"Hello everyone, my name is Sarah... and I'm a Carbon-holic.
I have been clean of flights for over 6 months now.
I have been clean of 4x4s for 3 years.
But I fell off the wagon and into a Mini Cooper 1.6 late last year. I know the future of the planet is important so I am working to become completely clean but it's just so hard to give up the carbon altogether"
Carbon-holics anonymous doesn't exist at the moment but could it be the self help group of the future? Are we moving towards a society where living a non sustainable life is a huge social taboo? Does it even matter if people are doing the right thing for the wrong reason? Can you still be a good climate change communicator without living a carbon free lifestyle? I like to think so and I would like to try and explain why.
I'm a science communicator and I would certainly claim to be passionate about the environment, having a Masters degree in Ecotourism and having spent much of my career so far talking about "how to save the planet". However, I am also guilty of owning a car, going on holiday once a year and not always recycling everything in my rubbish bin. I am a climate change communicator but I am also a hypocrite. And how do I justify that? Is it that by telling others to live as I say not as I do, I am offsetting my own actions? Well no, I'm not that naïve.
Can you truly be an environmentalist without conforming to the stereotype of the hippy, dreadlocked, woolly-jumper-wearing do-gooder? I would like to think it is possible to have it both ways; living a sustainable lifestyle, whilst also having a life which is modern and convenient, and there would seem to be some evidence of a move towards this in today's society. Thankfully the stereotype of an environmentalist has now been joined by a new league; the Hybrid driving, wind-turbine-owning middle class environmentalists, who would never dream of not sorting out their recycling but just couldn't give up their annual flights to the Caribbean. This group are willing to make sacrifices as long as it doesn't cramp their lifestyles.
I must admit that in many ways I identify more with the middle class camp of environmentalists than the traditional stereotypes who I like to refer to as the militant greens. However, there is one big difference between new environmentalists and myself; I understand the facts and the science behind climate change, I believe it is really happening and I believe that our current actions will make a big difference, all be it far off in the future. This also tends to be the case for the traditional environmentalists, who have also taken the time to research the subject beyond just what they read in the tabloids. Without the benefit of this extra knowledge on the subject, our modern day, middle class environmentalists rarely have such strong convictions about climate change. There is a chance that many of them are doing it not because they are convinced at all by the cause but because it is the "in thing" the "trendy thing" to be seen to be doing.
Where has this new social attitude come from - who made climate change cool? Just like anything else in society where celebrities go others will follow. Prius driving celebs such as Cameron Diaz, Julia Roberts and Ewan McGregor are all using their influence to make climate conscience the new black. Leonardo Di Caprio has went one step further producing and narrating a documentary film on climate change called 11th hour which can be bought on his Eco-website www.leonardodicaprio.org. A documentary is never going to make a box office smash but the newly crowned largest grossing box office film of all time, James Cameron's Avatar, has an environmental theme at its core with a not so subtle message to it's audience to look after the world that we have.
It's not just the film industry and movie stars who are using their position to spread an environmental message. Joni Mitchells hit Big Yellow Taxi is arguably the most popular environmental song of all time but it is the huge recording stars like Sting, Coldplay and Bono from U2 who can often be heard in interviews, or even on stage, asking people to change their environmental ways. One young star, Emma Watson, of Harry Potter fame, has just launched her own environmental and ethical clothing range (www.peopletree.co.uk/category/emma-watson),to massive media attention, making it likely to be a huge hit with new breed environmentalists.
So is there such thing as a bad environmentalist? If you are doing most of the right actions but for the wrong reasons does that make it any less worthy? The militant greens seem to think so: to them nothing but zero carbon will do. It would seem to me that what they are forgetting is that just like money sometimes you have to spend carbon to save carbon. As well as fighting against the don't know/don't care/can't be bothered carbon-holics, they also have waged a war against the new wave modern environmentalists. Rather than being supportive of new environmental campaigns, policies or technologies they often want to pick them apart, finding flaws and making criticisms. Personally I can not see how this kind of attitude is helping the bigger cause. Surely no matter what kind of environmentalist you are, be it a hard-core or new wave, we are all working towards the same main goal of reducing carbon emissions?
I am not in anyway against the militant greens, I respect their full-on attitude and commitment to the cause but I am against some of their methods of communication. One of their main tools seems to be to make people feel bad about their current choices, make them believe that it has to be all or nothing, and that to be a good person and to save the planet requires people to completely change their life in a way that will have a negative impact on their lifestyle. In my experience, if normal people are faced with this choice of all or nothing, they will nearly always choose nothing and in fact become totally turned off the idea of a green lifestyle, choosing to bury their head in the sand or decide it is a problem too big to be changed by them as individuals. In my opinion, any kind of move to action should be applauded and encouraged instead of being criticised.
So can you be a good climate communicator without living in a cave, wearing a hessian sack, eating nothing but raw leaves and never watching television again? My (admittedly biased) opinion would be that yes you can be, as long as you admit your own carbon downfalls to those you are communicating to. Whether in the future you will be choosing to do this at carbon-holics anonymous group, however, is totally up to you.
(Adapted from a presentation given at 2009 Association for Science Education)