Sunday, March 11, 2007
Panorama on "ethical man"
Just managed to catch up on the BBC Panorama programme “Go green or else!” on a year in the life of “ethical man” (currently available to view on the internet). The programme is itself a recycling of the regular items by Justin Rowlatt on the BBC Newsnight programme over the past year. Rowlatt and his family cut back on consumption over the year including ditching their car, forsaking air travel, eating fewer animal products, recycling and even urinating on their compost heap. The aim, which they achieved, was to cut the family’s carbon footprint by 20% over the year. They also made significant financial savings along the way.
The problems with this approach are straightforward. It is obviously possible to save money if you are prepared to accept austerity. But why should people have to do without cars, air travel or meat? Even cutting back on such consumption is not desirable.
More fundamentally the programme looked at the question entirely from the perspective of personal consumption. Tackling climate change meant individuals and families consuming less. The possibility of producing more energy, for example through nuclear energy or hydroelectric power, was ruled out of the discussion by the framework of the programme itself.
The programme’s “carbon guru” was Professor Tim Jackson of Surrey University. His website includes several papers putting sustainable consumption and sustainability more generally into a more theoretical context.
The problems with this approach are straightforward. It is obviously possible to save money if you are prepared to accept austerity. But why should people have to do without cars, air travel or meat? Even cutting back on such consumption is not desirable.
More fundamentally the programme looked at the question entirely from the perspective of personal consumption. Tackling climate change meant individuals and families consuming less. The possibility of producing more energy, for example through nuclear energy or hydroelectric power, was ruled out of the discussion by the framework of the programme itself.
The programme’s “carbon guru” was Professor Tim Jackson of Surrey University. His website includes several papers putting sustainable consumption and sustainability more generally into a more theoretical context.
Labels: climate, consumption, economics, environment, sustainability, television
