Faux Activism
11th of September, 2007
Activism has become cool. Yesterday I saw this in the West Hills Roots’ store.
It says “STOP GLOBAL WARMING”.
If anything is going to make people drive their cars less, spend more money on hybrid, electric or hydrogen cars or inconvenience themselves with public transport, it’s not going to be an arm band.
If anything is going to force world leaders into creating aggressive carbon reduction targets and laws to back them up, it’s not going to be an armband.
Wearing an armband does nothing but give money to a company in exchange for an item that’s been produced in an emission creating factory, transported overseas as cargo in an emission creating plane, transported locally with emission creating trucks, all running on infrastructure built by emission creating machinery. I’m not saying there’s another way, it’s just extremely hypocritical.
Neither am I saying you shouldn’t support a cause like the flight against global warming. Just do something real, spend your $5 on an energy saving lightbulb or plant a tree. Don’t kid yourself thinking you’re raising awareness wearing your stop global warming armband while you drive your car the store. Your armband does nothing but make you look like an idiot.
The message doesn’t even make sense. Unlike crimes like seal hunting for luxury fur coats which can be stopped with no repercussion beyond some money and jobs lost for bad people, the systems that cause global warming keep people alive and the world in motion. For global warming to stop, every system in the world needs to be dramatically changed - that’s not something that can be done quickly. Cut the bullshit and contribute to the gradual change.
