Scientist explains the inequality of climate change | Kevin Anderson
Is he talking about people like my uncle? My friends from school? M
“To be honest, it was like a cold shower for 1.5hrs” was my answer to my partner asking ‘how did the episode with Kevin go?’
Actually, that’s not true. It was a 2-day cold shower.
Kevin Anderson is a Professor of energy and climate change at Manchester, UK and Uppsala, Sweden. And he’s one of the UK’s leading climate scientists, advising the Scottish, Welsh and English governments.
He’s also a savagely clear and articulate communicator.
We spoke for almost 1.5hrs on the episode, and another 2hrs after we finished recording. As you can imagine, it’s hard to pick 1 thing to tell you about.
So I’ve picked the part that felt most interesting to me personally:
The people talking about the problem almost always the ones contributing to it.
Kevin draws a direct, causal line between wealth, inequality and climate. “We have a situation of private luxury for a few, and public squalor for everyone else.”
“It’s easy to point the finger and the Musks and the Bezos’s, but it’s actually us as well.” Why? Because “emissions are massively skewed to small but still quite sizeable groups in our communities.”
I shifted in my chair.
Is he talking about people like my uncle? My mum? My friends from school?
Me?
Kevin drew that causal line for 2 reasons
The richest 10% globally are responsible for 65% of emissions (source). You’re in that group if you earn £36k + per year.
Less obviously, the resources of the middle/upper classes should be used for the investment in the transition (retrofitting or public infrastructure like transport)
It’s why he says “we’re not all in this together”
And that we should move to a situation of private sufficiency and public luxury.
It’s not like I hadn’t heard about the relationship between inequality and climate before. But with all the flavours in the climate world, I’d seen it as separable from the core climate issue.
This conversation got me to ask tricky, uncomfortable questions about what I’d observed in my own life, and in the lives of those around me, regarding the link between wealth/income and emissions (direct, consumption and investment).
Like with most things, the first step is noticing it.
If this intrigues you, watch from 47 minutes of the episode (and join the 400+ people who’ve listened in the first 22hrs - it’s on track to be the highest performing episode so far!)
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Rob