Post Ethical Consumerism?

A couple of weeks ago I started in earnest in my quest to save the planet by reducing my carbon footprint. Along with all my other green friends we are attempting to help tackle global warming by cutting our excess emissions of co2.

I've been recycling all my household waste, turning off every power switch (to the point of OCD extremes) and was even planning on driving to my summer holiday in the north of Spain! Until, that is, I watched The Great Global Warming Swindle last night on Channel 4. Not sure if anyone has 4OD yet but I would definitely purchase this program to watch again.

O.K, I'm a bit of a geography geek anyway, but the basic crux of the argument was this:

1) Global warming is happening
2) Global warming is not caused by a rise in co2 levels
3) Global warming is caused by changes in the temperature of the sun

Reasons against co2: climate has been fluctuating dramatically for hundreds of thousands of years (600 years ago it was much hotter than the present day), co2 is a tiny percent of greenhouse gases 0.54% (even less is human related), water vapour is the biggest greenhouse gas, it takes thousands of years for sea levels to rise the main cause being thermal expansion of the water not ice caps melting, levels of co2 have been much higher in our past and we are still here, if global warming was happening then it would be felt greatest in the troposphere - temperatures remain constant here.

There are more arguments but you get my point. What was even more shocking was the evidence to suggest rises in co2 follow hot periods. The evidence that some of these scientists believe shows that is is in fact the Sun itself that is causing global warming:

Reasons for the sun causing global warming: The Sun is highly unstable and fluctuates in temperature widely. Weather patterns have been accurately predicted by modelling them with sun spots over the past 100 years. The Sun heats the oceans and the evaporation of water is the biggest producer of greenhouse gases, an increase in solar wind cuts out cosmic rays that are needed to form clouds that in turn reduce temperatures.

These arguments are controversial I know but when you add this to the political and economic reasoning behind how the co2 global environmental movement began things get very interesting. The fall of communism, the miner's strikes in the 80's, the rise of an industrial 3rd world all fuel the ethical debate that today shapes our views on everything from transport to tea time. It was particularly hard hitting to see a 1970's program called "The Weather Machine" predicting that we were entering an ice age only 30 years ago!

So where does it leave the rise of the conscious consumer and the host of ethical brands that have ridden the wave of this eco hysteria. If some of the thinking from the channel 4 show was ever to infiltrate mainstream culture could we see the beginning of a post ethical consumerism?

I doubt it. Having worked on the launch of a global ethical campaign I'm testament to the thousands of jobs that are now tied up in the industry both on the commercial side of things and the researchers and experts in the field. Too much has been invested in the movement to go back now. Besides, the feel good factor of giving something back to your planet is a strong emotion and the idea that there might not be something to stop just doesn't make good commercial sense.

Personally I think the rise in profile of the environmental issues is only a positive thing as the world does have a finite amount of natural resources and we shouldn't take them for granted. If ethical consumerism promotes better relationships between people and brands this is a benefit to us all.

What the program taught me more than anything was the power of popular culture and the media in defining our belief systems. Congrats to C4 on such a though provoking program even if it was quite unsettling to watch. I'm now starting to leave light switch on again.