CLIMATE POSITIVITY AT SCALE

This content is from a limited edition zine created especially for Study Hall, NYC 2020.

Introduction by Céline Semaan

In our popular imagination, there is a response to the climate crisis that asks individuals to adopt an attitude of austerity. Do less, buy less, be less. We’re encouraged to take pains to forbid ourselves plastics, meat, clothes, travel—any activity or purchase that would end up participating in the global system of destruction that plagues our near future. And while reducing our individual consumption is an important step, it must be acknowledged that in the grand scheme of things it is a small one. 

For example, in the case of air travel even if everyone in the entire world stopped all airline travel, global carbon emissions would only be reduced by 2%. That leaves 98% of the problem unaddressed while leaving people with limited means to communicate, share, engage, see their families abroad or travel for work to support themselves. Again, I’m not saying it’s bad or useless to reduce our individual air travel. The bigger point is that the problems we’re facing are systemic and beyond what individual consumers can take responsibility for. A culture of blame and austerity around individual consumption plays into a narrative that serves the interests of the powerful in our status quo. While people continue to argue and shame one another and encourage this culture of austerity on an individual level, industries and corporations continue to operate within their exploitative models, business as usual.

If you are reading this, you might have taken part in the recent climate crisis marches or you might have cut down on meat, plastic usage, your fast-fashion purchases. You might have engaged in reducing, reusing, boycotting, eliminating from your diet or lifestyle toxic elements that hurt the planet. That is all great because individual action is important, mainly to help cope with the disastrous data and science predictions that are defining how horrible the very near future may look like, but shrinking yourself down can only undo so much. 

What we need to do is expand. Expand our minds in thinking outside of the colonial mindset. Austerity can never allow for the kind of imagination needed for us to creatively solve the climate crisis globally. We need to zoom out and look at the big picture in a holistic inclusive way, one that challenges the status quo but also dreams up new possibilities.

If we want to create impact at scale then we have to step far outside of our comfort zone. Rather than relying on the previous generation at the top to suddenly change, we must go against austerity and maximize the solutions. We don’t want to shut down Fashion Weeks; we want to have Fashion Weeks as zero-waste projects, low-carbon events that showcase brands that fit within a circular, closed-loop model and who empower the Indigenous communities at the root of their supply chain. We don’t want to shame people out of buying clothes; we want innovative, sustainable solutions to production that intersect design and science. We don’t want to stop traveling because of carbon emissions, we want our governments to heavily invest our taxes into renewable clean energies. We need to look at these issues on a grander scale. 

Climate Positivity at Scale is the theme for the fifth instalment of our conference series Study Hall. With this theme, we aim to look into regenerative solutions at scale that must be adopted immediately in order to mitigate the negative impact of climate change. As we enter the decade of action, we need to collectively expand our minds and intelligence in order to adapt to the challenges ahead and mobilize in responding to the threat by actively implementing positive change at scale.

The aim of Study Hall is to gather industry experts, elected officials, students, designers, activists, policymakers, members of the community, artists and executives to mobilize on climate across all industries. To accompany our latest iteration we have created this series that brings together some of the people and ideas we feel will help us expand our thinking and help us see what the alternatives look like at scale. We’ve focused on innovation and people working with indigenous communities because we believe the answers lie with the people who have been guardians of their land for centuries. We believe that for a truly effective and global response to the climate crisis we need to involve a diverse cast of voices and ideas rather than just letting the western corporate responses dictate the change that is allowed to happen. This isn’t the full picture, but it’s a start and we all need to start somewhere.

You can stream all of the sessions from Study Hall live at this link.