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  • This video was made possible by the  people who support me on Patreon.

  • In 2009, South Korea did something remarkable. The  country poured 2% of its GDP, some $38.1 billion,  

  • into environmental projects, hoping to  create one million green jobs over the next  

  • five years. The goal was to spur growth  in a slumping economy while simultaneously  

  • creating a low carbon society. In one sensethe plan worked. South Korea's economic system  

  • did eventually recover, but in a more important  sense, the plan failed. From 2009 to 2014,  

  • Korea's emissions rose 11.8%. So, despite massive  investments in clean energy, railway expansion,  

  • and energy efficiency, South Korea's emissions  still climbed. So what happened? Why didn't South  

  • Korea's green growth strategy work? Todaywe'll answer that question and more in order  

  • to understand one of the insidious spectres that  haunts the green energy revolution: consumption.

  • How consumption is causing Climate Change:

  • It's December and the streets of New  York City are filled with Christmas.  

  • Stores, trees, lights, bags, packages, and  trash. Christmas in America is a sacred  

  • capitalist holiday wherein the average American  explodes their average yearly emissions footprint  

  • by roughly 650kg of CO2e, while spendingcumulative $2.6 billion on wrapping paper.  

  • Up until around 150 years ago, however, the  holiday rarely saw a wrapped present in sight.  

  • But then unofficial holidays like Black Friday and  department stores like Macy's started to encourage  

  • shoppers to fill their carts with tech and  trinkets as a means of expressing care and love.  

  • Now, Christmas shopping epitomizes the consumer  experience in the United States. It's driven by a  

  • complex mix of personal desire, social pressuresstatus signaling, stress, and propaganda  

  • that work, in many instances, not to increase  personal well-being, but to pad the pocketbooks  

  • of corporations. Advertisements on Instagram and  billboards in Times Square bombard us with visions  

  • of what we could be if only we had that watch or  that phone, which locks us into a world where,  

  • in order to find happiness or comfort or  political change, we need to buy...stuff.  

  • But a range of studies consistently found that  once a person's needs are met, extra consumption  

  • does not increase their well-being. And buying  new phones, clothes, and gadgets all have an  

  • environmental price tag. Despite the fact that 100  companies were found to be the root cause of 70%  

  • of global emissions, the reality is that the  people using those companies' products and burning  

  • their fuel are us. Or rather, I should sayprimarily rich communities and countries. Because  

  • consumption levels are not equal across the worldthe average American uses over 100 times the  

  • energy as someone from India. And if everyone  in the world were to live in the same way the  

  • average German does right now, global emissions  would double. So as those in rich countries  

  • gorge on luxury items and the newest tech, they  use energy and emit at much higher rates than  

  • countries in the majority world, which often are  the ones feeling the brunt of climate disasters

  • Why we can't buy our way out of climate change:

  • The blame for overconsumption should not and can  not be placed solely on individuals. Companies  

  • and corporations have a vested interest in  making you buy more stuff because if they don't  

  • they go bankrupt. Which is why they slap  green labels onto their products and advertise  

  • everywhere. Indeed, the whole idea of a personal  carbon footprint is a propaganda campaign created  

  • by the fossil fuel giant BP. The move allowed  them to lock-in decades of fossil fuel use  

  • by turning the attention away from their  complicity in climate change, and instead  

  • blaming the individual for not living a low  carbon lifestyle or not buying the right thing.

  • The natural conclusion in a system riddled with  ads and cultural norms imploring all your senses  

  • to buy more then, is that your dollar is your  vote. An idea which stands in stark contrast  

  • to the democratic ideal of one person, one voteWe are led to believe that growing the economy,  

  • which for the individual means buying morewhether it be supporting new green tech,  

  • or wearing sustainably-made clothing, is how  we stop climate change. But the reality is that  

  • this capitalist growth model counteracts the work  being done to decrease emissions. Over the last 40  

  • years, global emissions have skyrocketed despite  dramatic expansions of renewable and energy  

  • efficiency technologies. Yes, growth does lead  to an expansion of new sustainable innovations,  

  • but it also leads to the expansion of fossil  fuel-intensive industries. Just one percent  

  • growth in GDP leads to a 0.5 to 0.8% increase in  carbon emissions. And if we continue to grow at 3  

  • percent per year, by 2043, the global economy will  be two times larger than it is now, which means  

  • energy consumption will be larger and the task  of transitioning towards a zero-carbon world will  

  • be much harder. So, something's got to give. And  that something is consumption in rich countries.

  • What options do we have?

  • The unfortunate reality is that expanding  zero-carbon technologies to meet global  

  • energy demands, or what's known as  decoupling emissions from growth,  

  • will be an extremely difficult task. A  task that South Korea attempted back 2009  

  • and ran headfirst into the consequences ofgrowth-centered economy. The reason why South  

  • Korea's emissions still rose 11.8% over five  years is that their total energy consumption  

  • outpaced renewable installation and energy  efficiency projects. So the emissions they  

  • saved with green technology were nullified by  their overall increase in consumption levels.

  • So then, what options do we have? A recent study  modeled that by 2050 the world could support the  

  • equivalent of three times the current global  population if global consumption levels drop  

  • 60% back down to 1960 levels. Most notably  though, the paper claims that this is possible  

  • while still maintaining or even improvingdecent lifestyle for all. And within their  

  • definition of a decent living. the researchers  include laptops, comfortable climate control,  

  • access to robust transportation networks and  universal healthcare. In order to achieve this  

  • world wherein everyone is able to enjoy  a decent lifestyle while also avoiding  

  • a climate emergency, the researchers suggest  a dual-pronged approach. On the demand-side,  

  • consumption levels must drop by as much as 95%  in countries with today's highest per-capita  

  • consumers. That means no more second houses  or eating red meat every single day of the  

  • week. This then must be simultaneously coupled  with massive rollouts of advanced technology  

  • in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and  other sectors. Together, the model predicts,  

  • these scenarios could allow the global population  to live well in a zero carbon world. And if all  

  • this sounds scary, Hope Jahren, author of The  Story of More, compares this future lifestyle  

  • to that of someone living in Switzerland in the  1960s, which, to me, doesn't sound that bad,  

  • especially considering that everyone in the  world would be able to live the 1960s Swiss life.

  • Big questions, with big consequences:

  • The key point here is that reducing emissions or  what's known as decoupling emissions from growth  

  • is not enough to quickly prevent the worst-case  climate change scenario. Reducing consumption  

  • has to be integrated into our solutions toolkit if  we are to quickly tackle the climate crisis before  

  • 2050. But the burden of this task should not  be laid upon the individual, it's the job of  

  • governments and the very corporations who created  the mess in the first place to facilitate this  

  • drop in consumption. Imagine for a momentif instead of lobbying for fuel subsidies  

  • and spending millions telling us to decrease our  carbon footprint, BP was required to address its  

  • complicity in climate change by leaving fossil  fuels in the ground and developing renewable  

  • energy, rapid public transportation, and energy  efficiency technologies. I'd imagine the task  

  • of reducing our own consumption and emissions  would probably be a lot easier. Ultimately,  

  • degrowth is a path we need to take seriously  if we are to tackle the climate emergency.  

  • While I can't pretend to predict the far reaching  consequences reducing growth would create,  

  • I do know one thing: the smaller our global  needs, the easier the transition will be.

  • Hey everyone, Charlie here. If you've been  watching Our Changing Climate for a while  

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  • financially able, then no worries! I hope you  enjoyed the video, and I'll see you in two weeks!

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