Kevin Smith // Critique // Another End of the World is Possible

Transcription automatique à partir des sous-titres YouTube (en).

[00:09] [Applause] the end of the world um I certainly don't see climate change as being the end of the world I see it as being the beginning of the next phase of our uh human history in in and bringing about our kind of transition to a low carbon economy we're trying to uh develop uh evidence and Analysis that says that the Market's not the best way of dealing with climate change to a large extent the market has kind of created climate change and now we're expecting the market to solve it and it's not going to work in fact what we're seeing at the moment is uh opportunities for business to profit from climate change rather than actually kind of lowering their emissions the system of carbon trading that we seeing at the moment is largely

[01:09] relying on the principle of polluted profits rather than polluter pays and what we're trying to make people aware is the fact that people can't sit back and complacently wait for the Kyoto Protocol to deal with the problem because it's not going to happen uh and there's an urgent need for real changes to our society to be made rather than just relying on elaborate shell games of creative accountancy like emissions trading under the Kyoto Protocol you're just buying the peace of mind with climate change uh that you can still take these short Hall flights you can still go on exotic holidays twice a year and you don't have to worry about climate change because you've bought your offset you've done your your bit and and therefore it's it's no longer a

[01:59] matter of con concern it's very dangerous selling this uh peace of mind at the moment because in with regards to climate change it just shouldn't exist the fact is we should be worried we shouldn't be going into a full-on panic mode but we should be extremely concerned and we should be making placing very high priority on making genuine changes to our lifestyles to our economies and to our Societies in order to deal with the the threat of climate change here we go people need to ask more profound questions about climate change uh rather than the focus just being on people's individual Lifestyles about kind of changing light bulbs and driving the car less and not flying so much I think these are all kind of important things

[02:55] that need to be uh taken into account but it's only part of the story and I think we need to be asking why climate change has has come about in the first place why there's such resistance to uh effectively dealing with climate change and uh and bringing about the serious cuts that are needed and uh and and why governments are are failing in their responsibility to to to Really take it seriously and and hold the business community and Industry accountable for for for not taking action on climate change the biggest opportunity or potential for positive social change and dealing with climate change is the fact that we can't go on with our current economic system uh whereby year upon year there has to be economic growth which is based on the

[03:52] ever increasing extraction and consumption of fossil fuel resources and that's kind of a big opportunity I think for the to replace this kind of economic system with something that's more Equitable something that's less ecologically repati and something that that provides more satisfaction and meaning in people's lives rather than people defining themselves by what they consume and how much money they earn it's a question of uh of of of bringing out bringing about the kind of positive necessary changes as soon as possible and and not being overwhelmed by the the magnitude of the threat h