a much greater scale in areas with low resource abundance, high consumption, and developing countries. The specific problem of lack of action can be attributed to a lack of individual awareness about actions. For example, For example, 48% of adults believe that climate change is solely due to large industrial operations, and not individual actions. People often purchase goods or services having no idea how they impact the environment. If people were more aware on the impacts of their individual actions, the probability that they make more conscious decisions when purchasing goods and services increases. This results in fewer purchases of items that drastically impact the environment, reducing the harms of climate change.
