The percentage of trips by car people in rich countries make that instead could have been cycling trips is staggering though. Also the SUV sales in some countries are staggeringly high. Same with beef consumption
@@udayshet303 I understand where you are coming from. I can't afford those "green washed" products either. However, I think people should engage in two ways. 1) putting pressure on governments and corporations to change. There are plenty of environmental pressure groups you can sign up for emails for free and participate in their campaigns. 2) Going green or cutting your carbon footprint doesn't have to be expensive. I follow a semi-vegan diet and don't buy "vegan" products. I save money on my shopping. I buy second hand goods whenever possible and preferably from charity shops. There is a whole list of things a person can do. I recommend planting trees by using Ecosia as your search engine.
Whilst I think people should take responsibility for their carbon footprint. Such as: Walking or cycling rather than driving. Cutting back on animal products. Buying second hand goods whenever possible. I could write a whole list of actions, but I think the most important thing for people to do is put pressure on governments and corporations to take real action. Especially, by joining environmental organisations.
I guess what my personal and global footprint is is based on the same capitalistic principles. Money talks and based off of where my money goes is where industries follow. Being cognizant about that fact and not fall for the PR from either sides is a good place to start. And to the overall premis of this video, DW, seriously? It works the same was a democracy does, individual votes don't count for much but it is how we individuals in a society want, pay and vote for is where things go. This is ridiculous coming from you to have a video that's 95% suggesting people to do whatever they want to as it doesn't really matter and throwing in at the last minute by which most already stopped watching that individual choices do matter. Seriously think about what you're trying to convey here.
I've started raising local inland turtles. Their eggs are temperature sensitive and with global warming clutches are becoming nothing but females. I and my daughter are incubating the eggs at lower temperatures to produce males for releasing back into nature to help insure turtle survival in the future. I use solar energy, I built a heavily insulated house, I pay attention to policies and vote accordingly and I advocate with aquaintices but somehow doing my bit for the turtles feels most satisfying. And thank you for you concise and inciteful video.
That doesn't really address the issue of climate change, though it may address one or two other important, lesser known issues including biodiversity loss and ecosystems collapse
Forgot to mention automakers who had a hand in killing public transport such as GM in America. If it weren’t for GM killing electric trains, there’d most likely not be a need of more combustion engine vehicles to travel for work. Traveling for work is a policy issue. If automakers couldn’t monopolize streetcars only to trash them so people would consume more vehicles, neighborhoods would have more access to public electric transport and people would be closer to places of work. Driving 25+ minutes to work is not sustainable.
@AutoFuturo So? The average trip an American takes is less than 5 miles, and the average commute is what, about 10 miles? Those are easily covered either by biking (if we had safe bicycle infrastructure which we don't), or public transport. In between cities, high speed rail should be the norm, which would be a lot more convenient and cheaper than owning one's own car.
@@legitpancake4276 My commute to work should be 20 minutes for 15 miles one way, but with rush hour traffic it’s around 45-60 minutes. Wish it weren’t the case and can only imagine how much better public transport by rail would be. Spending a little over $800 a month on car lease, insurance, gas and parking isn’t fun either.
Don't forget they also lobbied for zoning laws so commercial and residential zones are strictly seperated. Which makes commuting highly dependent on a car
Think globally, act locally. Do what you can, but try not to feel the weight of the world's problems. Make sure to vote and write to your government officials.
@@AKumar528 The general public is also responsible (especially in rich developed countries). We need to stop shifting the blame to other people/institutions and act at EVERY level possible.
A couple years ago BP put a link on their social media that lets you calculate your carbon footprint with a caption that read "pledge to lower yours". Then someone comments "I pledge to not spill 200 million gallons of oil into the ocean"
@@davidwarland2680 What's so obvious? Most of oil doesn't come from trees but ancient algae. However, this isn't the point. Most importantly, oil and other fossil fuels such as coal and gas are trapped carbon. Carbon that was removed from the carbon cycle. The carbon cycle is a very fine balance between carbon emissions (mainly animal and plant respiration and CO2 release from the oceans) and carbon absorption (photosynthesis from plants and CO2 dissolution into the oceans). This cycle has worked very well for millions of years. Well, it has been working very well until us humans started releasing more and more carbon into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. This is quickly tipping the balance as we emit more CO2 than what the planet can absorb. CO2 as you should know is a greenhouse gas which warms the atmosphere. This has many dangerous consequences for both the environment and mankind. We are talking about droughts, extreme heatwaves, destroyed harvests, ice caps melting, sea level rise, disturbed weather and wind patterns, destruction of habitats, stronger hurricanes, millions of displaced people and so on. This is going to make our lives and the lives of our children way less enjoyable. Anyway, I hope this is what you called obvious.
Electric cars are an excuse to promote car culture instead of public transport systems like high speed rail and and better city planning that isn't car centric.
True, personal cars are practical but cannot be used as the primary mode of transportation for commuters in cities. Too many individual drivers overloads any system no matter how efficient it is
You're just being cynical here. Electrifying our transportation and decarbonizing our grid is the most immediate and effective solution we have to take on climate crisis, because they largely don't require cultural changes, which takes time.
Thank you! I drive and I sit and think while driving 'what a waste' waste of energy a d space this expensive machine I own just to visit the next town over. All for the sake of personal freedom. It's decadence at its worst
My Aunt lives in LA and in the early 90s she said there used to be a public tram system in the city centre. But then Ford brought the ownership just to demolish it. For them the money made from owning more of the transport market because people are forced to drive cars, outweighed the money spent in buying the entire tram system. But the free market allowed them to do it. And now LA has the worlds most gridlock and polluting road network.
Because of crony capitalism, weight gain and obesity is attributed to personal failures instead of fatty fast food cos. Same for opoid addictions. And carbon emission. In all three cases, companies shifting the burden on people
It clearly has to be both. We must take personal responsibility, reduce our own carbon footprint as much as possible, and then put pressure on corporations and governments to do the same.
If everyone reduced their own footprint the corporate pressure comes free. If no one bought gas/diesel cars car manufacturers would stop building them. If more people cycled to get around more bikes would be built. If everyone went vegan restaurants would stop serving meat, grocery stores would stop stocking meat. If everyone stopped flying airlines would go out of business. But we don’t need to wait for everyone to go green. By not owning a car I have reduced new vehicle demand by a car every 8-10 years. By going vegan I reduce meat demand by 5-10 pounds per month, a whole cow/pig every 2-3 years. Yeah, it’s not much… but it is something. And I might inspire a bunch of other people to reduce their consumption.
While both are important, I put higher emphasis on the latter: "put pressure on corporations and governments to do the same". Why? Because these corporations, are stamping "eco-friendly" on everything or whatever latest buzzwords there are along with all that fluff meanwhile their product that they manufacture is far from it, and many times creating their products in VERY irresponsible ways. They are deceiving us with fancy words and meaningless words to make us THINK we are helping the environment. Those are the true scum, those companies who will lie to form a profit. We need to eradicate these companies first before we will make any kind of progress on this front. I have ZERO sympathy for any companies who do these things.
Well, considering we have about 10 years, we definitely need to set the priorities right: put pressure on corpos and governments. Even if the whole world goes vegan, we’re still polluting way too much with our electricity and transport
It is hard not to be utterly cynical about climate change especially since we seem to have crossed a few of serious tipping points on a few feedback loops in the biome. Thanks for the reminder that we’re not powerless victims of the big 100 companies responsible for the bulk of GHG emissions. They are also beholden to us.
Big words but do they mean anything? Mother nature will take care of itself. Don't worry, we will wipe ourselves out one way or another, earth will go on.
I live in Malaysia(East Malaysia, specifically). There's very little what we can do to help. The biggest change my family could've done and has done was cut down on beef. Aside from that, there really isn't anything else that we can do except from going full vegan. Solar, public transport and electric cars are way out of reach. Even ordinary cars are expensive here once you've realized how low are wages are and how bad our currency is with no hope of it getting better any time soon since we're massively unstable politically right now(We've had FOUR different Prime Ministers in the past 4 years) Cycling and walking is difficult once you've realize how hot and humid our climate is; humidity is at minimum 60%, is regularly above 80%. You'd be lucky if you saw the temperature goes as low as 28 degrees C. Even 30 is hopeful. Most of the time, we just enjoy humid air at 31-34C. We don't even have proper pedestrian walkways to begin with.
Sometimes battling climate crisis might be synonymous to improving the quality of life so that people are able to get the opportunity to choose, especially in developing countries. Maybe try going zero waste or grow your own foos if possible
I've gotten a solar panel system on my roof, home battery, electric vehicle, electric water heater, all bulbs LED, installed bidet (no toilet paper), switched to reusable alternatives (reusable handkerchief, napkins, etc), mostly vegetarian, compost, use a instant pot/slow cooker, adopted an anti consumption mindset, buy used when possible, etc. I still have a gas range and gas furnace. I avoid using the gas range when possible. At the end of the life of the furnace, I'll try to find some sort of cost effective alternative. Geothermal would be expensive. It angers me to see corporations saying they support green. Walmart makes record profits, why isn't there entire roof solar? Corporations and governments are too focused on short term profits, our current economic system makes solving the climate crisis impossible. We need drastic changes 40 years ago.
Great video as usual, thanks! I drive an EV, purchase renewable energy, invested some money in a PV plant... Live in an appartment, ride a bike to work, reduced meat a lot... But I also have negative feelings for climate change fight. The world, as an ecosystem, tends to equilibrate. If a species disappears from somewhere, another specie will replace it. People with a higher concern on CC will have less children, or make a bigger effort to get the same results -so we are sometimes accepting a handicap. So, with this eco-systemic view, this will just make an advantage for the less caring people, as if they were a different species.
There is a link somewhere to what you describe. It is an important issue, because it does not look like the developing world is willing to miss out on all the stuff we had in the last 150 years. It means politicians not being so woke about slavery and imperialism though. It is never going to be a level field in any country, let alone the global picture. Homo Avarus.
Actually applying the right blame to the right perpetrator is the way to change. The true delusion was that you were indoctrinated into believing you can change the world when you really can't.
While we do have to keep pushing politicians and companies, what I do personally is: 80-90% vegetarian diet, prioritizing locally and sustainably grown stuff, and very little red meat. I pay about 10% extra for my electricity to come from 100% renewable. Changed all lighting except a few CCFL tubes to LED many years ago, as soon as I found some with CRI > 80 I only use AC the 20-50 hottest days of the year (and only in my home office/bedroom), otherwise make do with fans. Mostly telecommute, otherwise get around by e-scooter, bicycle, walking, train or bus unless I need to move something too large/heavy. Vacation and work trips I mostly go by train. By air 3 times in the past decade and don't want to do more flights until they are electric. I buy very little clothes and furniture, a bit more electronics but I get quality stuff and use it until it breaks and isn't feasible to repair anymore. Everything I buy I look for sustainability certifications, and I do look into what they actually mean. None of these things actually feels like a sacrifice now that I'm used to it. If I can do these things with reasonable effort, certainly companies/countries can do a lot more, and it's one of my top priorities when I vote.
I'm so tired of being gaslit by people assuming "all you do is complain about others", "You aren't doing your part either", all while I'm actually doing what I can ...meanwhile the CORPORATIONS who are contributing the MOST to pollution, HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING. YES I'M GOING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT CORPORATIONS and it's my turn to gaslight these imbeciles telling them, YOU GUYS HAVEN'T COMPLAINED ABOUT OUR CORPORATIONS ENOUGH.
To pay more for electricity is absolutely stupid if the electricityy is comming from the main grid. You will get the mix of the electricity sources connected to the grid, whatever you pay. The utilities are very glad if more people beleive in this scam.
@@StefanMX yes, there's no little gate in the wire that only lets thru the green electrons and turns back the black electrons. Itsa marketing ploy to make consumers feel better
I quit flying (on fossil fuel aircraft) in 2008, which was definitely the single decision I've taken with the biggest impact. Even better, it made a lot of my friends curious about how to travel by land and sea. I have no doubt that airlines will respond quite quickly to falling demand, they really don't like losing money.
