for: academic communication to the public - importance, elites - two types, key insight - elites, key insight - science communication

comment

key insight

• Elites are necessary in every society
• Historically, people who strongly believe that the current elites aren't necessary or are harmful often become the revolutionaries who become the new elites
• elites need to speak in their own specialist language to each other but there are two kinds of elites
  • those who serve society
  • those who serve themselves
  • often, we have fox in sheep's clothing - elites who serve themselves but disguise themselves in the language of elites who serve others in order to gain access to power ,
  • we normally think of wealthy people as elites, but Harari classifies scientists as also a kind of elite
• elites may be necessary but
  • We are caught in a double bind, a wicked problem as elites are also the world's greatest per capita energy consumers and their outsized ecological, consumption and energy footprint is now a existential threat to the survival of our species

references

• Kevin Anderson: A Habitable Earth Can No Longer Afford The Rich – And That Could Mean Me And You
  • https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Fclimateuncensored.com%2F1485-2%2F&group=world
• The role of high-socioeconomic-status people in locking in or rapidly reducing energy-driven greenhouse gas emissions
  • https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41560-021-00900-y&group=world
• Millionaire spending incompatible with 1.5 °C ambitions
  • https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencedirect.com%2Fscience%2Farticle%2Fpii%2FS2666791622000252&group=world

for: quote - Kevin Anderson, quote - elite positive feedback carbon inequality loop, climate crisis - societal aspirations, elites - societal aspirations, societal aspirations, key insight - societal aspirations

quote

• This 1% of humanity uses its awesome power to manipulate
  • societal aspirations and
  • the narratives around climate change.
• These extend from
  • well-funded advertising to
  • pseudo-technical solutions,
  • and financialisation of carbon emissions (and increasingly, nature) to
  • labelling extreme any meaningful narrative that questions inequality and power.

comment

• it is the societal aspiration of the logic of capitalism and the free market that continues to create the next generation of the 1%
• How can the luxury industry NOT BE high carbon intensity? It's an oxymoron. High carbon is baked into the definition of luxury, and it is luxury goods and services which accelerate climate breakdown.
• The elites have a strong feeling of entitlement. They feel they DESERVE to reward themselves with a luxury lifestyle. That aspiration and reward structure multiplied by 80 million (1% of 8 billion) is a major variable driving the climate crisis

for: climate crisis - elites, Kevin Anderson - elites, carbon emissions - elites, adjacency - elites - carbon inequality - incentives - luxury - capitalism

title: A Habitable Earth Can No Longer Afford The Rich – And That Could Mean Me And You

date: Nov. 29, 2023

comment

• elites
• capitalism
• free market
• incentives
• double bind
• wicked problem
• inequality
• carbon inequality
• luxury industry

• This article was pulled by "The Conversation" for being too controversial
• It addresses the double-bind / wicked problems that we find ourselves in.
• It's not just that the elites that are the highest per capita polluters, but
  • it is an indictment of the entire philosophy and worldview of capitalism and the market economy which produces winners and losers and
  • the winners reap enormous resource benefits, including being able to afford luxury items as rewards which constitute the largest ecological footprint of all
• while at any one time, there is always a minority of the 1%, who hold the most outsized ecological footprint of all, the logic that produced that 1% also serves as the incentives for the majority of the 99%, who because of the inherent precarity created by capitalism, will fight and struggle to become part of that 1%
• So while one generation of the 1% die off, a new generation is born and created by the incentive structure of scarcity and precarity.
• In this sense, capitalism has its own self-reinforcing, positive feedback loop that keeps the masses of the disenfranchised aspiring to the same high resource and ecological footprint, luxury lifestyle
• Look at the culture industry of sports, entertainment, movies, music, TV, etc. and of business in general. The leaders of these and ALL fields are celebrated as heros and they all reward themselves with an ultra-high carbon intensity, luxury lifestyle.
• Unless we do more than simply demonize the current set of elites, and recognize the root cause and change the incentive structure itself, we will only ever deal with the symptom and not the problem, and continue to generate the next generation of elites
• The luxury lifestyle industry is a important role-player in the self-reinforcing feedback loop

for: Kevin Anderson, transition, climate equity, climate justice, climate justice - Kevin Anderson, carbon inequality - Kevin Anderson, life within planetary boundaries, lifestyle within planetary boundaries - elites, climate crisis - Kevin Anderson

summary

• Kevin offers a picture of what a world within the stable climate planetary boundary would look like for the wealthy of the planet.