Personal Climate Protection Is A Capitalist Wet Dream
How NOT taking collective action to combat climate change is creating a new market for personal protective equipment
Forgive me but first I would like to draw your attention to an important article published yesterday based on a story I took to independent publisher Rice Media about the treatment of actors in Singapore. I shared my own limited experiences since taking up professional acting here two years ago but they uncovered many more examples of abuse and sexual misconduct on set.
The reason I took this story to them was NOT because I want to sabotage the local entertainment industry but because I think we have the talent and expertise to create a world class industry like South Korea has done, but to do that we need to start acting like professionals. I strongly urge you to read the story on Rice Media: https://www.ricemedia.co/actors-dark-side-of-singapore-acting-industry/.
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming!
Back in 2020, whilst working on a new media platform about climate tech I was introduced to a chap who had spent his career planning climate events for governments, NGOs and multi-lateral development banks. He had recently quit and we were sounding him out for potential collaboration, maybe even employment. My client and I met him for coffee and started sharing our vision for a platform about innovative tech solutions to combat climate change when he stopped us mid-flow to correct our stance.
He agreed there was a role for tech when it comes to climate change but not preventing it, adapting to it. Years of listening to politicians, bankers and other assorted experts had convinced him that we (society) would never take the collective action required to prevent climate change but we would create a new market for devices to help us live with it.
My client and I were skeptical, we were backed by a multi-lateral development bank who seemed pretty committed to change, but he was so confident he confessed to having invested in a couple of companies that actually manufacture the tech he was talking about.
We were not only skeptical but saddened by his claims - then the pandemic happened and billions of people worldwide purchased masks and gloves and sanitiser to live with it. Then, in December 2022, Dyson launched the Dyson Zone, a personal protection solution designed to tackle noise and air pollution in a single device that looks lifted straight from the set of Judge Dredd!
To be fair the Dyson Zone was not greeted with any great enthusiasm at the time; Wired magazine praised its noise cancelling capabilities but added that it was, “Overpriced. Far too big and heavy. Embarrassing. Noisy fans. The butt of a thousand jokes.” But early innovators are often mocked and scrolling through my Instagram feed now proves they were not that far off the mark.
I don’t know about you but lately I have been served multiple ads on IG for neck fans; personal air conditioning devices that sit around your neck and blow cool air onto your face. Yes they look ridiculous but not as ridiculous as the Zone or, for that matter, walking into a meeting with a red face, damp hair and sweaty pits!
Air purifiers are another growing category of personal protection against air pollution that have become particularly popular in Singapore due to the hazes caused by burning for palm oil plantations in Indonesia. In 2013 the hazes were so bad they sent the PSI (Pollutant Standards Index) rating 351 points over the “safe” or “good” level of 50. Even during the most recent haze of October 2023 levels reached 123 and choking haze seeped into homes, schools and offices.
This personalised approach to living with climate change is a perfect example of neoliberal capitalism in action. It relieves us of the burden of demanding systemic change and instead creates a market wherein each one of us can make ourselves comfortable at the expense of those who cannot afford it, like the billions in developing countries currently suffering under extreme heat.
“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”
Eric Hoffer, American philosopher and social critic.
Left-wing British comedian Mark Steel once described a perfect neoliberal capitalist system as being one in which you put five cents into each lamppost as you pass it just so it lights up the bit of street you are on and leaves everyone in front and behind you in the dark. That’s what’s happening here; in the absence of collective action it’s every man for himself. But what’s the point in being that man (or woman), if you have to wear noise cancelling headphones, breathing apparatus and UV protective sunglasses all the time?
I’m not suggesting any individual is to blame here, quite the contrary, it’s sovereign governments, supranational organisations like the UN and the fossil fuel companies that own them who are to blame - just look at the state of Republican Senator Ted Cruz this week chanting “more fossil fuels” like some petulant toddler.
I’m just suggesting that before you’re tempted to spend your hard-earned cash on any PPE consider planting a tree that will clean the air and cool the streets of your whole neighbourhood and, in so doing, deny the likes of Dyson the chance to create another extractive market out of your discomfort.
Recommendations for Relaxation
Rutger Bregman, who wrote one of the most uplifting books I have ever read; ‘Human Kind - A Hopeful History’ is also the author of this brilliant article about the role of the individual in climate change, which makes an excellent compliment to my piece above. It is amusingly titled: ‘Yes, it’s all the fault of Big Oil, Facebook and ‘the system’. But let’s talk about you this time’
Local screamo heroes Caracal released their second album ‘Effigies’ a whole DECADE after ‘Welcome The Ironist’s but I am happy to report they are still as angry as ever!
We were also treated to a second album from ‘90s shoegaze legends Swervedriver this week; they must have been saving up a bunch of tunes since their heyday but I can tell you they’ve still got it in spades so get stuck in.
Finally, a little British film from 2011 entitled ‘Page Eight’ popped up on Netflix in recent weeks. I’d never heard of it but I’m a fan of its lead Bill Nighy so gave it a go. It’s a tightly wound, uniquely British spy thriller and a cracking Saturday night movie.
Right, that’ll do ya! Nx
Thank you for this. The idea that climate change can be addressed by individuals looking out for themselves--at costs well beyond the means of most humans, let alone animals and other inhabitants of the natural world--is just the kind of bonkers you'd expect from neoliberalism.
Also, if you will indulge me on this: I live on a small island that is very threatened by climate change. I wrote about that, altruism, and how we cannot save ourselves through our own individual virtue at the beginning of hurricane season, here:
https://doctrixperiwinkle.substack.com/p/about-the-weather