I became a minimalist and started making conscious spending and frugal living choices. I also prepare for survival scenarios within my means and do not hanker after wealth & material possessions. I try to use public transport as far as reasonable. I try to focus on climate crisis and unemployment problem and its connection with thoughtless mechanization and technological progress for maximizing profits rather than building communities and healthy individual lives by creating climate-conscious employment.
People need to understand that corporations make pollution because they produce what we consume. For example, the sales of 4x4 SUVs are increasing at an exponential rate all around the world. The bigger are the cars we drive, the more fuel they consume and thus the more oil companies will need to extract petrol... We all need to stop blaming others and to change our lifestyle.
The most sold EV in Germany is the small E-Up! They closed the order books on it a year ago and it still is the most sold EV. Consumers want it, but VW would prefer to sell the SUV ID4. So VW will stop selling the EUp once the order books are empty and shift production capacities to an SUV. So don't act as if companies don't work against the consumers aswell in this regard.
@@TBFSJjunior Your example is flawed. The pandemic created shortages of a ton of raw materials needed to build different things, such as micro-ships and micro-processors, which are needed to build modern cars. There are currently shortages of cars all around the world because of this. Why would Volkswagen refuse to sell something that sells well? If people want it so much, they could simply increase the product's price and thus make even more profit than with the ID4 as manufacturing a smaller car has smaller production costs (profits being price - production costs)
@@PG-3462 its also funny that people falsely believe that bigger cars are safer, in reality crashing an SUV with high speed will make it a wreckage due to its high mass and being prone to roll over
@@TBFSJjunior Those who are interested in E-Up are the eco people. While they represent a significant part of EV buyers, they are only a very small part of car buyers. Even if VW prioritize to produce enough e-Up and ID.3 which they should do instead of ID.4, that does not change much the whole picture.
The biggest change I made for climate is not increasing my lifestyle as I earned more and more money. And believe me... I have a very simple life stile.
Great and balanced video. I was afraid you would fall into the classic "since BP popularized the concept, it's useless and we needn't worry aboyt our carbon footprint". Usually, when people say "the sytem needs to change" they indeed fail to acknowledge that unfortunately, without public pressure (and therefore shows of public acceptability of the measures to be taken by governements), the system isn't going to change.
I have such a big problem with food packaging in Poland... Nearly all food products are wrapped in 3 layers of plastic... So naturally I don't buy them, but still what a waste.
In order to address the climate crisis, we need large investments by policy makers in the energy sector, research and technology. Buying an electric car in a country were most of the energy is made by burning fossil fuels isn't gonna help much
But even in a country where most of the energy comes from fossil fuels it makes sense to buy an electric car. Every single EV bought reduces the cost of all EVs because it is a technology that gets cheaper due to the economy of scale. The cheaper it gets, the more EVs are bought worldwide, reducing carbon emissions a lot. So even in a high emissions country an EV is good for the environment because it increases sales in low emissions countries
@@VFPn96kQT True, but in most countries the CO2 savings from driving an EV more than compensate the CO2 emissions from manufacturing the batteries. On the global scale, EVs are better for the environment even considering the manufacturing process and the generation of electricity. Therefore we need a global shift from ICEs to EVs and for that even sales in coal countries are helpful. The studies I have read consider the manufacturing of the battery even in very coal reliant countries and also add the CO2 emissions from producing the electricity (even wind and solar have some carbon emissions despite them being comparably much greener). Over the lifetime of the battery the carbon savings are almost half compared to gasoline cars. In my experience, most people rather ignore certain aspects regarding ICEs rather than EVs. Usually people don't add the carbon emissions resulting from the huge energy consumption pumping the oil, refining it and finally transporting it. That wastes so much electricity that could already power a huge number of EVs. In addition it wastes enormous amounts of resources. For example, Cobalt is needed to remove sulfur from crude oil. Another aspect that is always ignored is the oil spills destroying valuable rainforests and other biospheres. They poison groundwater and the soil. But they are probably really hard to estimate because they happen so often amd are too huge to correctly estimate, so I understand why this is not considered when talking about the impacts of different cars.
@@l-dogtheman1685 First, Lithium is a conflict mineral, and the quest to mine this conflict mineral is disrupting countries all over the globe by countries like the USA through disrupting other country's elections trying to push in a right wing government to allow the destruction of local environments...Second, charging electric cars off a grid that is mainly powered by fossil fuels makes those electric cars carbon POSITIVE...there is no explanation you can make that changes that...don't try to gaslight by saying electric cars powered by fossil fuels is carbon neutral, you sound really ignorant.
Electric cars are not the answer, it's still a 2000 kg machine to move one (or sometimes two, but the average car carries like 1.25 people per trip) 70 kg person. An electric vehicle is also the same size as a regular car, not helping traffic at all and still requiring lanes after lanes of highways if everyone drove one. What really needs to happen is reliable, high frequency, and robust public transport that more than just 10% of a city uses. Also, robust and safe biking infrastructure like those found in the Netherlands should be adopted everywhere. The less cars, even electric, that a city has to build stupid parking and lanes for, the better.
@@l-dogtheman1685 A better solution for an average Joe is to drive less and in a more efficient way, use more public transport and bicycles and walk more as well. Buying an EV charged by electricity from fossil fuels makes sense only if you have to drive a lot.
Eating out of my families garden (just started harvesting Peaches), working remotely, and buying and supporting local as much as possible. If I can't buy it locally, I take time to reflect on whether I really need it or not. But also not getting discouraged if I mess up or have to buy something that isn't sustainable. Just gonna do your best, it's not about perfection.
I feel like the change has to come from our own self esteem, if we live a life without high levels of consumption and kinda more minimalistic, we might give the necessary break the planet is shouting to have.
The problem with the minimalist lifestyle in the states is that this idea feeds into the Orwellian concept of owning nothing and being happy with it. The idea literally goes against the American Dream of owning everything and puts people in a defensive postion to resist living a detached lifestyle. I agree with you though. We need to try doing without.
@Person you mean like northkorea and china and all communism befor if you make alot of money go for goverment how you gurantee not to fall in hand of dictator who make his people life misreable live
People value involuntary risks more than voluntary ones. While you can't from climate change, making it a involuntary risk, shifting responsibility (such as recycling and driving less) to the consumer, it makes it voluntary, decreasing risk and therefore criticism. This also has the benefit that it frames the consumer as responsible.
I stopped buying almond milk when I have dairy cows in my city. The idea of all this waste product so I can say I don't drink milk and it's saving the enviorment is a sham. Grown almonds in California's drought region and ship it across the country to the east coast sounds more harmful than 2 quarts from a cow 1Km away.
All I see are urban consumers in these programs. I'm a farmer, a small food producer. My vegetables and fruit are grown organically and my animals raised on pasture. I can't get around on a bicycle and I need to use a tractor but my produce has to be transported to market. We aren't into compulsive consumption and generate about 80% of our electricity. I never see my world represented here.
In 1983, I made a life-time commitment to exponentially reduce my carbon footprint by making the decision to get a vasectomy "for environmental reasons." Now 63 years-old, I feel that single remarkable decision will forever nuture stewardship into humanity's one-and-only biosphere... Lifeboat Earth.
In the 80s, Exxon-Mobil was at the forefront of climate change research and they were aware of the effects their company would have on the environment. But instead of acting against climate change, they fired their climate scientists and buried the research, and began a strategy of sowing doubt and climate denial.
What if BP and other oil companies spend that money on research and development for climate friendly and cheaper alternatives to fossil fuels? Ah, not possible, because Money rules the world.
I personally went vegetarian and have tried to cut my consumerism by adopting a more eco minimalist mindset (but I still live like a normal person just less shopping trips and more trips to the farmers market). And speaking of the farmers market I started using locally made bar soap instead of liquid soap from the store. I have only made small changes but it helps me sleep better at night in my privileged air conditioned apartment that is powered by coal electricity. I want to raise my voice more to the government and companies but that is still something I struggle with.
Great video! I appreciate that you finished discussing how personal choice drives changes to the system. I think that’s one element being overlooked. If people stop buying the 4000 sqft mini mansions then developers will stop building them. If people stop playing golf, the courses will close. It’s a bit hypocritical to only discuss how the system forces personal choice, while ignoring how collective choice drives the system.
I think that taking personal responsibility is a logical first-step towards holding these corporations accountable for their carbon emissions. It's possibly one of those driving forces behind seeking out this information and passing it along. We also support these companies through our personal choices so making that connection might also lead to this conclusion. It's certainly a very important message to spread and educate those who aren't aware.
And people need to understand that corporations make pollution because they produce what we consume. For example, the sales of 4x4 SUVs are increasing at an exponential rate all around the world. The bigger are the cars we drive, the more fuel they consume and thus the more oil companies will need to extract petrol... We all need to stop blaming others and to change our lifestyle.
@@PG-3462 ...Tell that to corporations. Many people have changed their lifestyle, but a big red flag is this...CORPORATIONS HAVENT DONE ANYTHING AT ALL. Even worse is oil companies spreading propaganda about climate change denial for literal decades, convincing half the population not to do anything at all. I've done and been doing my part...Maybe just MAYBE, we haven't convinced our corporations to do theirs.
@@PG-3462 It is completely ridiculous for these corporations to gaslight us all the time all the while they manufacture so many wasteful things in such irresponsible ways for us to consume. Ie. How can we tell if a fishing company is overfishing in a responsible way when they lie and stamp "eco-friendly" on all their products? Ie. How were people supposed to know for the longest time that 95% of plastics aren't actually recyclable and yet companies have the audacity to stamp "environmentally friendly" on their bottles? Ie How are we supposed to know that when we return our package to amazon, that they'll most likely trash that because it's cheaper? You are unknowingly irresponsibly defending corporate scum here. The lies are becoming ubiquitous and more devious and it's becoming way more difficult to distinguish fact from corporate lies designed for profit.
@@PG-3462 I absolutely despise comments like yours. Your focus is completely in the wrong direction. There are way worse actors than just people being irresponsible with what they consume. Yes, they are an issue as well but our BIGGEST issue is our corporations. Stop defending them.
@@edwardroh89 Of course the government needs to impose some laws, but most of the blame is on consumers, since the government can't impose a law if the majority of people are not willing to change their lifestyle. If people didn't want SUVs, companies wouldn't produce SUVs anymore. People want to travel more. People want a car that's always bigger, always more clothes, always more exotic food, etc. There are thousands of very easy things everyone can do to reduce their impact on the environment, but people don't change anything. Today I went to the beach near where I live and it was covered of trash. This trash was there because people don't care about the environment. The only way to reduce pollution is that everyone starts caring about the environment and start consuming more intelligently. There is no other way. People blame the government and corporations, and then they go purchase some cheap crap on Amazon or at Walmart, go drive their huge SUV on their way to their huge single-family home, while thibking about their next trip to the Carribeans 🤦♂️
Consumers don't demand 'plastic cups', they demand "a way to transport liquid". You cannot blame consumers for choosing between the only options available.
Our energy company supplies 100% renewable. If this option is available to you go for it. Also we eat mostly plant based. Where ever you are, eating more plant based foods are probably one of the easiest and impactful things you can do personally.
i'm now shifting to buy more and more secondhand stuff. I also keep a lot of I can re-use in the future. I try to eat more healthy and drink only water or tea. Consumer choices. I think it's all in consumer choices.
My biggest change is I haven’t flown anywhere since 2018. Prior to that I was going on 2 international flights per year, and some shorter flights as well.
