Personal Wellness Isn’t a Substitute for Cap-and-Invest

Like many others in their early 20s, I find myself bombarded with advice about investing in myself and my future. I have family members telling me how to invest my money in order to secure financial freedom in the future. I see influencers selling self-care products that are supposedly an investment in my well-being. Peers at the gym tell me to push myself harder, purchase private training sessions and protein powders to invest in my long-term fitness. All of these seem to offer the tantalizing promise of a better life.

But there is a feeling of overwhelm that comes with trying to incorporate all of these habits into my life—to find the time and means to invest in my well-being. While I do my best to prioritize my health, there is often a discouraging thought lingering in my mind: Even if I do all of these things, so much of my fate is in the hands of my elected officials and powerful leaders around the world. I can pour hours of time and thousands of dollars into my wellness. But what use is it if the broader environment and climate is not being protected?

Despite what so many of us are being sold on Instagram and TikTok these days, no amount of wellness rituals can compensate for a government that refuses to protect clean air and water for the American public.

Gen Zers like me might be making personal wellness our number one priority, but those efforts are in vain if we cannot couple investments in personal well-being with structural changes to our planet’s environment and climate. That’s why it is essential that our leaders here in New York State commit to enacting a cap and invest program. This program is essential for cutting emissions at the source and beginning to rectify decades of environmental injustice. As the name suggests, the program seeks to set a cap on emissions polluters, fine them for excessive pollution, and use the resulting funds to support climate mitigation and adaptation projects across New York State. Cap and invest prioritizes the health of all New Yorkers and is projected to secure $6-10 billion for the climate fund.

Purchasing an exclusive gym membership cannot prevent lung damage from unregulated greenhouse gas emissions. The latest eye serum will not build a barrier when the next “once in a century storm” barrels through our city. But by holding polluters accountable, cap and invest would create the resources needed to support those communities in our state who have suffered most directly from the climate crisis.

According to the Department of Environmental Conservation and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the cap and invest program would prevent almost 50 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent from being emitted by 2030. This is not only essential for helping us reach law-binding targets outlined in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, but it will also provide relief to environmental justice communities experiencing immediate impacts on their health.

In a world where we feel as though our voices aren’t heard and our environment isn’t protected, we must take our fate into our own hands. Despite what so many of us are being sold on Instagram and TikTok these days, no amount of wellness rituals can compensate for a government that refuses to protect clean air and water for the American public.

As an environmental advocate with Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action, I organize letter writing events to demand that Gov. Kathy Hochul take action. Separately, I’ve also built a career in the clean energy sector. I have seen, firsthand, the influence that the New York State government has on the world. That’s why we need our representatives to demonstrate their commitment to their community’s well-being. We are holding ourselves accountable for our individual environmental impacts by taking public transit, avoiding single-use plastics, and purchasing more energy efficient tech. But those individual actions will be for naught if they are not complemented with state action to hold big polluters to account.

I hold tight to the wisdom from the generations before me. But I’ve learned from their shortcomings, as well. For decades in American politics, we put profits over people. The results were deadly—and unjust. To reverse that legacy now means that we must begin instituting systems that can account for this past injustice, and provide the material resources to our government and our communities to move towards healthier, more sustainable, and more livable futures. It is imperative that Gov. Hochul now act without delay toward such ends by immediately implementing the cap and invest program.