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... from classical liberalism to contemporary neoliberalism, it is the so
called free and voluntary trade between buyers and sellers that remains the
ideological core of the capitalist hegemony
— matthew t. huber, climate change as class war
lifestyle environmentalism is the belief that your individual actions, in
particular your consumptive habits and practices, is both the driving force and
the solution to ecological issues and climate change. more generally, it seeks
to improve our ecological issues by focusing our actions on _individual_
actions rather than collective ones.
in contrast, more radical approaches to addressing climate change, such as
[extinction rebellion], makes demands like "system
change, not climate change", and focus on collective actions rather than
actions that revolve around individual (often consumerist) behaviors.
organizations ([1],
[2]),
often point to various versions of this: we all need to do our part, some
actions are better than others, or maybe its really just the uber-wealthy that
are the problem. however all of these approaches still focus on the actions of
the individual: if _you_ recycle more, if _i_ stop eating meat. some articles
([1])
even bend towards [neomalthusian],
suggesting not having children in order to reduce your carbon footprint.
the entire concept of a [carbon footprint]
was [popularized]
by british petroleum in the early 2000's. now you can pay people to calculate
your exact carbon footprint and quantify exactly how bad you should feel for
your lifestyle, and exactly how good when you reduce your carbon footprint by X
amount. while i have no problem with quantification, or with reducing your
carbon footprint, the fact that the concept was literally coined by fossil fuel
companies to **distract us** from their own systemic connection to climate
change is worth keeping in mind. underlying the concept of carbon guilt is an
implicit belief in, and near moral reification of, [consumer sovereignty].
this, in conjunction with the belief in the "invisible hand of the market",
dissolve us of needing to question or dismantle the systems the present our
limited options.
in climate change as class war by matthew t. huber, the professional class (a
take on the [professional-managerial
class](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional%E2%80%93managerial_class) is
broken down into three groups:
| type | political goal | theory of change |
| -------------------- | --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| science communicator | spreading climate truth & science | knowledge informs political action & behavior |
| policy technocrat | implementing climate policy | right-wing policymakers can be won over with smart policy designs that channel market incentives |
| anti-system radical | system change, not climate change | small-scale alternatives and anti-consumerism will erode capitalism |
what connects these three highly schematic "types" is the centrality of
knowledge systems in shaping their political engagements with
environmental problems
huber goes on to state:
Finally, there are the anti-system radicals, whose own exposure to the
science of ecological collapse leads to a kind of political radicalization [...]
a lot of this radicalization is rooted in guilt over their own complicity in
practices of consumption central to professional-class norms. This kind of
climate activist is more likely to understand that the cause of
environmental problems is systematically rooted in capitalism, but their
political response is to look inwards through moralistic invocations to
consume less, reject industrial society, and advocate micro-alternatives at
the local scale. This kind of person might find the only outlet for such
radical ideas in academia, or they might eschew a profession entirely in
favor of more niche knowledge systems like DIY off-the-grid living or
studying "perma-culture" agricultural techniques.
i found this call our particularly interesting, as someone who is both surrounded by many
who are interested in or practice DIY off the grid living, and have idealized it myself.
it is interesting that carbon guilt may affect some to buy more, and others to buy less,
but it rarely seems to actually push us towards _fixing the problem_.
- climate change as class war: building socialism on a warming planet - by
matthew t. huber
- [revolutionary left radio podcast episode] interview with huber and overview of the book
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