Well, I've been pursuing a green lifestyle, as much as I feel I can, for over 30 years, ever since I joined Friends of the Earth. We actually now don't even have a car, but when we did, we used it about twice a week, and never for short journeys - the latter we've always biked or walked. We have fairly good bus and train services in our area, so usually travel by public transport to most places we wish to visit. I pick up litter most days on my walks, and take home everything that is recyclable, to put in my own bins. I've been recycling and composting for most of my adult life ( I'm 67). I believe that rewilding and reforesting the earth are important ways to sequester carbon, so I let a lot of my garden go natural and have planted many trees, mostly via the Woodland Trust and Tree Aid, but also a few in my own garden, a local school field and a park. I went vegan in 2012 when I learned about the carbon footprint of animal farming. Recently I've been trying hard to reduce my plastic use and am glad to see the rise of zero waste shops ( when I was child it was common for shops to sell dried fruit, nuts and cereals from large bins into paper bags, so it's a bit like a wheel turning full circle!). I've been taking my own bags shopping since long before supermarkets started trying to reduce plastic carrier use, by adding a charge for them. Anyway, I'll keep on trying my best - thanks for this very interesting video.
I could go live in a cabin, without running water or electricity, living off nothing but moss, and it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference if everyone else just went on living their normal, modern lifestyle. Individual action is not enough!
yeah we're just one drop in the ocean, but we're really 7.5 billion drops in the ocean. If everyone did a little thing, it would make a difference! Unfortunately most people can't be bothered to do anything
@@ADCFproductions that's what I mean, we're not going to fix the climate by just hoping that everyone chooses to do the right thing. That's not a viable solution.
@@wyatt4710 look, I'm on board. I'll live like an Amish person if it will help, but I have this sneaking suspicion I'm in the minority, that's all I'm saying.
@@Who-vt9oh The problem is that everyone has this mindset: "if I reduce my consumption, it won't change anything", so everyone continues buying huge 4x4 SUVs, living in homes that are bigger and bigger and always further, buying always more cheap clothes, etc. We all need to change our lifestyle.
@@PG-3462 I agree completely. We do all need to change our lifestyles. Here's the thing, I think there's a not-insignificant percentage of the population who will not change their lifestyles willingly. They have to be...persuaded, somehow. Maybe that's going to require some kind of incentive, maybe some penalties of some kind, but relying on a hope that people will voluntarily do the right thing is, I think, foolish. Just look at the pandemic response from some people. They refuse to wear a mask, won't get the vaccine, hell, many of them still think it's all a hoax. Compliance can't be voluntary or we are all screwed.
You didn't mention that electric cars also aren't environment friendly. Lithium production for accumulators consumpts a lot of clean water, destroys fertile land, destroys forests. And electricity for electric cars can come from fossil fuels.
I asked to make a garden in family friends back yard, two beds 3.5ft wide and 10ft long and is thriving due to full sun and proper drip irrigation. Giving back to the soil through compost. Walking to the grocery store.Buying organic, grass fed , buying local, and taking shorter/ lesser showers. Informing others on wtf is going on and how to help out.
Great video! Very informative! The best example that I can think of this shift of blame to the consumer is when I go to the supermarket. I find it amusing that they charge 5 cents for a disposable plastic bag to encourage people to bring their own reusable bag, yet I see no improvement on the amount of plastic wrapping or plastic containers in the products they sell. In so many cases the amount of plastic wrapping is absurd and in others flatout unnecessary, but hey at least I'm not using a disposable plastic bag.
Okay.. For first time Google Ads gave me some awesome channel. I thought DW is just a German news channel but a channel dedicated to Environment. Wow... & With such endearing Videos. Awesome.
If you make drastic changes to your lifestyle, you can lower your footprint by 25%. That is; going mainly vegetarian, never fly, drive an EV, sort out your appliances, energy renovate your home. Doing more than this is difficult, it requires home farming, collecting rainwater and quitting your job! So yes, it is the smaller share you are able to do yourself while still being part of society, but 25% is still more than current government initiatives, so there is no excuse for not taking personal resposibility. Coorperate logic is not holding your back!
@@toyotaprius79 I don't dissagree with the video or you, it is just that the lifestyle changes are ours and needs to be made, regardless of how much lobbying or resistance the multinational businesses put up. Yes, we should keep pressure, politically and from the grass roots, but business getting cleaner is not something we can afford to wait for, and if consumption decreases, their dirty practices, pollute less too.
Doing my bit: I went vegan, eat plant-based and no longer buy things that I don’t really need. I buy green electricity from a company that doesn’t invest in fossil fuels and turn off switches/unplug anything not in use. I mostly walk to the supermarket and only buy food I’ve meal planned for, so it doesn’t go to waste. I buy local first, organic second, and avoid plastic packaging as much as possible. Any plastic bags are reused until they disintegrate. Any liquid shampoos/detergent I am using up will be replaced with solid bars or powder that don’t contain environmentally harmful chemicals. I use a vinegar rinse instead of conditioner and I don’t use the little freebie bottles of shower gels when I (once upon a time would) go to a hotel, would also reuse my towel throughout my stay. I barely use any other cosmetics and make sure they are not tested on animals. My period products are all reusable and I mend clothes instead of throwing them out. I only buy gifts I know people specifically want or are definitely going to use, and I wrap them in brown paper as opposed to unrecyclable wrapping paper. More and more I make my own cards or I buy them from small local shops instead of big chains. I use public transport to get to work and I’ve switched my bank to one that invests in renewables. I don’t fly with low-cost airlines as they are unethical at best. Commercial flying is however more fuel efficient than driving (a lot of people don’t realise this!), so I don’t drive to places where it makes more sense to fly to. I make these trips count and don’t travel willy-nilly. I take part in marches for the animals and raise awareness about veganism, as well as try to urge people towards a plant-based diet. One can’t be a true environmentalist whilst still eating animal products just like one can’t be actively trying to avoid lung cancer and still smoke. There are a lot more things I could do to help the planet, and every time after successfully achieving a more sustainable habit, I take on another one. I believe it’s this progressive mindset that will facilitate change, and if we all used each decision we make to take a step in the right direction, we can make an important difference.
A lot of people are going to sing the high praises of HIGH-SPEED RAIL 🙌🏼 and demonize air travel and driving. It's simply a unidimensional and quite conveniently ignorant argument. Keeping the context in the US alone for simplicity, high-speed rail isn't feasible for 'MOST' destinations. Keep in mind that in order to construct railways, we need to cut a path through land that is often unused and otherwise left alone, which is ultimately what we would like to see more of. We next need to pour tera-tons of concrete (not asphalt) and lay tera-tons of steel over stretches of what people expect to be multi-hundred-mile routes. Let alone the new infrastructure required to build the infrastructure. But Justin we already have thousands of miles of highways, we would be alleviating cars on the road! To that I say exactly: we already have highways constructed and the reality is they're going not going away. In addition to many airports. You see, people prefer the control they exert over their personal transportation machines. Trains are nice, but as we can observe even in Europe, (whom we love to put on a high pedestal) their highways are overly congested with people who prefer to drive even with existent and quite robust rail infrastructure. The electrification of cars changes the discussion a bit. America's old car may have been a Ford Fusion, but its new one is a Tesla M3 which gets an equivalent 3x increase in fuel efficiency. UNPRECEDENTED! Airplanes are getting more fuel-efficient to the tune of >1%/annum, which is actually quite amazing. The A220 burns even less fuel than smaller regional planes. Additionally, planes and airports are completely modular by nature and can scale operations up and down the way a rail company could only dream of. And of course, there's the brilliant speed. As the crow flies. A flight from LA to NY is 13% fewer miles than the drive and 7.5x faster. Airplanes transport people and [sometimes very precious] cargo with the most valuable commodity TIME in mind. Imagine crossing the Pacific or Atlantic by ship? 2 weeks. Not overnight. Let us not forget the carbon footprint it takes to sustain a person for that period of time. U-TURN HOWEVER That is not to say rail (of the high-speed variety) doesn't have a niche. High frequency, medium distance is its sweet spot. LA to San Diego. Portland to Seattle. Houston-Dallas-Austin. Orlando-Miami. Perhaps even as far as LA-Vegas, geography permitting (the Rocky Mountains are tricky buggers). Places that are too awkwardly short to fly, but too painstakingly long to drive and many people are simultaneously traversing. This is a fantastic idea apart from the natural monopoly that rails create, and budget problems these projects always have.
The origin of the 'footprint' is interesting, but making people take personal responsibility for their behaviour is hugely important. While it seems to shift responsibility, companies respond to consumer pressure. If consumers are sufficiently motivated, they can force the hands of the multinationals.
The carbon footprint is a great metric to see what sectors are the most carbon intensive in our lifestyles. This makes us push for changes in these crucial sectors instead of falling for the greenwashing marketing of big companies.
@@_blank-_ Exactly, while companies are responsible for most of the pollution, we're responsible for being their customers. We can choose to continue buying from companies with poor records of sourcing and sustainability like Apple, or better companies who invest in sustainability and repairability.
Changes have to be made in the different scales simultaneously for the problem to be solved. Yes off course we have to demand to governments and enterprises to stop ecocides, that's for sure! , at the same time we also need to act within our own habits to reduce the ecological impact of our existance, this year because of that reason I turned vegan, started composting and buying organic vegetables, and I am doing an effort to consume the less quantity of one single use plastic I can, have gotten alternatives ways of refilling and gotten reusables. Multitudes are made up of individuals.
In germany w subsidies installing a heat pump is about same price as a normal heating oven. On going price is cheaper. Less fire regulations meaning you can place it anywhere in the house.
Yes we are part of the key, use a lot less water, only eat local, in season food, turn lights off and anything on stand-by, get an electric or hybrid car when you can, keep wearing the clothes you have rather than buying new clothes. When you buy a washing machine, fridge freezer or cooker, spend a little extra (if you can!) and get A+++ types, that use much less energy, this doesn't only save you money, but give us all a better chance of only needing clean energy. Finally, turn the thermometer down a couple degrees and wear a sweater! If just a portion of the 8 billion on this planet made small changes, it would amount to a lot.
Wherever there's an issue, there always seems to be an underlying common denominator: marketing and overall public opinion manipulation! Maybe we should address tackling this industry and all other problems are more easily solvable?
More nuclear energy is our solution to climate change. Oil companies knew that cheap nuclear power would drive them out of business, and that's why they worked so hard to fight nuclear in the 70s and 80s
I've made a wormbox for my green waste, I cycle everywhere in the city, I've gone vegetarian when I was twelve and went back vegetarian after taking a break, I buy green electricity and buy mostly second hand or organic stuff, I try to keep using my tech until it falls apart and I try repairing my things when they break. But still, I feel bad because I don't have any feeling of agency on this big problem.
We buy the products from these companies which supports them which allows them to do this. If we're not willing to make any changes, why should we expect companies that have monetary incentives to not change, to change? At the end of the day, if everyone made changes, there would be far more than a 4% difference as claimed.
Great video! Thank you! I especially appreciate the point about how personal change can influence societal change that leads to institutional and systemic change. As for my own carbon footprint, I don't own a car but rely on my bike, walking, public transit and electric car share in my community. In California, transportation is the largest single source of GHGs and single occupancy vehicle use accounts for most of that.
If they are so concerned about us throwing away plastic bottles, why don't they sell soda in refillable bottles? Take the empty bottles to the store to be refilled. You stand by the filling station, put the bottle in place, make your selection, and the bottle gets filled. Pay for it as normal, minus 10 cents for each one because you provided the bottle. There are tons of things like this industry could be doing, and they aren't.
Force multiplying is the only way to create effective change. There's also another side of this. Rooftop solar decreases out dependence on the big energy companies. Our footprint might be quite small but installing solar and adopting other technologies can become a force multiplier and create change within big companies. My electric scooter is dirt cheap to run, it's not even worth calculating the cost, but by using that I decrease the use of my vehicle, parking requirements, traffic and road use and so on.
I think they have the potential to be a useful tool, but not in the ways they're normally portrayed - amalgamating it neatly into a single figure for you to offset. What's useful is the breakdown and the comparison between actions, so people grasp that some actions are orders of magnitude worse than others, and can't kid themselves that they're "greeen", yet fly on holiday. It's like someone wringing their hands over whether to eat a stick of celery or cucumber alongside their 18" pizza on the side.
