My climate guilt is real – but the actual villains keep getting away with it » Yale Climate Connections

“Lilo & Stitch” is going strong, with fans like me bringing it close to $1 billion at the box office globally. The film is set in Hawaii, a place often imagined as paradise. But when I see a headline, “Hawaii is sinking 40 times faster than scientists predicted,” it sets off something deeper.

Suddenly, I’m in a full-blown spiral, not just about Hawaii, but about all of it: the hurricanes, the droughts, the fact that climate change isn’t a distant threat – it’s here. I start to question my part in it all: those two-day shipping clicks, those fast fashion buys.

Am I the villain in the climate story?

This year alone: record heat. Horrifying floods. Wildfires choking cities hundreds of miles away. And still, the response we’re fed is: Drive less. Eat less meat. Thrift more.

And yeah, I do those things, but I also click “rush delivery,” book flights, and sometimes buy more than I need. What we buy and how we spend our money matters because demand fuels the system. But the real issue is that this system is designed to keep us consuming, and the biggest polluters profit off it.

So let’s be real, the real villains are the fossil fuel giants: massive corporations with billions in profits that have knowingly pumped carbon pollution into our atmosphere for decades. They’ve funded misinformation campaigns, opposed climate policies, and prioritized drilling and burning of fossil fuels over the health of our planet and people.

Just 78 industrial producers, mostly oil, gas, coal, and cement giants, are responsible for 70% of climate pollution released to the atmosphere since the mid-1800s.

And one of them? BP literally popularized the term “carbon footprint” to shift blame onto us while they kept drilling and cashing in.

Most of us do care – and 64% of us are worried. We turn off the lights. We whisper “no bag” at the bodega like it’s a confession. We try.

But while we obsess over carpooling and composting schedules, a few dozen companies are setting the planet on fire and getting away with it.

That’s not a coincidence. It’s the plan.

Guilt keeps us quiet. Guilt keeps us stuck. When we blame ourselves, we don’t organize. We don’t vote like it matters. We don’t push back.

So yeah, I’m still spiraling. But now I’m spiraling with purpose. Because pretending everything’s fine won’t save the planet.

We don’t need more guilt. We need more power. We need bold, collective action, not individual blame.

So, the next time that familiar guilt creeps in, I’ll remind myself: It’s not just me. It’s Exxon. It’s Shell. It’s Chevron. It’s the politicians selling us out. But that doesn’t mean I can give up.

The solution is my voice, my vote, and my refusal to stay quiet. That’s why I’ve made it a point to educate myself by reading reports from Climate Central. I seek out climate justice events, so I can show up informed and ready to push for change.

And if you’re spiraling too, don’t do it alone. Organize. Call your reps. Vote like the planet depends on it, because it does.

We are not powerless. And we’re not buying their lies anymore. The world deserves better. It deserves to be protected, cherished, and around for generations to come.

Ana Karen Flores is a first-generation Latina communications strategist who commands the narrative and drives real political change. She’s a Public Voices fellow with The OpEd Project and works alongside the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice and the Every Page Foundation.