It happened. The Inflation Reduction Act passed both houses of Congress, and barring some kind of Scooby Doo villain-unmasking situation, will soon be signed by President Biden. (Update August 16, 2022: It’s signed!) This means funding for emissions-lowering tech is about to be law. Money to make heat pumps, wind turbines, solar panels, and electric vehicles. Money to retrofit and build new factories. Money to heat and cool public housing with non-polluting fuels. Money to clean up abandoned mines, and more.
Yes, even signed, it will still just be a bunch of words that need to be acted upon; and yes, our government could have done and needs to do more. But our broken-ass legislature did something, which in and of itself feels pretty miraculous in 2022. And that something happens to be the most significant investment in climate change mitigation in American history—maybe even world history, depending on how you measure.
The Act promises to lower greenhouse gas emissions by 37 to 41 percent as compared to 2005 levels, in less than a decade. This is huge, and it means we need to celebrate. No, not a private fist-pump or some lame-o cin cin at the kitchen sink. Get a group together, leave the house, and go be merry in public. This is important action, and it will have a real impact. Hit that red bat signal button below to rally everyone you know; I’ll fill you in on the details along the way.
Right now you might be scratching your belly, muttering something along the lines of, “Old Joe has lost his damn mind up in that hayfield,” but you’d be wrong. Celebrating this legislation is an important act of environmentalism that will drive future change.
I’ve got science to back me up, but before we even go there, here’s a straight-up practical reason: A lot of people don’t know what just happened. “Inflation Reduction Act” does not shout “environmental legislation,” and I’ve even heard stories of people in sustainability circles who don’t know how transformative this promises to be for the climate.
“We just hired a new social media person, and I had to explain what was in the bill. It wasn’t really on [their] radar. [They] said, ‘I kinda heard about it.’” This cautionary tale comes from a friend in the environment biz who’s name and affiliation I am not using for obvious reasons. To be fair to the social media manager, the IRA’s name is intentionally misleading—is un-greenwashing a word?— and not everyone subscribes to an informative climate-action newsletter. Good thing you’re in the loop. Now go out and tell people.
Increasing awareness isn’t just good for getting high-fives and making awkward bar conversation; it can actually recruit more people to Team Planet. (Here comes that science.) “Collective efficacy is a term that describes a group of people getting things done together,” says Janet Kay Swim, an environmental and social psychologist at Penn State University. “And there’s research showing that collective efficacy influences a person’s perception of their individual efficacy. If they think we as a group can achieve a desired result, they’re much more likely to think that I as an individual can achieve one as well.” Seeing collective action actually work—as in the Inflation Reduction Act becoming law—makes people believe their own environmental action can be effective too.
Quick note: You absolutely helped get the IRA passed. As Bill McKibbin writes, “After thirty years of science, fifteen years of movement building… the public mood is finally strong enough to at least begin to match the political power of the fossil fuel industry.”
It’s easy to think that Congress operates in a vacuum, but they do not. They read your emails and listen to your phone calls. They see you when you protest. They continuously monitor social media. You shifted the zeitgeist.
Back to the science: The research Swim cited is a study from the Journal of Environmental Psychology entitled “Collective efficacy increases pro-environmental intentions through increasing self-efficacy.” It is specifically about environmental action, and it found that increased collective efficacy improved participants’ perceptions of their own individual efficacy in four separate experiments and two countries.
Even cooler, it found that the increase persisted even as the threat of imminent environmental danger waned:
We had expected that manipulations of collective efficacy would be particularly powerful when people are under threat (i.e., an interaction effect). However, we found no consistent evidence of moderation: the collective efficacy manipulation increased pro-environmental intentions indirectly when climate change threat was salient and when it was not. This means that a collective efficacy manipulation can encourage people to feel efficacious and capable of acting in pro-environmentally ways even when not threatened by climate change.
This is important because it signals that our celebrations might be able to keep people motivated even if they feel like the IRA is enough to defeat Global Warming. Which, of course, it is not.
So how do you party in a way that publicly signals you’re celebrating a piece of legislation? Good question. I have some suggestions, all of which are a little weird—but the best nights are the weird ones. That’s a scientific* fact, too.
Go to a bar that shows the news on its TV. When the subject of the IRA comes up (it will), cheer loudly and/or ask the bartender to turn it up.
Stage a mini bar-crawl. At each bar, loudly toast “TO THE INFLATION REDUCTION ACT!” with your group.
Fashion one of those bachelorette-style sashes from some scrap material, and write CLIMATE CHANGE LEGISLATION on it. Go out on the town.
Get the baker at your local grocery store to write INFLATION REDUCTION ACT on a sheet cake. Bring that to a restaurant and ask them to serve it as dessert. Then, you and your friends can sing 🎵 Happy birthday, Inflation Reduction Act 🎵 and attract envious stares from the entire joint.
Or maybe you could just go out with a bunch of friends and toast the win. In my experience, when you show up at a bar with a big group, someone will ask what you’re celebrating. Tell them.
If you can’t make it out, there is another way, and it might be just as effective: Create an earnest social media post. My coal-darkened Gen-X soul can’t believe I’m recommending this. But yeah, try broadcasting a heartfelt moment that celebrates how happy you are that this act passed. This, too, is a scientifically inspired idea.
“There are two kinds of celebrations,” says Swim: “hedonic and eudemonic.” While a Hedonic party is your bar crawl, an in-the-moment kind of thing, eudemonic celebrations persist. They’re more of an I’m so happy for you vibe than let’s go get wasted right now! And, according to Swim, eudemonic emotions are empowering. “They make you feel like you can do more,” she says. So get on your feeds and empower some folks by sharing how grateful you are that our government finally sees human survival as a major issue. #blessed
That’s not just important for folks who aren’t yet trying to make an impact with everyday actions, it matters to those of us who need motivation to keep pushing.
For now, I am going to keep pushing this money across the bar and hope to receive some booze in return. To those of you who know me: I’ll be in the city this weekend, and I may or may not have a modified bachelorette sash with me. Hit me up if you want to get real awkward in a dive bar.
Take care of yourselves—and the rest of us too
Joe
joe@one5c.com