If the electricity supply is not sustainable, its not a good idea for a lot of people to boil pots of beans for hours on end.+ not everyone has the time. I would like to believe factories are more efficient since they do large batches - packaging, transport etc are another issue
My personal opinion is that “ecological footprint” makes more sense on the individual level, rather than carbon footprint. The reason is among others that our planet is facing many more issues than just global warming. We have water scarcity, water, air and soil pollution (from chemicals and plastic) and much more. Carbon footprint is just one of them. And here, I think that our individual contribution does a big difference on the bigger picture. But in regards to carbon emissions, it is companies and governments that has the biggest responsibility. F.e. I could buy an EV, but if I live in a country that produces 90% of its energy buy burning coal and other fossile fuels, does that then really reduce my personal carbon footprint. And also, we can say that we should fly less, but so many countries GDP and even the global economy is dependent on tourism. My point is that, it is a shared responsibility, but like everything else, with greater power and influence comes greater responsibility. So just as individuals should do there best to live sustainable, companies and governments too need to follow the concepts of circular economy. Thereby seeking equal prosperity for people, planet and their own profits.
Here's an idea for those who can't afford an EV (yet), but still need to get around. Keep your max speed at 90-100 km/h on highways instead of 120-130. That saves about 40% in energy/emissions and doesn't cost you any money. Instead, you'll save money for every km you drive. And timewise, it hardly makes a difference on anything up to a 50 km trip.
This shows the underlying truth about the issue, nobody wants to adapt and look to other things to fix the problem. Companies are right in way because it is up to consumers to stop consuming. As long as there will be a demand, the companies will continue to deliver the products that harm our planet.
The crazy annoying thing about personal footprint is that if all companies were making ethical and green choices then our personal footprints would be better.
There's a lot consumers need to do and the good news it will cost them less i.e. they'll save money. 5 or 10 years ago this wasn't the case, but now you can save money by doing the right thing: -If you have a home cover it will Photovoltaic panels. Install as much as you can. The IEA in 2020 called energy from PV the cheapest energy in history. And that's true. Check the prices for solar panels. They'll last you at least 30 years and during that time you'll actually produce energy cheaper then the power from the grid. -Replace oil heater with heat pump. They cost about the same and if you use your cheap electricity from your PV panels it will probably be cheaper. -Replace fossil fuels powered cars with an electric car. You will already find models with long term costs that are lower then that of conventional cars. Again if you combine this with PV panels you can use more of your solar energy which lowers the price of your solar energy and the costs of your car. -Not flying is cheaper then flying obviously -Eating less animal products is cheaper as well -All three things combined (heatpump, EV and PV) will actually make all of the three things even cheaper. If you build your PV system by yourself it will be really cheap. You can also find groups that will help you install and plan your PV system and will let you do as much as you can by yourself, which will drive down the costs. So if you own a house then it's obviously your responsibility to replace the oil heater and to install PV panels. In most countries we need to cover most homes with PV panels in order to have any chance of achieving carbon neutrality. I haven't seen a single study of an energy transition without PV. And obviously PV makes the most sense on homes and already existing strutures and not in nature. Obviously that's not enough though. Many people are too uninformed, indifferent, selfish and/or misinformed to actually do those things. So we have to make sure politically that everyone does those things (including companies of course). The truth is that you'll have to fight politically and at the same time change things in your own life. But obviously the political fight is more important. If the right political tools are in place the change will happen, but this will include rules that will make you have to change your life as well. Everybody has to change. Some more then others, but we are all addicted to oil and getting rid of it will change all of our lives.
Buying electric cars is not a sustainable solution, as the production of its batteries can produce up to 15 tons of Co2, whereas the energy source doesn't always come from a green source. You should also consider the fact that people in africa (including children) are beeing exploited for the ressources of its batteries.
No hot running water, no hot tubs, colod showers only, internal spaces, ambient temperature at 19degrees Celsius , no cars/use bicycle or public transport, less food, less dishes, laundry once a week, drying on sun only, no lights after dark, no vacations, etc.
One thing tht is never mentioned if we had never found oil as a fuel we would still be living like it is 1820.the worlds population would be 15 percent of what it is today. Oil is our slave it has given each one of us the highest standard of living man has ever known. Oil is needed and thats a fact.
Things have changed and evolved a lot since we discovered oil. The first hard drive had 3mb and was the size of a car, now we have 1024TB SD cards the size of a fingernail :) Yes oil will always be important, but we need to move on and change our ways for the better. It will be hard to stop using oil completely, but i think it's possible to reduce and fix all this mess.
@@ADCFproductions there is no mess. The science behind all this is unable to actually point to any single cause or truly any single change. As i write this i sit in a place where 12000 years ago i would have been covered in a mile of ice. Been some severe warming in that period . Co2 levels are variable from day to day year to year eon to eon. The whole climate change thing is nothjng more than a antihumanist campaign. We will use carbon based fuels from now to eternity. Electric cars may be a wonderful thing but take a peek at the worlds copper shortage. Yes there is piles of copper ore in the ground but the same folks that think we need to all drive elec cars are the same folks that dont wanna see mining. Our capabilities to produce just enough electricity for our current consumption is tapped out no less the ability to produce at a rate needed for every vehicle in the US
I understood why Big Oil is focusing so much on people's CF and on people's energy saving action. Anyway, this strategy has its cons. If people become more aware of their impact on climate, they will start to ask their governments for a stronger commitment in the fight against CC, for taking actions that really impact. And every of these actions, even if not directly aimed to Big Oil, impacts negatively on them. Every bike road, every EV charging station, every ban for cars in a city center, every building refurbishment incentive. Finally: we cannot fight against fossil fuel (only) on the supply side, because "Stone Age did not end because of the lack of stones".
I'm glad that towards the end the video showed how it's supposed to be a balance of acts. There's no black or white when it comes to climate action, it can't be any single entity's responsibility solely, but is a collective effort to reduce overall emissions. Climate strikes and youth movements have clearly made a difference in the way climate issues are tackled by governments and there are examples to prove that. When people realise that it is a cycle of responsibility that involves us, governments and corporates, that's when we can achieve significant climate action and a measurable difference.
Indeed, it is very simplistic to say that it would be enough to target companies that account for 70% of global emissions: you can ban the sale of oil and coal, and their emissions would drop drastically, but how would people react if their access to petrol and electricity were cut off? Regulation and public intervention have a big role to play in accompanying the changes in our economies, but in any case, we are going to have to change our lifestyles and send clear signals to the market and to politicians, as consumers, as citizens and even as employees in the companies we work for.
@@VFPn96kQT yeah its amazing still how little this is said, I much more often just see 'buy an electric car' as its more catchy, 60% of a cars emissions occur before its even been driven!!
@@VFPn96kQT I agree public transportation is much greener but no matter how much you want to deny this 30% of US household green house gas emissions comes from transportation. A 30 mpg gas car generates 300g of CO2 but a comparable EV at the same time produces 105g of eCO2 emissions (based on current energy grid mix). It definitely matters that we switch to EVs because I don’t think US or any other country for that matter will ban all privately owned vehicles.
@@alexbuilder6983 As of 2021 1KWh of battery produces 68kg of CO2. On an average most 300 mile EV has a pack of around 85KWh that equates to 5780 Kg of eCO2 before an EV on the road. For a 25 mpg (US average mpg in 2019) car it will take 18k miles to produce the same amount of CO2 emissions as an 85KWh EV. An average car is driven 160k miles before it goes into a junk yard. So basically if you intended to drive your new EV anymore than 18k miles you already offset that initial CO2 emissions. The only plea I want to make here is that you please look into the actual data and don’t just believe what the naysayers in media wants you to believe.
Exactly! … I can afford a car but I won’t buy one. I can avoid eating meat, I try to eat plant based atleast 50%, I don’t keep what I don’t use, recycle or give it to someone who can, I buy clothes from thrifts. I use less and less heater, avoid plastic etc etc. These companies are responsible, but we work in them! We lobby for them! Its Us.
Thanks for this. I've been struggling with the idea of flying. I do so infrequently, and understand that there's zero marginal emissions when I fly, but many people collectively making that choice can make a real dent in the number of planes in the sky. The framing here to think about it in ways that my behaviour changes can help catalyze systemic changes is really helpful.
If you really want to push a car-based alternative, look up algae fuel (can be used in a diesel engine, good for the surrounding flora and is clean). Electric cars require lithium batteries (which is a recipe for disaster). More research needs to be done to make it commercial but it won't get there if nobody even knows about it because electric cars seem cooler. Atm it's like $30/L but that is, i think, directly due to a lack of attention. Give a search and fingers crossed that more than 1 in a million will actually know about it...
My little effort: 1. Been using public transport since a decade. (I still dont own an ICE vehicle). 2. Been cycling to work for more than 5 years now. 3. Dont use ACs. And some other small things like reducing plastic usage etc. etc.
What are your thoughts on carbon footprint?
Pretty good taughts, that carbon footprint is a lie. Can't afford on saving earth for pricey go green products!!
The percentage of trips by car people in rich countries make that instead could have been cycling trips is staggering though. Also the SUV sales in some countries are staggeringly high. Same with beef consumption
@@udayshet303 I understand where you are coming from. I can't afford those "green washed" products either.
However, I think people should engage in two ways.
1) putting pressure on governments and corporations to change. There are plenty of environmental pressure groups you can sign up for emails for free and participate in their campaigns.
2) Going green or cutting your carbon footprint doesn't have to be expensive. I follow a semi-vegan diet and don't buy "vegan" products. I save money on my shopping. I buy second hand goods whenever possible and preferably from charity shops. There is a whole list of things a person can do.
I recommend planting trees by using Ecosia as your search engine.
Whilst I think people should take responsibility for their carbon footprint. Such as:
Walking or cycling rather than driving.
Cutting back on animal products.
Buying second hand goods whenever possible.
I could write a whole list of actions, but I think the most important thing for people to do is put pressure on governments and corporations to take real action. Especially, by joining environmental organisations.
I guess what my personal and global footprint is is based on the same capitalistic principles. Money talks and based off of where my money goes is where industries follow. Being cognizant about that fact and not fall for the PR from either sides is a good place to start.
And to the overall premis of this video, DW, seriously? It works the same was a democracy does, individual votes don't count for much but it is how we individuals in a society want, pay and vote for is where things go. This is ridiculous coming from you to have a video that's 95% suggesting people to do whatever they want to as it doesn't really matter and throwing in at the last minute by which most already stopped watching that individual choices do matter.
Seriously think about what you're trying to convey here.
I've started raising local inland turtles. Their eggs are temperature sensitive and with global warming clutches are becoming nothing but females. I and my daughter are incubating the eggs at lower temperatures to produce males for releasing back into nature to help insure turtle survival in the future. I use solar energy, I built a heavily insulated house, I pay attention to policies and vote accordingly and I advocate with aquaintices but somehow doing my bit for the turtles feels most satisfying. And thank you for you concise and inciteful video.
Omg that's amazing! Could you tell me more about how you started raising them? I really wish to hear your story
That doesn't really address the issue of climate change, though it may address one or two other important, lesser known issues including biodiversity loss and ecosystems collapse
Forgot to mention automakers who had a hand in killing public transport such as GM in America. If it weren’t for GM killing electric trains, there’d most likely not be a need of more combustion engine vehicles to travel for work. Traveling for work is a policy issue. If automakers couldn’t monopolize streetcars only to trash them so people would consume more vehicles, neighborhoods would have more access to public electric transport and people would be closer to places of work. Driving 25+ minutes to work is not sustainable.
@AutoFuturo So? The average trip an American takes is less than 5 miles, and the average commute is what, about 10 miles? Those are easily covered either by biking (if we had safe bicycle infrastructure which we don't), or public transport.
In between cities, high speed rail should be the norm, which would be a lot more convenient and cheaper than owning one's own car.
