The city of #Leeds set up a #ClimateChange Citizen's Jury with the task of producing recommendations.
It recommended to stop the planned expansion of the local airport.
The city council's reponse is a masterclass in #ClimateDelay discourse [Thread] democracy.leeds.gov.uk/documents/b229…
It recommended to stop the planned expansion of the local airport.
The city council's reponse is a masterclass in #ClimateDelay discourse [Thread] democracy.leeds.gov.uk/documents/b229…
What do we (we're preparing a paper on this) mean by 'discourses of climate delay'? This:
So Leeds council statement combines several types of climate delay discourse. Let's go through (and debunk) them one by one.
1) what we call "whataboutism". Leeds airport accounts for a trivial amount of air travel emissions, so why bother? Let the others do something about it.
1) what we call "whataboutism". Leeds airport accounts for a trivial amount of air travel emissions, so why bother? Let the others do something about it.
The thing is:
- each airport, on its own, is a trivial % of air travel
- each sector (say aviation) is a trivial % of national emissions
- each country is a trivial % of global emissions.
You see the trick there right?
- each airport, on its own, is a trivial % of air travel
- each sector (say aviation) is a trivial % of national emissions
- each country is a trivial % of global emissions.
You see the trick there right?
2) the 'free rider' excuse. We may well try and cut emissions at our airport, but others have no intention of doing the same so why bother? They will just take advantage of our good intentions.
Based on the same logic, no country should cut emissions because the US won't
Based on the same logic, no country should cut emissions because the US won't
Note that the like of Nigel Farage is a big fan of both 'whataboutism' and 'free rider excuse', and combines them nicely. climatechangenews.com/2015/03/11/nig…
3) Technological optimism. We refuse to do anything to curb (sky-rocketing) demand, but surely some fancy technology will take care of the problem eventually right? Err.. no
As @DecFinney & I highlighted in this post, current expansion plans of British airport are inconsistent with the UK zero-climate goal, *even when you take into account technology development* carbonbrief.org/guest-post-pla…
Similar arguments are used by the UK transport secretary when questioned on aviation emissions (see thread below). So discourses of climate delay are becoming quite pervasive in local/national government discourse in the UK
