Why can’t we simply tackle climate change?

The technology is already available, but no one wants to pay for it. The lesson of Kurzgesagt’s video, published in the autumn, is that it remains in state control because individual actions are not enough.

We rarely refer to YouTube channels, but Kurzgesagt, which currently boasts nearly 17 million subscribers, is one of the few resources that deserve to be taken seriously. This channel is edited with scientific thoroughness, and the purpose of the uploaded, animated videos is to discuss things in an intelligible form that are inherently incomprehensible.

The channel has been making videos about climate change for many years. The latest video on this topic, uploaded in the autumn, is about what ordinary people can do about climate change and whether we can make a real impact on the future of our planet. According to the Kurzgesagt team, the usual mantra that we can save the way of life of future generations by eating less meat, using electric cars and pursuing a sustainable lifestyle is erroneous as it places the responsibility for the polluting activity caused by our lifestyle on ordinary people.

Making a car, for example, emits emissions equivalent to asphalting a two-metre stretch of road, and heating the world's homes emits more carbon dioxide than all cars combined. If we switch to electric cars, it’s time to say goodbye to asphalt as well. But this would undermine the home-building of developing countries, which is not fair because richer societies tend to be larger emitters. Even if 63 percent of the world’s total emissions come from developing regions.

„It is an unfortunate reality that the process of breaking out of poverty into a middle class inevitably generates emissions. Asking developing countries not to emit harmful substances is like asking them to stop development.”, someone states in the video.

According to Kurzgesagt, it is a cynical idea to call for the protection of rainforests and the closure of factories, while billions of people depend on industries that are far from sustainable. One of the biggest challenges is the transformation of the food industry: we soon have to feed ten billion people on Earth, which is becoming increasingly difficult with increased meat consumption. So we shouldn't eat meat? Given that nearly 40 percent of our inhabitable land is used for meat production, this could be a good start.

However, according to Kurzgesagt, pointing to the responsibility of individuals is a misconception, mainly because the concept of a carbon footprint was introduced by British Petroleum in a 2005 campaign. The editors of the YouTube channel point out that blaming each other serves the energy lobby that doesn’t want sustainability because it’s not in their interest.

The solution could be state intervention: if many countries implement immediate solutions, and they start paying for the costly carbon capture processes and, in addition, we live more sustainably, we can do a lot for our environment.

There are signs of global cooperation, but it is a slow process - in the meantime, we are already helping the planet, or at least the ecosystem around us, by reducing our ecological footprint and living greener and more sensibly.

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