@AutoFuturo Both the US and Canada have basically the same transportation issues with suburban sprawl and lack of good public transit and bike lanes.
@@legitpancake4276 My commute to work should be 20 minutes for 15 miles one way, but with rush hour traffic it’s around 45-60 minutes. Wish it weren’t the case and can only imagine how much better public transport by rail would be. Spending a little over $800 a month on car lease, insurance, gas and parking isn’t fun either.
TAKEN FOR A RIDE........PBS.
Who Framed ROGER RABBIT? Was based on a TRUE STORY.
Don't forget they also lobbied for zoning laws so commercial and residential zones are strictly seperated. Which makes commuting highly dependent on a car
Think globally, act locally. Do what you can, but try not to feel the weight of the world's problems. Make sure to vote and write to your government officials.
Are those the same ones PAID by LOBBYIST?
I agree with you. There's so much wrong with capitalism huh. They keep blaming general public while exploiting us
As if everyone lives in democracy! Also, "democratic" politicians in "democratic" countries are also bought by corporate money very often
@@KateeAngel Then you still need to pressure them.
@@AKumar528 The general public is also responsible (especially in rich developed countries). We need to stop shifting the blame to other people/institutions and act at EVERY level possible.
A couple years ago BP put a link on their social media that lets you calculate your carbon footprint with a caption that read "pledge to lower yours". Then someone comments "I pledge to not spill 200 million gallons of oil into the ocean"
um, ok, so what does that mean, seriously, oil is just old trees until burnt
@@davidwarland2680 You are such a wise man.
@@dant9133 yea i recon, even blind freddy can see what is blatantly obvious to all bar the brainwashed fools.
@@davidwarland2680 the bp deepwater horizon oil spill into the gulf of mexico. Millions of barrels of oil spilled (edit spelling - horizon)
@@davidwarland2680 What's so obvious? Most of oil doesn't come from trees but ancient algae. However, this isn't the point.
Most importantly, oil and other fossil fuels such as coal and gas are trapped carbon. Carbon that was removed from the carbon cycle.
The carbon cycle is a very fine balance between carbon emissions (mainly animal and plant respiration and CO2 release from the oceans) and carbon absorption (photosynthesis from plants and CO2 dissolution into the oceans). This cycle has worked very well for millions of years.
Well, it has been working very well until us humans started releasing more and more carbon into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels.
This is quickly tipping the balance as we emit more CO2 than what the planet can absorb.
CO2 as you should know is a greenhouse gas which warms the atmosphere. This has many dangerous consequences for both the environment and mankind. We are talking about droughts, extreme heatwaves, destroyed harvests, ice caps melting, sea level rise, disturbed weather and wind patterns, destruction of habitats, stronger hurricanes, millions of displaced people and so on. This is going to make our lives and the lives of our children way less enjoyable.
Anyway, I hope this is what you called obvious.
Electric cars are an excuse to promote car culture instead of public transport systems like high speed rail and and better city planning that isn't car centric.
True, personal cars are practical but cannot be used as the primary mode of transportation for commuters in cities. Too many individual drivers overloads any system no matter how efficient it is
If majority of the workers lived within 10kms of their workplace imagine the time, energy and ultimately money we could save.
You're just being cynical here.
Electrifying our transportation and decarbonizing our grid is the most immediate and effective solution we have to take on climate crisis, because they largely don't require cultural changes, which takes time.
Thank you! I drive and I sit and think while driving 'what a waste' waste of energy a d space this expensive machine I own just to visit the next town over. All for the sake of personal freedom. It's decadence at its worst
Exactly!
My Aunt lives in LA and in the early 90s she said there used to be a public tram system in the city centre. But then Ford brought the ownership just to demolish it.
For them the money made from owning more of the transport market because people are forced to drive cars, outweighed the money spent in buying the entire tram system.
But the free market allowed them to do it. And now LA has the worlds most gridlock and polluting road network.
I am the person who watches all the major news channels and informative channel on RUclips and none of them informed me abt this. Thanks Dw planet .
Because of crony capitalism, weight gain and obesity is attributed to personal failures instead of fatty fast food cos. Same for opoid addictions. And carbon emission.
In all three cases, companies shifting the burden on people
@@AKumar528 in our present times these corporations have such see rooted networks in shaping our lifestyle to such an extent we can't even fathom
This item was largely informed by ‘Merchants of Doubt’ by Naomi Oreskes and Eric M. Conway. Also on YT btw.
agreed, thats what i love about this channel! two sides of the coin
It clearly has to be both. We must take personal responsibility, reduce our own carbon footprint as much as possible, and then put pressure on corporations and governments to do the same.
👏
If everyone reduced their own footprint the corporate pressure comes free. If no one bought gas/diesel cars car manufacturers would stop building them. If more people cycled to get around more bikes would be built. If everyone went vegan restaurants would stop serving meat, grocery stores would stop stocking meat. If everyone stopped flying airlines would go out of business.
But we don’t need to wait for everyone to go green. By not owning a car I have reduced new vehicle demand by a car every 8-10 years. By going vegan I reduce meat demand by 5-10 pounds per month, a whole cow/pig every 2-3 years. Yeah, it’s not much… but it is something. And I might inspire a bunch of other people to reduce their consumption.
Lockdowns taught us we can make an impact by collective decisions
While both are important, I put higher emphasis on the latter: "put pressure on corporations and governments to do the same". Why? Because these corporations, are stamping "eco-friendly" on everything or whatever latest buzzwords there are along with all that fluff meanwhile their product that they manufacture is far from it, and many times creating their products in VERY irresponsible ways. They are deceiving us with fancy words and meaningless words to make us THINK we are helping the environment. Those are the true scum, those companies who will lie to form a profit. We need to eradicate these companies first before we will make any kind of progress on this front. I have ZERO sympathy for any companies who do these things.
Well, considering we have about 10 years, we definitely need to set the priorities right: put pressure on corpos and governments. Even if the whole world goes vegan, we’re still polluting way too much with our electricity and transport
It is hard not to be utterly cynical about climate change especially since we seem to have crossed a few of serious tipping points on a few feedback loops in the biome. Thanks for the reminder that we’re not powerless victims of the big 100 companies responsible for the bulk of GHG emissions. They are also beholden to us.
Well if we use more nuclear power the co2 emitions can be lower.
Big words but do they mean anything? Mother nature will take care of itself. Don't worry, we will wipe ourselves out one way or another, earth will go on.
I live in Malaysia(East Malaysia, specifically). There's very little what we can do to help.
The biggest change my family could've done and has done was cut down on beef. Aside from that, there really isn't anything else that we can do except from going full vegan.
Solar, public transport and electric cars are way out of reach. Even ordinary cars are expensive here once you've realized how low are wages are and how bad our currency is with no hope of it getting better any time soon since we're massively unstable politically right now(We've had FOUR different Prime Ministers in the past 4 years)
Cycling and walking is difficult once you've realize how hot and humid our climate is; humidity is at minimum 60%, is regularly above 80%. You'd be lucky if you saw the temperature goes as low as 28 degrees C. Even 30 is hopeful. Most of the time, we just enjoy humid air at 31-34C. We don't even have proper pedestrian walkways to begin with.
Sometimes battling climate crisis might be synonymous to improving the quality of life so that people are able to get the opportunity to choose, especially in developing countries. Maybe try going zero waste or grow your own foos if possible
I've gotten a solar panel system on my roof, home battery, electric vehicle, electric water heater, all bulbs LED, installed bidet (no toilet paper), switched to reusable alternatives (reusable handkerchief, napkins, etc), mostly vegetarian, compost, use a instant pot/slow cooker, adopted an anti consumption mindset, buy used when possible, etc. I still have a gas range and gas furnace. I avoid using the gas range when possible. At the end of the life of the furnace, I'll try to find some sort of cost effective alternative. Geothermal would be expensive. It angers me to see corporations saying they support green. Walmart makes record profits, why isn't there entire roof solar? Corporations and governments are too focused on short term profits, our current economic system makes solving the climate crisis impossible. We need drastic changes 40 years ago.
We should have went nuclear and anti-car in the 1970s. Yes, it would have been better to start decades ago but the best moment is now.
fwiw, I think Walmart might be building out solar on its stores now.
Great video as usual, thanks! I drive an EV, purchase renewable energy, invested some money in a PV plant... Live in an appartment, ride a bike to work, reduced meat a lot... But I also have negative feelings for climate change fight. The world, as an ecosystem, tends to equilibrate. If a species disappears from somewhere, another specie will replace it. People with a higher concern on CC will have less children, or make a bigger effort to get the same results -so we are sometimes accepting a handicap. So, with this eco-systemic view, this will just make an advantage for the less caring people, as if they were a different species.
There is a link somewhere to what you describe. It is an important issue, because it does not look like the developing world is willing to miss out on all the stuff we had in the last 150 years. It means politicians not being so woke about slavery and imperialism though. It is never going to be a level field in any country, let alone the global picture. Homo Avarus.
Summarizing such a complex topic in 12min is quite challenging, and you've made it look easy. Thank you! Keep up the great work.
Its not about who is the blame, its about who gets in action to solve impact of former and current decisions
You cant do a lot when you are using the products of the companies with carbon footprints of godzilla. Its a lobby like the tobacco lobby was.
That's just shifting the blame from those causing the flame, to those not helping to stop the flame. Still blaming someone.
Actually applying the right blame to the right perpetrator is the way to change. The true delusion was that you were indoctrinated into believing you can change the world when you really can't.
While we do have to keep pushing politicians and companies, what I do personally is:
80-90% vegetarian diet, prioritizing locally and sustainably grown stuff, and very little red meat.
I pay about 10% extra for my electricity to come from 100% renewable.
Changed all lighting except a few CCFL tubes to LED many years ago, as soon as I found some with CRI > 80
I only use AC the 20-50 hottest days of the year (and only in my home office/bedroom), otherwise make do with fans.
Mostly telecommute, otherwise get around by e-scooter, bicycle, walking, train or bus unless I need to move something too large/heavy.
Vacation and work trips I mostly go by train. By air 3 times in the past decade and don't want to do more flights until they are electric.
I buy very little clothes and furniture, a bit more electronics but I get quality stuff and use it until it breaks and isn't feasible to repair anymore.
Everything I buy I look for sustainability certifications, and I do look into what they actually mean.
None of these things actually feels like a sacrifice now that I'm used to it.
If I can do these things with reasonable effort, certainly companies/countries can do a lot more, and it's one of my top priorities when I vote.
I'm so tired of being gaslit by people assuming "all you do is complain about others", "You aren't doing your part either", all while I'm actually doing what I can ...meanwhile the CORPORATIONS who are contributing the MOST to pollution, HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING. YES I'M GOING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT CORPORATIONS and it's my turn to gaslight these imbeciles telling them, YOU GUYS HAVEN'T COMPLAINED ABOUT OUR CORPORATIONS ENOUGH.
To pay more for electricity is absolutely stupid if the electricityy is comming from the main grid. You will get the mix of the electricity sources connected to the grid, whatever you pay. The utilities are very glad if more people beleive in this scam.
@@StefanMX yes, there's no little gate in the wire that only lets thru the green electrons and turns back the black electrons. Itsa marketing ploy to make consumers feel better
@@StefanMX Its not a scam renewables are real investments being funded in part by individuals.
@@cassieoz1702 The mix is what is changed by colective actions. Or is that to complicated for you to understand XD
I quit flying (on fossil fuel aircraft) in 2008, which was definitely the single decision I've taken with the biggest impact. Even better, it made a lot of my friends curious about how to travel by land and sea. I have no doubt that airlines will respond quite quickly to falling demand, they really don't like losing money.
Starting to garden at home and letting it grow “wild” like a food forest
I became a minimalist and started making conscious spending and frugal living choices. I also prepare for survival scenarios within my means and do not hanker after wealth & material possessions. I try to use public transport as far as reasonable. I try to focus on climate crisis and unemployment problem and its connection with thoughtless mechanization and technological progress for maximizing profits rather than building communities and healthy individual lives by creating climate-conscious employment.
