What climate activists won’t tell you about protecting the planet
“When presented with new evidence, we must always be ready to question our previous assumptions and reevaluate and admit if we were wrong”
When I give talks I am frequently asked a variation of the following question: how do we stop consumption and development to protect the planet? My answer always draws blank faces. Stopping growth is not the solution to addressing climate change, I tell concerned environmentalists and anxious climate activists. We do need to decarbonise and move to cleaner technologies, but fighting development won’t save the planet, and nor has it been shown to reduce emissions.
Zion Lights is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Sometimes these remarks are met with anger. I can understand this response, since I once also believed that preventing economic growth was the solution to tackling climate change. We have been told repeatedly, by mostly well-meaning activists, that our lifestyles are the problem. This is a logical fallacy. We have also been told that to stop climate change we have to change everything immediately: stop oil, go plastic-free, stop driving, and so on, and these myths have taken hold. I, myself, wrote a book on how to live with a low carbon footprint to save the planet. While these are still admirable aims and we should all try to live less wasteful lifestyles, the hyperfocus on individual action has been at best a distraction and at worst a complete fraud.
