<
https://medium.com/the-new-climate/who-cares-about-your-carbon-footprint-34a9301f9473>
"It is the year 2005. BP, one of the biggest oil companies in the world, just
released an advertisement asking regular people on the streets the size of
their carbon footprint. As part of the ad campaign, BP created the first online
carbon footprint calculator, popularising the term carbon footprint. In the ad,
BP claimed that they planned to reduce carbon emissions by 4 million tonnes
over four years and implied to achieve this goal, we, as a collective, must
reduce our emissions.
The plea for shared responsibility for the climate crisis sparked outrage
since, around the same period the advert aired, the same oil company was at the
centre of multiple lawsuits. The lawsuits ranged from dumping hazardous oil on
the Alaska North Slopes (up to 267 thousand gallons — far more than you would
ever ‘emit’ in your lifetime) to accusations of releasing illegal air
pollutants over an 8 year period. But the ad worked. The legacy of BP’s ‘carbon
footprint’ brainchild spawned a wave of climate action solutions centering
around individual consumption, while letting the biggest climate offenders off
scot-free.
To quote David Wallace-Wells from his book,
The Uninhabitable Earth,
“Conscious consumption and wellness are both cop-outs, arising from the basic
promise extended by neoliberalism: that consumer choices can be a substitute
for political action.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
