Pirate's Cove

It’s funny how it always comes down to forcing you peasants to comply, while 70,000 Warmists, including lots and lots of Elites flying via private jet, take long fossil fueled trips to a climate conference in a country who’s GDP is mostly petroleum

Why Tackling Climate Change Through Consumption May Be Harder Than It Seems

There are many ways to frame the root causes of the climate crisis. Fossil fuels, big emitters like the U.S. and China, and high-carbon industries like air travel and shipping often tend to get blamed.

But there remains a significant elephant in the room in the climate blame game: runaway consumption. Household consumption is responsible for more than 60% of global emissions. And, yet, framing the climate challenge around consumption can upset a range of stakeholders. Businesses worry that talking about a crisis of consumption could harm the prospects of growth. Activists and civil society worry that talking about consumption in the wrong ways risks putting the onus of addressing climate change on consumers.

To help break through this communication log jam and address the elephant in the room, I moderated a Dec. 3 TIME100 Talks discussion on the sidelines of the U.N. climate talks taking place in Dubai. “Humans need food, shelter, clothing, but we have to consume to survive, but it is about consuming differently,” said Ellen Jackowski, chief sustainability officer at Mastercard. Consuming differently requires a mindset shift—for both consumers and businesses.

Yeah, so, they all took fossil fueled trips to Dubai, and one of the people they talked with is rich and certainly gets paid a boatload by Mastercard for this silliness. To tell you that your life must be limited to stop global boiling.

On the consumer side, research has shown that a significant share of consumers—the exact percentage depends on who you ask—are interested in buying sustainable products. But, today, there is limited information publicly available to help inform them. That’s changing rapidly as companies explore ways to make sustainability data easily accessible—think of QR codes next to the product in a store, or next to various options on online shopping sites. Research has shown that incorporating this information into the market place and creating a so-called “green nudge” shapes consumer behavior. Still, most people won’t make the sustainability of a purchase their top priority. To make sustainable products better, a growing group of businesses say they emphasize that sustainable products can have better value for the purchaser—think of a longer lifespan for a piece of clothing.

The Elites certainly do not take it into account, as they buy McMansions, travel in private planes and mega-yachts, and stay in cushy hotels, while buying lots of clothes and shoes and such

But mass consumption is not an issue that can be solved solely—or even primarily by consumers. Most consumer facing companies have built their entire business model on selling more things, and to truly address mass consumption would require them to search for profits elsewhere. Eva Kruse, chief global engagement officer at sustainable fashion company Pangaia, described it to me as a “difficult” but critical question: “How do you make new services or models where you can grow in value, not volume?”

How do you do it? Government force, of course. Which will only hurt you peasants. Interestingly, as the Warmists and eco-loons have pushed their agenda things do not last like they used to. You could buy a washer and dryer 20 years ago and it would be fine. Nowadays they do not last long. And the people make the rules usually fail to follow them.

Read: Tackling The Climate Crisis (scam) Unless You Have Your Consumption Limited »