It’s Time to Focus on Corporations
The world is ever-changing, climate included. Throughout history, climate has changed, but never at a faster rate than now. The World Meteorological Organization found the warmest 20 years to have been in the past 24 years. The IPCC report says that the effects of climate change will be irreversible by 2030. 9 years from now. As human activity continues, it threatens the lives of 1 million species and plays with the fire of extinction. The world is in a crisis that looms over our heads like a grey shadow we attempt to color white. The climate of the world is being torn apart in the name of innovation. What are we doing about it? There have been some noteworthy achievements in the past couple of years, such as the Paris Agreement of 2015 or the drop of carbon emissions during early lockdown.
The focus for solutions remain on the individuals, something I find interesting. The individual movement of reducing one’s personal carbon footprint stays prominent in climate change solutions. As websites flood the Internet to calculate personal carbon footprints, and tips and tricks spread on reducing our individual footprint, it remains an important topic to address. Individual support in the movement to combat climate change is helpful. Recycling, using public transport, going vegan or vegetarian are all commendable methods for assisting. In no way am I diminishing the personal works of many to help this overarching crisis, but instead I think that the focus must be shifted. Currently the world focuses heavily on individuals. How far can an individual go? Can every individual go far enough to reduce climate change together. Can those in less developed areas using diesel generators stretch themselves to join this movement? We live in a society where our whole world is surrounded by carbon emissions. The progress of an individual to becoming carbon emission free is helpful, but should not be the only focus of the media.
The Carbon Disclosure project illustrates my next point perfectly. They reported how 100 companies are responsible for 71% of all global carbon emissions since 1998. For 23 years we have been living our lives ignoring the corporations which we should be instead policing. 15 oil tankers can create the same level of carbon emissions as every single car on Earth. When we reduce our car usage, or shift to electric cars and public transport, we make a minimal change while corporations continue to override that with the incentive of profit. We all hold an individual responsibility to do our best, but to what extent does our responsibility go? If every single consumer in this world was able to change their production patterns to force large corporations into changing, our powers as a consumer would fall short to those of international corporations. International corporations which hold influence over legislation, and the only body that could attempt to keep them in check: is the government. Through legislation, regulation, rules and limits: the government has the ability to influence our effect on humanity. The Union of Concerned Scientists in the US found that 90 of the producers of industrial carbons were responsible for approximately half of the rise in global temperature, and almost one third of the sea level rise between 1880 and 2010, the Guardian says. It is clear that huge corporations must be kept in check in order to effectively progress into a world that protects it’s environment.
If just a few companies and countries are responsible for so much of global greenhouse gas emissions, then why is our first response to blame individuals for their consumption patterns? — Morten Byskov
Various articles detail methods to shift this convenient focus on individuals to corporations, and taking them out of the dark. Carbon taxes and subsidized renewable energy are strongly represented in the discussions for climate change. It is not a shock that this paradigm of blaming consumers exists in our world today. While no one party is responsible for climate change, keeping companies in check would do wonders to our Earth. According to National Geographic, the atmosphere has not been this concentrated in over 800,000 years. The world is at risk, and is in a crisis, and the complacent focus on consumers is not helping. Individually, we must all do our part to reducing our negative impact on the environment, but that includes advocating for the policing of the large international companies. As President Joe Biden rejoins the Paris Climate Agreement, one can hope to see regulations against these profit powerhouses spewing carbon emissions. While the largest oil and gas companies spend millions of dollars ($200 million to be precise) restricting climate change policies, the world is slowly deteriorating. To end with the well known young climate activist, Greta Thunberg: “The climate crisis has already been solved. We already have all the facts and solutions. All we have to do is to wake up and change.”
