Responsible consumerism
If you are keen enough, you must have noticed that there a lot Koreans and Japanese in Cebu these days. One may say, they came for the Sinulog festivities and are just extending their stay. Others are suggesting that tourism is finally back and this is just the beginning of a rosy year ahead of us.
No, not at all. They simply found some solace in tropical countries like ours from a biting winter at home. At -16 degrees Celsius, such temperature and coupled with a piercing wind will just be too unbearable to some of them. The primary reason? Climate change.
According to credible scientists, climate change does not only refer to rising temperature. Global warming is just one aspect of it. It talks about extreme weather that is caused largely by carbon dioxide emissions out of the production of fossil fuel and the use of it.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that in 2019, “global emissions of energy-related carbon dioxide totaled 33.1 billion metric tons.” That’s how huge and dangerous global CO2 emission is. No. 1 among the top ten emitters (in billion metric ton) is China with 10.06, followed by (2) United States-5.41, (3) India-2.65, (4) Russian Federation-1.71, (5) Japan-1.1, (6) Germany-0.75, (7) Islamic Republic of Iran0.72, (8) South Korea-0.65, (9) Saudi Arabia-0.62, and 10) Indonesia 0.61. Clearly, these countries are either fossil fuel producers or highly industrialized (therefore, major users of fossil fuel) or both.
One may say, we don’t produce much fossil fuel, so, we aren’t guilty of it. The International Energy Agency (which estimates CO2 emissions) said, however, that these are coming “from the combustion of coal, natural gas, oil, and other fuels, including industrial waste and non-renewable municipal waste.” Apparently, therefore, we are contributors too.
Yes, we, the global citizens, are all guilty of it. There are just so many of them to enumerate. However, in the interest of space, we only have to mention what we use every day, plastic shopping bags. Just in case you missed it in your science class, plastic bags come from fossil fuel. And if in case you further missed it, according to the United Nations Environment Program, we produce about 300 million tons (almost the weight of the entire human population) of plastic wastes annually.
These huge emissions did not happen overnight. Decades of greed made it happen. Notably too, more than a decade (2006-2011) ago, a group of start-ups and venture capitalists attempted to solve this malady by pushing the “clean-tech” initiatives (referred to as Clean-Tech 1.0). Sadly though, it never took off and venture capitalists lost billions in investments.
While the technology was there, John Weyant, a professor of management science and engineering at Stanford, said that the “advanced biofuels, thin-film solar companies, and all sorts of energy storage startups of the era were simply too immature and too expensive to be commercialized.”
Then came Clean-Tech 2.0. Whether it will be a success this time, we do not know. This time though, US President Biden calls for it. Also, whether or not profit is the motivation, huge and influential investors (like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson) are either joining or bolstering their investment in clean technology.
But should we depend largely on these big names to save our planet? Couldn’t we, ordinary citizens, do something? Fortunately, Joro (a tech start-up in California, USA) answered this clarion call for help. Knowing fully well that human activity is the major cause of climate change, Joro stepped into the plate and caused to develop an app that can “track, reduce, and offset the emissions of every item you purchase.” Joro is simply reminding us that our spending matter a lot. That if shopping is done indiscriminately, we might be spending on items that would contribute so much to climate change.
How Joro may help us? Well, through our credit and debit cards. By linking our credit and debit cards (through their app), we shall be given an “exact breakdown of carbon emissions in relation to our purchases.” Not only that, “they also do research to find more sustainable providers for our goods, along with personalized tips and recommendations on how to shift our spending to become more eco-friendly.”
Simply put, responsible consumerism is a must to address climate change.