You Won't Stop Climate Change by Consuming Less
Before I go on, I know that what I am about to say is heretical. We are saving the planet every time we use a cardboard straw, of course we are. Of course I know I am not a climate scientist. Of course I am not denying climate change. Of course I agree with you that <insert mandatory opinion here>.
All I ask is that if you care about solving the issue of climate you consider one simple fact. Britain produces 1% of global emissions. People dispute this figure on the basis that it does not accurately reflect the emissions we outsource to other parts of the world. And rightly so. Our actual carbon footprint is DOUBLE that at a whopping 2%.
And, by all means, continue reducing that if it makes you feel better. But please don't think you're actually preventing the "impending climate catastrophe". Britain is like a low level civil servant - even if we're trying, and we're usually not, we're making absolutely no impact on anything.
The future of the climate is not going to be decided in Britain. It's going to be decided in Asia and Latin America. By poor people who could not give a crap about saving the planet. They just couldn't. I know you think they should. But saving the planet does not occur to them because they're trying to save themselves from horrific poverty.
One in five people in Russia do not have an indoor toilet. There is some dispute about the exact figure but let's just say a significant number of people in Russia do not have an indoor toilet. What they have is an outdoor toilet.
And I'm not talking a nice portaloo or even a not-so-nice festival portaloo. I am talking about a wooden shack with a hole in the floor which holds the fermented odorous memory of a thousand shits.
How many of you would give up your indoor toilet and erect one of these in your back garden in exchange for a posthumous medal for "saving the planet"?
And it's not like these people don't know what an indoor toilet is. They know, and they'd love to have one. But they can't afford it or their local government can't afford the infrastructure for running water and sewerage.
There's even an old Russian joke about it:
"How can the President have a 90% approval rating when only 80% of us have indoor plumbing?"
They can't afford many other things too. Things like proper healthcare, the food they want and other basic necessities.
And this is Russia, which, I assure you, is not in Africa. Russia is a modern industrialised society which was first to send a man into space and has enough nukes to destroy the world. And a fifth of the population can't afford an indoor toilet.
I could go through similar statistics for China, India and Latin America:
30% of all children living in extreme poverty live in India
500 million people in China live on less than £5 a day
Millions of people flee Latin America as refugees every year in the hopes of a better life elsewhere
You're not going to convince these people, or their governments, to consume less. What's more, you're not even going to convince them to not consume more. They want to be richer than they are and they've got very good reasons for that like not wanting to shit in a hole in the ground in the middle of Russian winter.
The Internet has spent the last 8 months mocking Russian soldiers for looting washing machines from occupied Ukrainian towns. How do you imagine someone who steals a washing machine to send home lives, exactly? Where do you think climate change ranks on their list of priorities?
You're not going to convince these people to stay poor. You're just not. And you're not going to convince them not to try to get richer either.
I know some of you genuinely believe the idea that what Britain needs to do is “set an example” to China and India. The problem is, people in China and India don’t care about the example you’re setting. They care about having food, roads and indoor plumbing. Most of them view your “example-setting” as the priviliged delusions of people who are as rich as they hope one day their grandchildren might be. Nothing more.
So no, unfortunately paying 5p for plastic bags won't save the planet. Maybe at some point we can have a grown-up conversation about how we solve this problem. I don't claim to know what the answers are. I'm not a climate scientist, remember?
I'm just saying: you won't solve this problem by consuming less. Sorry.
Look, the problem is that you are arguing from the position of logic, from empirical evidence. The 'well-intentioned' people - to be polite - who see climate change as an existential crisis that will wipe us out in the next five years don't do logic. They think everyone in the developing world thinks like them. And they ignore the evidence of places like Sri Lanka that overthrew it's government rather than be placed higher up on the ESG scores while its people starved. But bloody good article anyway.
Wholeheartedly agree, KK. I have said this from the start, without the considered research into the percentages or statistics of others in the world and what they are or aren't doing to save the planet. I remember at Junior School, several hundreds of years ago, now, haha, where we were taught that the sun would swallow us all up without us doing anything to prevent its demise, even the great Professor Cox said similar. I'm not saying he's a climate change denier but it is far more complicated than not flying, changing to ridiculous electric cars and all the other nonsense we hear from the irrepressible numpties who fly the doo-gooder flag for this sort of stuff. I think it's totally arrogant for humans to believe they have the power over good old Mother Nature - that'll get me cancelled, calling nature, Mother! However, crack on, KK. I bet you're asked on a daily basis whether you have ever thought of going into politics because you are very erudite with extremely sensible arguments and you would be a standard bearer, as would your party, for truth, common sense and straight talk.; you should! I, too, am on a bit of a rant today. Keep up the good work.