Part two of a ten part series: Diving into The Carbon Almanac
The term “carbon footprint”, was invented by British Petroleum and Ogilvy and Mather to make people feel shame.
The reason it works is simple. Because if you feel like a hypocrite, you’re less likely to speak out.
The message is: Clean up your own house. Make sure you’ve never been on an airplane; you don’t own a car; you’re vegan; you compost everything and you have no children.
Until you’ve done all those things, we don’t want to hear from you.
That’s why they invented and promoted the idea of a carbon footprint.
The thing is, that was 40 years ago. Pushing the wealthy privileged people of the West to consume a little bit less so they feel a little bit less shame has worked beautifully for the oil companies.
Because during that 40-year period of time, we have not organized to remove the huge tax breaks that go to the oil and gas industry.
We have persisted in standing by when they built coal plants, because no one felt clean enough to speak up.
And we haven’t eliminated the 50 billion dollars in annual tax subsidies that go to the beef industry.
It’s not too late, but it will require systemic change, not individual change.
Stop being ashamed.