People need to understand that corporations make pollution because they produce what we consume. For example, the sales of 4x4 SUVs are increasing at an exponential rate all around the world. The bigger are the cars we drive, the more fuel they consume and thus the more oil companies will need to extract petrol... We all need to stop blaming others and to change our lifestyle.
The most sold EV in Germany is the small E-Up!
They closed the order books on it a year ago and it still is the most sold EV.
Consumers want it, but VW would prefer to sell the SUV ID4.
So VW will stop selling the EUp once the order books are empty and shift production capacities to an SUV.
So don't act as if companies don't work against the consumers aswell in this regard.
@@TBFSJjunior Your example is flawed. The pandemic created shortages of a ton of raw materials needed to build different things, such as micro-ships and micro-processors, which are needed to build modern cars. There are currently shortages of cars all around the world because of this. Why would Volkswagen refuse to sell something that sells well? If people want it so much, they could simply increase the product's price and thus make even more profit than with the ID4 as manufacturing a smaller car has smaller production costs (profits being price - production costs)
@@alanmay7929 Then you agree with me, not disagree with me
@@PG-3462 its also funny that people falsely believe that bigger cars are safer, in reality crashing an SUV with high speed will make it a wreckage due to its high mass and being prone to roll over
@@TBFSJjunior Those who are interested in E-Up are the eco people. While they represent a significant part of EV buyers, they are only a very small part of car buyers. Even if VW prioritize to produce enough e-Up and ID.3 which they should do instead of ID.4, that does not change much the whole picture.
The biggest change I made for climate is not increasing my lifestyle as I earned more and more money. And believe me... I have a very simple life stile.
Great and balanced video. I was afraid you would fall into the classic "since BP popularized the concept, it's useless and we needn't worry aboyt our carbon footprint". Usually, when people say "the sytem needs to change" they indeed fail to acknowledge that unfortunately, without public pressure (and therefore shows of public acceptability of the measures to be taken by governements), the system isn't going to change.
Pretty sure decommissioning 10 cruise ships is equivalent to taking every car in Europe off the road in terms of reducing emissions.
No, not even close, But it would be worth doing anyway. Be careful what you're "pretty sure" about, I've been burned before like that.
I have such a big problem with food packaging in Poland... Nearly all food products are wrapped in 3 layers of plastic... So naturally I don't buy them, but still what a waste.
Conclusion: let’s keep pushing the system to change it! 🙌🏼🌎
In order to address the climate crisis, we need large investments by policy makers in the energy sector, research and technology. Buying an electric car in a country were most of the energy is made by burning fossil fuels isn't gonna help much
But even in a country where most of the energy comes from fossil fuels it makes sense to buy an electric car. Every single EV bought reduces the cost of all EVs because it is a technology that gets cheaper due to the economy of scale. The cheaper it gets, the more EVs are bought worldwide, reducing carbon emissions a lot. So even in a high emissions country an EV is good for the environment because it increases sales in low emissions countries
@@VFPn96kQT True, but in most countries the CO2 savings from driving an EV more than compensate the CO2 emissions from manufacturing the batteries. On the global scale, EVs are better for the environment even considering the manufacturing process and the generation of electricity. Therefore we need a global shift from ICEs to EVs and for that even sales in coal countries are helpful.
The studies I have read consider the manufacturing of the battery even in very coal reliant countries and also add the CO2 emissions from producing the electricity (even wind and solar have some carbon emissions despite them being comparably much greener). Over the lifetime of the battery the carbon savings are almost half compared to gasoline cars.
In my experience, most people rather ignore certain aspects regarding ICEs rather than EVs. Usually people don't add the carbon emissions resulting from the huge energy consumption pumping the oil, refining it and finally transporting it. That wastes so much electricity that could already power a huge number of EVs. In addition it wastes enormous amounts of resources. For example, Cobalt is needed to remove sulfur from crude oil. Another aspect that is always ignored is the oil spills destroying valuable rainforests and other biospheres. They poison groundwater and the soil. But they are probably really hard to estimate because they happen so often amd are too huge to correctly estimate, so I understand why this is not considered when talking about the impacts of different cars.
@@l-dogtheman1685 First, Lithium is a conflict mineral, and the quest to mine this conflict mineral is disrupting countries all over the globe by countries like the USA through disrupting other country's elections trying to push in a right wing government to allow the destruction of local environments...Second, charging electric cars off a grid that is mainly powered by fossil fuels makes those electric cars carbon POSITIVE...there is no explanation you can make that changes that...don't try to gaslight by saying electric cars powered by fossil fuels is carbon neutral, you sound really ignorant.
Electric cars are not the answer, it's still a 2000 kg machine to move one (or sometimes two, but the average car carries like 1.25 people per trip) 70 kg person. An electric vehicle is also the same size as a regular car, not helping traffic at all and still requiring lanes after lanes of highways if everyone drove one.
What really needs to happen is reliable, high frequency, and robust public transport that more than just 10% of a city uses. Also, robust and safe biking infrastructure like those found in the Netherlands should be adopted everywhere. The less cars, even electric, that a city has to build stupid parking and lanes for, the better.
@@l-dogtheman1685 A better solution for an average Joe is to drive less and in a more efficient way, use more public transport and bicycles and walk more as well. Buying an EV charged by electricity from fossil fuels makes sense only if you have to drive a lot.
Needing to travel less not electric cars is the issue. Less commuting and lower food miles require relocalisation.
Eating out of my families garden (just started harvesting Peaches), working remotely, and buying and supporting local as much as possible. If I can't buy it locally, I take time to reflect on whether I really need it or not. But also not getting discouraged if I mess up or have to buy something that isn't sustainable. Just gonna do your best, it's not about perfection.
I feel like the change has to come from our own self esteem, if we live a life without high levels of consumption and kinda more minimalistic, we might give the necessary break the planet is shouting to have.
The problem with the minimalist lifestyle in the states is that this idea feeds into the Orwellian concept of owning nothing and being happy with it. The idea literally goes against the American Dream of owning everything and puts people in a defensive postion to resist living a detached lifestyle. I agree with you though. We need to try doing without.
@Person you mean like northkorea and china and all communism befor if you make alot of money go for goverment how you gurantee not to fall in hand of dictator who make his people life misreable live
People value involuntary risks more than voluntary ones. While you can't from climate change, making it a involuntary risk, shifting responsibility (such as recycling and driving less) to the consumer, it makes it voluntary, decreasing risk and therefore criticism. This also has the benefit that it frames the consumer as responsible.
I stopped buying almond milk when I have dairy cows in my city. The idea of all this waste product so I can say I don't drink milk and it's saving the enviorment is a sham. Grown almonds in California's drought region and ship it across the country to the east coast sounds more harmful than 2 quarts from a cow 1Km away.
Better source local oat milk, less intensive and harmful culture. Almonds are terribly resource intensive
All I see are urban consumers in these programs. I'm a farmer, a small food producer. My vegetables and fruit are grown organically and my animals raised on pasture. I can't get around on a bicycle and I need to use a tractor but my produce has to be transported to market. We aren't into compulsive consumption and generate about 80% of our electricity. I never see my world represented here.
The west never talks about per capita carbon, always country wide, West just love to shift the blame.
In 1983, I made a life-time commitment to exponentially reduce my carbon footprint by making the decision to get a vasectomy "for environmental reasons."
Now 63 years-old, I feel that single remarkable decision will forever nuture stewardship into humanity's one-and-only biosphere... Lifeboat Earth.
Imagine if BP spent the 100 million a year trying to help climate change instead of marketing.
In the 80s, Exxon-Mobil was at the forefront of climate change research and they were aware of the effects their company would have on the environment. But instead of acting against climate change, they fired their climate scientists and buried the research, and began a strategy of sowing doubt and climate denial.
What if BP and other oil companies spend that money on research and development for climate friendly and cheaper alternatives to fossil fuels? Ah, not possible, because Money rules the world.
I personally went vegetarian and have tried to cut my consumerism by adopting a more eco minimalist mindset (but I still live like a normal person just less shopping trips and more trips to the farmers market). And speaking of the farmers market I started using locally made bar soap instead of liquid soap from the store. I have only made small changes but it helps me sleep better at night in my privileged air conditioned apartment that is powered by coal electricity. I want to raise my voice more to the government and companies but that is still something I struggle with.
Great video! I appreciate that you finished discussing how personal choice drives changes to the system. I think that’s one element being overlooked. If people stop buying the 4000 sqft mini mansions then developers will stop building them. If people stop playing golf, the courses will close. It’s a bit hypocritical to only discuss how the system forces personal choice, while ignoring how collective choice drives the system.
Wow, pretty much the best video I‘ve seen so far on this topic!
I think that taking personal responsibility is a logical first-step towards holding these corporations accountable for their carbon emissions. It's possibly one of those driving forces behind seeking out this information and passing it along.
We also support these companies through our personal choices so making that connection might also lead to this conclusion. It's certainly a very important message to spread and educate those who aren't aware.
And people need to understand that corporations make pollution because they produce what we consume. For example, the sales of 4x4 SUVs are increasing at an exponential rate all around the world. The bigger are the cars we drive, the more fuel they consume and thus the more oil companies will need to extract petrol... We all need to stop blaming others and to change our lifestyle.
@@PG-3462 ...Tell that to corporations. Many people have changed their lifestyle, but a big red flag is this...CORPORATIONS HAVENT DONE ANYTHING AT ALL. Even worse is oil companies spreading propaganda about climate change denial for literal decades, convincing half the population not to do anything at all. I've done and been doing my part...Maybe just MAYBE, we haven't convinced our corporations to do theirs.
@@PG-3462 It is completely ridiculous for these corporations to gaslight us all the time all the while they manufacture so many wasteful things in such irresponsible ways for us to consume.
Ie. How can we tell if a fishing company is overfishing in a responsible way when they lie and stamp "eco-friendly" on all their products? Ie. How were people supposed to know for the longest time that 95% of plastics aren't actually recyclable and yet companies have the audacity to stamp "environmentally friendly" on their bottles? Ie How are we supposed to know that when we return our package to amazon, that they'll most likely trash that because it's cheaper? You are unknowingly irresponsibly defending corporate scum here. The lies are becoming ubiquitous and more devious and it's becoming way more difficult to distinguish fact from corporate lies designed for profit.
@@PG-3462 I absolutely despise comments like yours. Your focus is completely in the wrong direction. There are way worse actors than just people being irresponsible with what they consume. Yes, they are an issue as well but our BIGGEST issue is our corporations. Stop defending them.
@@edwardroh89 Of course the government needs to impose some laws, but most of the blame is on consumers, since the government can't impose a law if the majority of people are not willing to change their lifestyle. If people didn't want SUVs, companies wouldn't produce SUVs anymore. People want to travel more. People want a car that's always bigger, always more clothes, always more exotic food, etc. There are thousands of very easy things everyone can do to reduce their impact on the environment, but people don't change anything. Today I went to the beach near where I live and it was covered of trash. This trash was there because people don't care about the environment. The only way to reduce pollution is that everyone starts caring about the environment and start consuming more intelligently. There is no other way. People blame the government and corporations, and then they go purchase some cheap crap on Amazon or at Walmart, go drive their huge SUV on their way to their huge single-family home, while thibking about their next trip to the Carribeans 🤦♂️
Great job on this!!!
Consumers don't demand 'plastic cups', they demand "a way to transport liquid". You cannot blame consumers for choosing between the only options available.
I disagree. If the only way is to do it with a plastic cup then it should just not be done. People made do before they existed.
But plastic cups were marketed as environmentally responsible because they saved trees from becoming paper cups.
@@tarquin161234 Nonsense, we can't just not transport liquids. What can be done is companies developing better alternatives to plastic.
Urban planning will have a big role in how we move, spend and eat in the coming future.
