Research of Creative work (‘Economy and the Environment’ by NV atCEPImperial, 2014 on YouTube)

 

This week, our group is informed that we are going to have one more new member join our group project, which means the configuration of our group is finally formed. As the presentation date is coming up very soon, every one of us is working on researching source and integrating to a whole like a puzzle. For me, I have chosen the third set reading, written by George Lakoff, as one of my academic sources for this week’s research blog. In the Praxis Forum ‘Why it Matters How We Frame the Environment’, I have acquired a concept of ‘framing’. The word ‘framing’ here defines as a conceptual setting in people’s brain circuitry, talking about how everyone’s cognition to climate change. Lakoff states his point of view by indicating ecology is intimately tied up with economics, politics, ethical aspects. The public, the capitalists, and the government does not see ‘the real crisis’ of global climate change, especially the conservative community distracts people from aware of ‘the real crisis’ in this case. “The economic and ecological meltdowns have the same cause, namely, the unregulated free market with the idea that greed is good and that the natural world is a resource for short-term private enrichment. “（pp.77, Lakoff, G., 2010）Eventually, it will be accompanied by a consequence of an enormous systemic global risk that cannot be resolved locally in the short term. In the solution for it, people are not just simply taking public transport, or recycling, or eating organic greens etc. As conscious and intelligent living beings on this planet, we are supposed to do is to be educated rightfully with the frame and take it serious of every movement that may bring a subtle change to the environment.

According to the Royal Meteorological Society’s Climate Science Communications Group report, it points out that the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to human activities like the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. As greenhouse gases are likely going to remain for the long term, people are required to reduce the emission vastly. “Air pollutants are another unwanted product of human activities that can also affect the Earth’s climate but in a more complex way. Many air pollutants are related to combustion, but some also arise from agriculture and industrial processes.” (Warrilow, D., 2021). In the argument of giving out a solution for either air pollution or climate change, it is acceptable to pick either one as a priority, as both of them have a lot in common. “both have major sources in the combustion of fossil fuels for power generation, heating and transport, so decarbonising the world’s economy will have a double benefit for the climate, human health and the environment.” (Warrilow, D., 2021) Saying in another word, to an enormous degree, while settle the air pollution problems could massively slow down the impact on the environment or mitigate the severity the climate change.

The creative work I found for this project research is a short video posted on YouTube called ‘Economy and the Environment’. The video explains how the economy is intimately tied up with the environment and how the environment is being destroyed by human activities driven by GDP growth. By standing in the angle of the U.S. government. In terms of government policy, the growth of GDP is supposed to be inhibited years and years before, due to the reason the government has not enough taxes to support the greater level of spending, and which is causing the government is owing debts from all over the world. However, natural resource exploitation is a brilliant medium to fill the debt gaps. It is because there are no costs to those valuable natural resources, like getting a mine out of the ground and sell it at a price that someone would offer it. No one needs to pay for the destruction that they cost, as the mines belong to no one but the Earth. The same applies to the forests. No one is asked to pay for cutting trees in the forests. People never owe financial debts to the planet, but they are building up environmental debts, which is ‘meaningless’ compared to a note of money. Humans are using up the natural resource faster than they can regenerate themselves.

Furthermore, the loss of forests leads to the soil not capable of preventing landslides and can no longer minimise carbon emission into the atmosphere. However, It seems nobody is paying attention to it, as these values are invisible to the society within GDP. The consequence is tragic in such a capitalist world.

 

Reference:

Lakoff, G., 2010. ‘Why it Matters How We Frame the Environment.’ Environmental Communication 4, pp. 70–81.

Warrilow, D. 2021. Air pollution and climate change. Weather.