2022 has been an extremely bleak year for many. From the extreme heat wave that killed 16,000 in Europe to devastating floods that racked up US $5.6 billion worth of damages in Pakistan, it seems like the only thing scarier than the GST hikes this year is the climate disasters. Nowadays, in face of pandemonium, the easiest thing to do is to push the blame onto someone else and avoid responsibility. However, when dealing with a problem as complicated as climate change, apportioning blame isn’t as easy as it sounds.
At the moment, one of the climate stakeholders that netizens are unhappy with seems to be celebrities. This can mainly be attributed to an article by Yard that has been gaining popularity online. Titled “Just Plane Wrong: Celebs with the Worst Private Jet CO2 Emissions", the ingenious pun isn’t the only reason so many people are sharing this article. To everyone's surprise, singer Taylor Swift tops the list overall with a whopping 22,923 minutes of private jet flights. This is shocking considering the fact that she wasn’t even on a world tour at the time of the study. She surpassed celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather, who are infamous for their extensive use of private jets. Guess Billboard charts aren’t the only charts Taylor plans to take over.
People’s rage towards celebrities nowadays is not unjustified. Their excessive use of private jets contribute significantly to climate change, largely undermining the efforts of the majority. Did you know that one of Kim Kardashian’s private jet trips to Paris created a staggering 34 tonnes of CO2 emissions? To put that into perspective, an average person in the UK merely generates 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide in A YEAR. With half the world suffering from the aftermath of climate disasters, it is simply too unreasonable to sit comfortably in a multi-million private jet high up in the sky - right?
Alas, celebrities are but one of many stakeholders in the complicated web that is climate change. Besides celebrities, another major contributor to climate change is companies, specifically oil and gas companies. Though not nearly as heavily covered by the media, multi-billion dollar oil companies like ExxonMobil and Shell contribute much more to climate change than we expect. In fact, these companies generate so much CO2 that they contribute 70% of the world’s carbon emissions.
Despite the gargantuan amounts of carbon emissions oil and gas companies generate, their actions aren't regulated to a large extent. Why? Because they contribute as much to the global economy as they do to climate change, of course. Oil and gas are some of the most important fuels in the world, being used extensively in a multitude of industries such as aviation and manufacturing. Without these companies burning fossil fuels at this rate, global activities will never be able to continue at the same rate, and hence economies around the world will be compromised.
As much as we want to blame corporations for climate change, one group of people that cannot be forgotten are consumers. Consumerism drives demand. Companies like ExxonMobil only burn so much fossil fuels to manufacture the products that WE demand. If consumers decide to change their taste and preferences collectively, companies will have no choice but to bite the bullet and adapt accordingly so as to not lose sales. Turns out the concept of Demand and Supply taught in our Economics textbooks aren’t that unrealistic after all!
But, how can consumers like you or me possibly make that much of a difference given celebrities' widely self-indulgent usage of private jets? The impact that one consumer has is extremely miniscule. How many people would need to consistently purchase green products to make a significant impact? Besides, even if one person decides to be a conscientious consumer, is it really feasible to expect everyone else to do the same? Suddenly, expecting consumers to change their consumerism habits may not seem like such a great plan.
As cliché as it sounds, climate change affects everybody. The number of stakeholders involved in this problem is simply too many to count. To make matters worse, every action has a ripple effect — everyone is in some way inextricably affected by the actions of others. It is simply too difficult to ascertain exactly who to be held responsible for climate change, and how much they should be responsible for.
However, climate change is everyones’ responsibility. With global carbon emissions increasing at an alarming rate, so much so that scientists are warning that we only have until 2030 to reduce emissions by half to prevent “catastrophic climate breakdown”, it is high time that everyone pulls their weight and do their part to combat climate change. William Ripple, an ecologist from Oregon State University, puts it best - "The spectre of climate change is at the door and pounding hard." Now isn’t the time to decide who to blame for climate change. Everybody, from companies to celebrities to consumers to governments, needs to make vital changes before we lose the one planet we all call home.
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Written by: Ng Chen Fong (22S63)
Edited by: Reyess Peh (22A15), Widyayuki Triyono (22S6D)
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