Our energy company supplies 100% renewable. If this option is available to you go for it. Also we eat mostly plant based. Where ever you are, eating more plant based foods are probably one of the easiest and impactful things you can do personally.
You could eat insects too.
i'm now shifting to buy more and more secondhand stuff. I also keep a lot of I can re-use in the future. I try to eat more healthy and drink only water or tea. Consumer choices. I think it's all in consumer choices.
My biggest change is I haven’t flown anywhere since 2018. Prior to that I was going on 2 international flights per year, and some shorter flights as well.
Well, I've been pursuing a green lifestyle, as much as I feel I can, for over 30 years, ever since I joined Friends of the Earth. We actually now don't even have a car, but when we did, we used it about twice a week, and never for short journeys - the latter we've always biked or walked. We have fairly good bus and train services in our area, so usually travel by public transport to most places we wish to visit. I pick up litter most days on my walks, and take home everything that is recyclable, to put in my own bins. I've been recycling and composting for most of my adult life ( I'm 67). I believe that rewilding and reforesting the earth are important ways to sequester carbon, so I let a lot of my garden go natural and have planted many trees, mostly via the Woodland Trust and Tree Aid, but also a few in my own garden, a local school field and a park. I went vegan in 2012 when I learned about the carbon footprint of animal farming. Recently I've been trying hard to reduce my plastic use and am glad to see the rise of zero waste shops ( when I was child it was common for shops to sell dried fruit, nuts and cereals from large bins into paper bags, so it's a bit like a wheel turning full circle!). I've been taking my own bags shopping since long before supermarkets started trying to reduce plastic carrier use, by adding a charge for them. Anyway, I'll keep on trying my best - thanks for this very interesting video.
I could go live in a cabin, without running water or electricity, living off nothing but moss, and it wouldn't make a damn bit of difference if everyone else just went on living their normal, modern lifestyle. Individual action is not enough!
yeah we're just one drop in the ocean, but we're really 7.5 billion drops in the ocean. If everyone did a little thing, it would make a difference! Unfortunately most people can't be bothered to do anything
@@ADCFproductions that's what I mean, we're not going to fix the climate by just hoping that everyone chooses to do the right thing. That's not a viable solution.
@@wyatt4710 look, I'm on board. I'll live like an Amish person if it will help, but I have this sneaking suspicion I'm in the minority, that's all I'm saying.
@@Who-vt9oh The problem is that everyone has this mindset: "if I reduce my consumption, it won't change anything", so everyone continues buying huge 4x4 SUVs, living in homes that are bigger and bigger and always further, buying always more cheap clothes, etc. We all need to change our lifestyle.
@@PG-3462 I agree completely. We do all need to change our lifestyles. Here's the thing, I think there's a not-insignificant percentage of the population who will not change their lifestyles willingly. They have to be...persuaded, somehow. Maybe that's going to require some kind of incentive, maybe some penalties of some kind, but relying on a hope that people will voluntarily do the right thing is, I think, foolish. Just look at the pandemic response from some people. They refuse to wear a mask, won't get the vaccine, hell, many of them still think it's all a hoax. Compliance can't be voluntary or we are all screwed.
Excellent reporting... Mind blowing
You didn't mention that electric cars also aren't environment friendly. Lithium production for accumulators consumpts a lot of clean water, destroys fertile land, destroys forests. And electricity for electric cars can come from fossil fuels.
Both things - reducing my individual carbon footprint AND putting pressure on my representatives for tighter regulations - are the way to go.
Great video, our two cars are now electric and we have a big vegetable garden.
I asked to make a garden in family friends back yard, two beds 3.5ft wide and 10ft long and is thriving due to full sun and proper drip irrigation. Giving back to the soil through compost. Walking to the grocery store.Buying organic, grass fed , buying local, and taking shorter/ lesser showers. Informing others on wtf is going on and how to help out.
Great video! Very informative! The best example that I can think of this shift of blame to the consumer is when I go to the supermarket. I find it amusing that they charge 5 cents for a disposable plastic bag to encourage people to bring their own reusable bag, yet I see no improvement on the amount of plastic wrapping or plastic containers in the products they sell. In so many cases the amount of plastic wrapping is absurd and in others flatout unnecessary, but hey at least I'm not using a disposable plastic bag.
Awesome video! I sold my car, its not perfect but it's a big step. I live in PHX not NYC
So you won't be buying a boat instead?
Okay..
For first time Google Ads gave me some awesome channel.
I thought DW is just a German news channel but a channel dedicated to Environment.
Wow...
& With such endearing Videos.
Awesome.
If you make drastic changes to your lifestyle, you can lower your footprint by 25%. That is; going mainly vegetarian, never fly, drive an EV, sort out your appliances, energy renovate your home. Doing more than this is difficult, it requires home farming, collecting rainwater and quitting your job! So yes, it is the smaller share you are able to do yourself while still being part of society, but 25% is still more than current government initiatives, so there is no excuse for not taking personal resposibility. Coorperate logic is not holding your back!
@@toyotaprius79 I don't dissagree with the video or you, it is just that the lifestyle changes are ours and needs to be made, regardless of how much lobbying or resistance the multinational businesses put up. Yes, we should keep pressure, politically and from the grass roots, but business getting cleaner is not something we can afford to wait for, and if consumption decreases, their dirty practices, pollute less too.
Being vegan isn't a solution
Excellent video, better than most other DW stuff. Subscribed.
Welcome on board! 🌍
Very well put.
Doing my bit: I went vegan, eat plant-based and no longer buy things that I don’t really need. I buy green electricity from a company that doesn’t invest in fossil fuels and turn off switches/unplug anything not in use. I mostly walk to the supermarket and only buy food I’ve meal planned for, so it doesn’t go to waste. I buy local first, organic second, and avoid plastic packaging as much as possible. Any plastic bags are reused until they disintegrate.
Any liquid shampoos/detergent I am using up will be replaced with solid bars or powder that don’t contain environmentally harmful chemicals. I use a vinegar rinse instead of conditioner and I don’t use the little freebie bottles of shower gels when I (once upon a time would) go to a hotel, would also reuse my towel throughout my stay. I barely use any other cosmetics and make sure they are not tested on animals.
My period products are all reusable and I mend clothes instead of throwing them out. I only buy gifts I know people specifically want or are definitely going to use, and I wrap them in brown paper as opposed to unrecyclable wrapping paper. More and more I make my own cards or I buy them from small local shops instead of big chains.
I use public transport to get to work and I’ve switched my bank to one that invests in renewables. I don’t fly with low-cost airlines as they are unethical at best. Commercial flying is however more fuel efficient than driving (a lot of people don’t realise this!), so I don’t drive to places where it makes more sense to fly to. I make these trips count and don’t travel willy-nilly.
I take part in marches for the animals and raise awareness about veganism, as well as try to urge people towards a plant-based diet. One can’t be a true environmentalist whilst still eating animal products just like one can’t be actively trying to avoid lung cancer and still smoke.
There are a lot more things I could do to help the planet, and every time after successfully achieving a more sustainable habit, I take on another one. I believe it’s this progressive mindset that will facilitate change, and if we all used each decision we make to take a step in the right direction, we can make an important difference.
A lot of people are going to sing the high praises of HIGH-SPEED RAIL 🙌🏼 and demonize air travel and driving. It's simply a unidimensional and quite conveniently ignorant argument.
Keeping the context in the US alone for simplicity, high-speed rail isn't feasible for 'MOST' destinations. Keep in mind that in order to construct railways, we need to cut a path through land that is often unused and otherwise left alone, which is ultimately what we would like to see more of. We next need to pour tera-tons of concrete (not asphalt) and lay tera-tons of steel over stretches of what people expect to be multi-hundred-mile routes. Let alone the new infrastructure required to build the infrastructure.
But Justin we already have thousands of miles of highways, we would be alleviating cars on the road!
To that I say exactly: we already have highways constructed and the reality is they're going not going away. In addition to many airports.
You see, people prefer the control they exert over their personal transportation machines. Trains are nice, but as we can observe even in Europe, (whom we love to put on a high pedestal) their highways are overly congested with people who prefer to drive even with existent and quite robust rail infrastructure.
The electrification of cars changes the discussion a bit. America's old car may have been a Ford Fusion, but its new one is a Tesla M3 which gets an equivalent 3x increase in fuel efficiency. UNPRECEDENTED!
Airplanes are getting more fuel-efficient to the tune of >1%/annum, which is actually quite amazing. The A220 burns even less fuel than smaller regional planes. Additionally, planes and airports are completely modular by nature and can scale operations up and down the way a rail company could only dream of. And of course, there's the brilliant speed. As the crow flies. A flight from LA to NY is 13% fewer miles than the drive and 7.5x faster. Airplanes transport people and [sometimes very precious] cargo with the most valuable commodity TIME in mind. Imagine crossing the Pacific or Atlantic by ship? 2 weeks. Not overnight. Let us not forget the carbon footprint it takes to sustain a person for that period of time.
U-TURN
HOWEVER
That is not to say rail (of the high-speed variety) doesn't have a niche. High frequency, medium distance is its sweet spot. LA to San Diego.
Portland to Seattle. Houston-Dallas-Austin. Orlando-Miami. Perhaps even as far as LA-Vegas, geography permitting (the Rocky Mountains are tricky buggers). Places that are too awkwardly short to fly, but too painstakingly long to drive and many people are simultaneously traversing. This is a fantastic idea apart from the natural monopoly that rails create, and budget problems these projects always have.
We need replace existing highways with highspeed rail.
I would like a high speed rail line from Melbourne to Dublin.
The origin of the 'footprint' is interesting, but making people take personal responsibility for their behaviour is hugely important.
While it seems to shift responsibility, companies respond to consumer pressure. If consumers are sufficiently motivated, they can force the hands of the multinationals.
The carbon footprint is a great metric to see what sectors are the most carbon intensive in our lifestyles. This makes us push for changes in these crucial sectors instead of falling for the greenwashing marketing of big companies.
@@_blank-_ Exactly, while companies are responsible for most of the pollution, we're responsible for being their customers. We can choose to continue buying from companies with poor records of sourcing and sustainability like Apple, or better companies who invest in sustainability and repairability.
Changes have to be made in the different scales simultaneously for the problem to be solved. Yes off course we have to demand to governments and enterprises to stop ecocides, that's for sure! , at the same time we also need to act within our own habits to reduce the ecological impact of our existance, this year because of that reason I turned vegan, started composting and buying organic vegetables, and I am doing an effort to consume the less quantity of one single use plastic I can, have gotten alternatives ways of refilling and gotten reusables. Multitudes are made up of individuals.
In germany w subsidies installing a heat pump is about same price as a normal heating oven. On going price is cheaper. Less fire regulations meaning you can place it anywhere in the house.
You won't need as much Russian gas either.
If you close nuclear power plants emitions go up
Yes we are part of the key, use a lot less water, only eat local, in season food, turn lights off and anything on stand-by, get an electric or hybrid car when you can, keep wearing the clothes you have rather than buying new clothes. When you buy a washing machine, fridge freezer or cooker, spend a little extra (if you can!) and get A+++ types, that use much less energy, this doesn't only save you money, but give us all a better chance of only needing clean energy. Finally, turn the thermometer down a couple degrees and wear a sweater!
If just a portion of the 8 billion on this planet made small changes, it would amount to a lot.
I don't own or drive a car now. I cycle or use public transport. Cheaper and healthier too
Wherever there's an issue, there always seems to be an underlying common denominator: marketing and overall public opinion manipulation! Maybe we should address tackling this industry and all other problems are more easily solvable?
More nuclear energy is our solution to climate change. Oil companies knew that cheap nuclear power would drive them out of business, and that's why they worked so hard to fight nuclear in the 70s and 80s
I've made a wormbox for my green waste, I cycle everywhere in the city, I've gone vegetarian when I was twelve and went back vegetarian after taking a break, I buy green electricity and buy mostly second hand or organic stuff, I try to keep using my tech until it falls apart and I try repairing my things when they break. But still, I feel bad because I don't have any feeling of agency on this big problem.
