Content: We WILL Fix Climate Change · Anatomy of Action for Sustainable Living ·
We WILL Fix Climate Change
This video begins with the premise that apocalyptic climate change predictions entailing complete societal collapse from a greater than 4° Celsius average warming are not likely to come to pass. The world is on a 3° warming trajectory which will be bad for humans and ecosystems, but won’t end civilization. Their analysis of this trajectory relies upon a reading of energy usage history, in which they show that there has been a dramatic shift to clean energy due to plummeting costs. Coal is no longer economically viable because it is so much more expensive than renewable options, and as more clean energy technologies are adopted their price will fall and create a positive feedback loop wherein they are adopted faster. The video makes the argument that accepting a doomsday narrative leads to apathy when people believe that there is nothing they can do to stop an inevitable apocalypse. The argument is made that with concerted action to invest in new technologies and the shift of certain societal practices, we will be able to reduce our warming trajectories to 2° levels.
I particularly like this video, because linked in the show notes is a detailed document providing citations for each claim, which is rare for this medium of videos on Youtube. The creators rely for evidence on many of the UN reports that I have been reading for my content resource collection. The video’s perspective is that we should reduce the impact of climate change by relying on investments in new technology, and provides a valuable counterpoint to some of the other sources in my content collection such as Paul Hawking who believes reliance on future technology may not pan out and we should instead focus on reorganizing society around a more sustainable nature-adjacent mode of living using the technologies we have available. This differing perspective provides useful nuance to my guiding question and hints at the reality that there probably is no answer for which approach is “best” to address climate change. Rather as dicussed in my analysis of the Synthesis Report of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), a multifaceted approach will likely be necessary.
Anatomy of Action for Sustainable Living
by UN Environment and The UnSchool of Disruptive Design
The anatomy of action for sustainable living video presents a visually appealing and easy to follow schema for how one can reduce their impact on the planet. In a world were climate change discussions are dominated by 85 page highly technical reports for how to reduce emissions, there is something quite tempting about simplifying climate solutions down into five easy steps that you can do yourself.
The video has a companion website (www.anatomyofaction.org) which goes into more detail about each of the five steps for sustainable living. Below is an image from that website which again relies heavily on aesthetics to appeal to incorporating the five actions into one’s lifestyle. Looking at the poster and the emphasis put into design, one wonders if the creators picked the number of actions to take (five) more because it fits cutely onto the five fingers of a hand instead of because those are necessarily the most effective actions.
The real issue with the anatomy of action framework is that it simplifies the complexity of climate action into something that people can do. It prioritizes individual action as the essential mechanism of solving the climate crisis. As I discussed in my post on a carbon calculator resource, it will be impossible to solve the climate crisis by individual actions alone.
Despite its problems, the perspective of this piece is a valuable addition to my content resource collection if for no other reason than it exemplifies the commonly espoused prioritization of individual action. There may be an innate desire that humans have to do SOMETHING when faced with a crisis like climate change, and considering the ways that individuals can make a difference is of worth if for no other reason than to encourage people to make a start at creating change.