Just a short post, because most of what I've got to say is perfectly explained in the video I found yesterday and share with you today. I'd like to briefly talk about anthropogenic climate change and the way we assign responsibility to do something about it; unfortunately it is again the economy that steers us in all the wrong directions...
Image by Tumisu - source: Pixabay
Let's start with myself. Do I take enough action, do I make enough sacrifices to do my share in combating climate change? The Answer is "no, not at all", and I'm willing to bet this is true for the vast majority of regular citizens of regular western, and other countries. Yes, I do separate my waste, but on the other hand I do eat a lot of meat. Yes, I take a bicycle whenever the sun shines, but as soon as the temperature is slightly uncomfortable, I just as happily take my car. And what's more; I don't feel the slightest bit of guilt while behaving in such an irresponsible manner. Why? Because I'm not the problem, and neither is any other individual citizen, nor is the citizenry of the world as a whole. I'm sure most of my readers are aware that just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions, and that consequently any real change should start there. This is not shifting blame or dodging responsibility, this is just being realistic. However, the ones who have the power and the means to make a real change refuse to use their power in a responsible manner; they just want to keep using it as they've always done, to their own short term benefit. That's what capitalism is for after all.
While in the developed and rich western world responsibility is appointed to average citizens, on a global scale we increasingly hear right wing voices lay blame at the feet of poor and developing countries. The richer you are, as an individual or as a country, the more emissions you're responsible for. Bill Gates has a much larger carbon footprint than 99% of all individuals on earth, and America as a whole has a much larger footprint than all other countries in the world. So I wonder, how can I or we point a finger at Indonesia or Africa or China and say that THEY need to stop burning fuel and coals, when we ourselves have burned fossil fuels to become as rich as we are? How can we say to them that they're not allowed to do the same we did, and are still doing? That's just wrong. We got ours, we're good, we're rich already, and now we deny the rest of the world those same riches?
There's only one viable solution that I can see. It's no use at all to try to change individual behavior in this respect. We don't need individual change; what we need is SYSTEMIC change for this is a SYSTEMIC problem. Capitalism and the profit motive incentivize overproduction and overconsumption, and under capitalism no one in their right mind would ever advocate for less consumption or less production. And because the system is based purely on individual needs, wants and gains, there's no such thing as a long term perspective, that would need a consideration for society as a whole and its needs, wants and gains. Socialism or communism is the only way out of this death-trap, an economy that doesn't need to grow with individuals who don't need to make a profit, a society that works for society's sake, so to speak. But as long as people hear "welfare state" and then become angry because "I don't want to pay for someone else's shortcomings, whatever they may be", that'll never happen. So I'm not optimistic, not at all. Too many people think themselves too damn important and too many people think it's "just the way things are" when they see homeless people next to empty homes and huge food surpluses next to hunger. As long as that's not widely seen as the perverse capitalist paradox that it is, we'll keep marching toward our own destruction, after we've destroyed all the people and countries we think are less than us...
The Environmentalist Colonial Gaze
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