Basically what Kurzgesagt is saying
We buy the products from these companies which supports them which allows them to do this. If we're not willing to make any changes, why should we expect companies that have monetary incentives to not change, to change? At the end of the day, if everyone made changes, there would be far more than a 4% difference as claimed.
Great video! Thank you! I especially appreciate the point about how personal change can influence societal change that leads to institutional and systemic change. As for my own carbon footprint, I don't own a car but rely on my bike, walking, public transit and electric car share in my community. In California, transportation is the largest single source of GHGs and single occupancy vehicle use accounts for most of that.
If they are so concerned about us throwing away plastic bottles, why don't they sell soda in refillable bottles? Take the empty bottles to the store to be refilled. You stand by the filling station, put the bottle in place, make your selection, and the bottle gets filled. Pay for it as normal, minus 10 cents for each one because you provided the bottle.
There are tons of things like this industry could be doing, and they aren't.
Force multiplying is the only way to create effective change. There's also another side of this. Rooftop solar decreases out dependence on the big energy companies. Our footprint might be quite small but installing solar and adopting other technologies can become a force multiplier and create change within big companies.
My electric scooter is dirt cheap to run, it's not even worth calculating the cost, but by using that I decrease the use of my vehicle, parking requirements, traffic and road use and so on.
great video, now we need everyone in the whole world to be outraged by this
I became a vegetarian and I have been sharing environmental awareness the must I can among people :)
I think they have the potential to be a useful tool, but not in the ways they're normally portrayed - amalgamating it neatly into a single figure for you to offset. What's useful is the breakdown and the comparison between actions, so people grasp that some actions are orders of magnitude worse than others, and can't kid themselves that they're "greeen", yet fly on holiday. It's like someone wringing their hands over whether to eat a stick of celery or cucumber alongside their 18" pizza on the side.
Just buying legumes and cooking yourself is way cheaper than buying those packaged processed products
If the electricity supply is not sustainable, its not a good idea for a lot of people to boil pots of beans for hours on end.+ not everyone has the time. I would like to believe factories are more efficient since they do large batches - packaging, transport etc are another issue
A charity I know had to stop giving people beans because their recepients didn't have a reliable source of electricity or firewood
I have supported save soil movement in my city
My personal opinion is that “ecological footprint” makes more sense on the individual level, rather than carbon footprint. The reason is among others that our planet is facing many more issues than just global warming. We have water scarcity, water, air and soil pollution (from chemicals and plastic) and much more. Carbon footprint is just one of them. And here, I think that our individual contribution does a big difference on the bigger picture.
But in regards to carbon emissions, it is companies and governments that has the biggest responsibility. F.e. I could buy an EV, but if I live in a country that produces 90% of its energy buy burning coal and other fossile fuels, does that then really reduce my personal carbon footprint. And also, we can say that we should fly less, but so many countries GDP and even the global economy is dependent on tourism.
My point is that, it is a shared responsibility, but like everything else, with greater power and influence comes greater responsibility. So just as individuals should do there best to live sustainable, companies and governments too need to follow the concepts of circular economy. Thereby seeking equal prosperity for people, planet and their own profits.
Here's an idea for those who can't afford an EV (yet), but still need to get around. Keep your max speed at 90-100 km/h on highways instead of 120-130. That saves about 40% in energy/emissions and doesn't cost you any money. Instead, you'll save money for every km you drive. And timewise, it hardly makes a difference on anything up to a 50 km trip.
This shows the underlying truth about the issue, nobody wants to adapt and look to other things to fix the problem. Companies are right in way because it is up to consumers to stop consuming. As long as there will be a demand, the companies will continue to deliver the products that harm our planet.
The crazy annoying thing about personal footprint is that if all companies were making ethical and green choices then our personal footprints would be better.
There's a lot consumers need to do and the good news it will cost them less i.e. they'll save money. 5 or 10 years ago this wasn't the case, but now you can save money by doing the right thing:
-If you have a home cover it will Photovoltaic panels. Install as much as you can. The IEA in 2020 called energy from PV the cheapest energy in history. And that's true. Check the prices for solar panels. They'll last you at least 30 years and during that time you'll actually produce energy cheaper then the power from the grid.
-Replace oil heater with heat pump. They cost about the same and if you use your cheap electricity from your PV panels it will probably be cheaper.
-Replace fossil fuels powered cars with an electric car. You will already find models with long term costs that are lower then that of conventional cars. Again if you combine this with PV panels you can use more of your solar energy which lowers the price of your solar energy and the costs of your car.
-Not flying is cheaper then flying obviously
-Eating less animal products is cheaper as well
-All three things combined (heatpump, EV and PV) will actually make all of the three things even cheaper. If you build your PV system by yourself it will be really cheap. You can also find groups that will help you install and plan your PV system and will let you do as much as you can by yourself, which will drive down the costs.
So if you own a house then it's obviously your responsibility to replace the oil heater and to install PV panels. In most countries we need to cover most homes with PV panels in order to have any chance of achieving carbon neutrality. I haven't seen a single study of an energy transition without PV. And obviously PV makes the most sense on homes and already existing strutures and not in nature.
Obviously that's not enough though. Many people are too uninformed, indifferent, selfish and/or misinformed to actually do those things. So we have to make sure politically that everyone does those things (including companies of course). The truth is that you'll have to fight politically and at the same time change things in your own life. But obviously the political fight is more important. If the right political tools are in place the change will happen, but this will include rules that will make you have to change your life as well. Everybody has to change. Some more then others, but we are all addicted to oil and getting rid of it will change all of our lives.
I cut all meat out of my diet in order to lower the amount of animal farming - specifically cows.
Buying electric cars is not a sustainable solution, as the production of its batteries can produce up to 15 tons of Co2, whereas the energy source doesn't always come from a green source. You should also consider the fact that people in africa (including children) are beeing exploited for the ressources of its batteries.
No hot running water, no hot tubs, colod showers only, internal spaces, ambient temperature at 19degrees Celsius , no cars/use bicycle or public transport, less food, less dishes, laundry once a week, drying on sun only, no lights after dark, no vacations, etc.
I try to eat less meat and more plant-based food whenever possible. I also buy more bio and eco products in stores.
Eat meat bro. It's good for your brain cells. Eat veggies its good for your immune system. Don't eat soy, tofu etc...g.m death.
@@ПравославнаБалкан Please stop spreading misinformation regarding soy products.
@@DWPlanetA ppffff...
One thing tht is never mentioned if we had never found oil as a fuel we would still be living like it is 1820.the worlds population would be 15 percent of what it is today. Oil is our slave it has given each one of us the highest standard of living man has ever known. Oil is needed and thats a fact.
Things have changed and evolved a lot since we discovered oil. The first hard drive had 3mb and was the size of a car, now we have 1024TB SD cards the size of a fingernail :) Yes oil will always be important, but we need to move on and change our ways for the better. It will be hard to stop using oil completely, but i think it's possible to reduce and fix all this mess.
@@ADCFproductions there is no mess. The science behind all this is unable to actually point to any single cause or truly any single change. As i write this i sit in a place where 12000 years ago i would have been covered in a mile of ice. Been some severe warming in that period . Co2 levels are variable from day to day year to year eon to eon. The whole climate change thing is nothjng more than a antihumanist campaign. We will use carbon based fuels from now to eternity. Electric cars may be a wonderful thing but take a peek at the worlds copper shortage. Yes there is piles of copper ore in the ground but the same folks that think we need to all drive elec cars are the same folks that dont wanna see mining. Our capabilities to produce just enough electricity for our current consumption is tapped out no less the ability to produce at a rate needed for every vehicle in the US
@@patrickhickey8779 You could even say that CO² maybe saved us from cooling period which could have killed billions of people...
I understood why Big Oil is focusing so much on people's CF and on people's energy saving action.
Anyway, this strategy has its cons. If people become more aware of their impact on climate, they will start to ask their governments for a stronger commitment in the fight against CC, for taking actions that really impact. And every of these actions, even if not directly aimed to Big Oil, impacts negatively on them. Every bike road, every EV charging station, every ban for cars in a city center, every building refurbishment incentive.
Finally: we cannot fight against fossil fuel (only) on the supply side, because "Stone Age did not end because of the lack of stones".
Eating meat once a month, buying season fruits and vegetables, consuming ecological cleaning products.
ruclips.net/video/sGG-A80Tl5g/видео.html
I'm glad that towards the end the video showed how it's supposed to be a balance of acts. There's no black or white when it comes to climate action, it can't be any single entity's responsibility solely, but is a collective effort to reduce overall emissions. Climate strikes and youth movements have clearly made a difference in the way climate issues are tackled by governments and there are examples to prove that. When people realise that it is a cycle of responsibility that involves us, governments and corporates, that's when we can achieve significant climate action and a measurable difference.
Indeed, it is very simplistic to say that it would be enough to target companies that account for 70% of global emissions: you can ban the sale of oil and coal, and their emissions would drop drastically, but how would people react if their access to petrol and electricity were cut off?
Regulation and public intervention have a big role to play in accompanying the changes in our economies, but in any case, we are going to have to change our lifestyles and send clear signals to the market and to politicians, as consumers, as citizens and even as employees in the companies we work for.
Drive an electric vehicle, change diet, change to a more eco friendly way of living, educating people on climate change, debunking common myths!
@@VFPn96kQT yeah its amazing still how little this is said, I much more often just see 'buy an electric car' as its more catchy, 60% of a cars emissions occur before its even been driven!!
@@VFPn96kQT I agree public transportation is much greener but no matter how much you want to deny this 30% of US household green house gas emissions comes from transportation. A 30 mpg gas car generates 300g of CO2 but a comparable EV at the same time produces 105g of eCO2 emissions (based on current energy grid mix). It definitely matters that we switch to EVs because I don’t think US or any other country for that matter will ban all privately owned vehicles.
@@alexbuilder6983 As of 2021 1KWh of battery produces 68kg of CO2. On an average most 300 mile EV has a pack of around 85KWh that equates to 5780 Kg of eCO2 before an EV on the road. For a 25 mpg (US average mpg in 2019) car it will take 18k miles to produce the same amount of CO2 emissions as an 85KWh EV. An average car is driven 160k miles before it goes into a junk yard. So basically if you intended to drive your new EV anymore than 18k miles you already offset that initial CO2 emissions. The only plea I want to make here is that you please look into the actual data and don’t just believe what the naysayers in media wants you to believe.
Exactly! … I can afford a car but I won’t buy one. I can avoid eating meat, I try to eat plant based atleast 50%, I don’t keep what I don’t use, recycle or give it to someone who can, I buy clothes from thrifts. I use less and less heater, avoid plastic etc etc.
These companies are responsible, but we work in them! We lobby for them!
Its Us.
Thanks for this. I've been struggling with the idea of flying. I do so infrequently, and understand that there's zero marginal emissions when I fly, but many people collectively making that choice can make a real dent in the number of planes in the sky.
The framing here to think about it in ways that my behaviour changes can help catalyze systemic changes is really helpful.
Murat was here. TSF (Thanks For Sharing)
Now I'm struck wondering: how bad are batteries? How are they safely disposed?
If you really want to push a car-based alternative, look up algae fuel (can be used in a diesel engine, good for the surrounding flora and is clean). Electric cars require lithium batteries (which is a recipe for disaster). More research needs to be done to make it commercial but it won't get there if nobody even knows about it because electric cars seem cooler. Atm it's like $30/L but that is, i think, directly due to a lack of attention. Give a search and fingers crossed that more than 1 in a million will actually know about it...
My little effort: 1. Been using public transport since a decade. (I still dont own an ICE vehicle). 2. Been cycling to work for more than 5 years now. 3. Dont use ACs. And some other small things like reducing plastic usage etc. etc.
Hey there! Check out our most recent video on ACs here 👉 ruclips.net/video/sKbEOMCsqaI/видео.html
This is so sinister. Thanks for making a video about this!