Climate strikes & consumer choices

In this episode Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly discuss the climate strikes and raise questions about how we might respond: as activists, as consumers, as producers. They discuss the question of how consumer choice and climate change might crash into each other. Should we change our behaviours or are we being guilt tripped? If the latter, are we actually being led down paths that will prevent us noticing the political and systemic nature of the problem?


Episode 026     September 27, 2019
Contributors    Sophie Hope     |   Owen Kelly    

In 2019 the series of young people’s climate strikes have become an important, if not vital, stimulus in the global effort to persuade governments and corporations to address climate change before it is finally too late.

They raise important questions about how we might respond: as activists, as consumers, as producers. In this episode Sophie Hope and Owen Kelly discuss the question of how consumer choice and climate change might crash into each other. Should we change our behaviours or are we being guilt tripped? If the latter, are we actually being led down paths that will prevent us noticing the political and systemic nature of the problem?

Is “doing our bit” simply another way of keeping us busy to prevent us making trouble, when trouble is exactly what needs making?