This is a video published by the German NGO Germanwatch. Germanwatch is a non-profit that, in their words, focuses on "sustainable global development... the preservation of livelihoods, and [global] North-South equity". The biggest issue they focus on is global climate change and how it will affect further development in the global south, also referred to as the "third world". This video is in German with English subtitles, but it's only about four minutes long and is pretty thought provoking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWfb0VMCQHE
This video discusses the growing issue of global climate change, and satirizes Western reactions (or lack thereof) to this problem that will likely compromise the security of dozens of underdeveloped countries around the world. The three Germans in the clip discuss their various vacations to "exotic" locations where they can still enjoy the comforts of modern life. They discuss how convenient transportation is, and how they can get to any location in the world via plane or car. They even poke fun at their colleague for riding his bike to work. They chat about how organic food has been imported to their local supermarkets from all over the planet, and is sold at inexpensive prices. When the waitress comes to give them their “bill”, she reads off the metaphorical carbon footprint that their lifestyles have accrued. The three men pass the bill off to two other patrons who are assumed to come from underdeveloped countries.
This video discusses the growing issue of global climate change, and satirizes Western reactions (or lack thereof) to this problem that will likely compromise the security of dozens of underdeveloped countries around the world. The three Germans in the clip discuss their various vacations to "exotic" locations where they can still enjoy the comforts of modern life. They discuss how convenient transportation is, and how they can get to any location in the world via plane or car. They even poke fun at their colleague for riding his bike to work. They chat about how organic food has been imported to their local supermarkets from all over the planet, and is sold at inexpensive prices. When the waitress comes to give them their “bill”, she reads off the metaphorical carbon footprint that their lifestyles have accrued. The three men pass the bill off to two other patrons who are assumed to come from underdeveloped countries.
For me, the overall
point of this video is that climate change is not just a scientific issue, nor
is it exclusively a political one. It is above all a human problem, with real consequences
for real people who live in countries that lack the resources to effectively
guarantee the safety of their citizens. The film includes statistics citing the
average CO2 emissions per capita for various countries, with coastal developing
nations like Mozambique and Bangladesh emitting less than .5 metric tons of CO2
per capita. Germany, on the other hand, emits somewhere around 10 tons per
person. And Germany is by far the most environmentally conscious of the Western
great powers; American carbon emissions are upwards of 17 tons per capita. The
sad irony is that countries like Mozambique and Bangladesh are far less equipped
to deal with the effects of climate change when compared to Germany and the
United States.
The film ends at some point in the near future, with one of
the Germans noting that his vacation to the Maldives had to be canceled because
the country had been flooded. Maldives, an island country off the coast of
India, is indeed in danger of being completely submerged by rising sea levels. Should
this happen, the population of 400,000 Maldivians become refugees, creating one
of the largest refugee crises in history. Many of them would likely not find
suitable places to live. This is a realistic fear faced by coastal populations
the world over. To this end, the government of Maldives has been committed to
establishing a completely carbon-neutral society by the year 2019. However,
carbon emissions in Maldives are only 3.3 tons per capita, split among a
relatively small population. In order for humanity to impose real change and
avoid catastrophe, people in the developed world have to take notice as well.
Aaron Hinds
ReplyDelete- I watched the entirety of the video and was really moved on how developed countries, not just Germany, have made a disastrous impact on the world around them without them realizing it. We commonly see the luxuries of cars, air conditioning, and other things as spoils of living in a wealthy and industrialized nation without thinking what the casualties are for other nations. I think climate change is something that we can no longer ignore or expect future generations to deal with because of the effects we're facing now, not as just Americans living in the United States, but as humans living on the planet Earth. I do feel that with the right amount of exposure that developed countries will take the initiative towards clean energy and developing countries will have an easy transition to substitute environmentally hazardous equipment with efficient green energy equipment.
I thought this video was really interesting especially when the lady came and gave the men their "tab". It was a plot twist in my opinion because people truly don't know the impact they have on climate change and every year it keeps worsening. We now have a lot of luxuries we would not want to give up, but we don't technically have to give them up, but rather alter them to affect climate change less. Yet this is hard to do because as items are becoming more eco-friendly, like cars, other companies are coming up with new and "better" cars with newer technology but not the eco-friendliness. I feel like we are heading towards the right direction but we still need more innovations to the inventions that aren't good for earth. Like Aaron said we can no longer ignore climate change because we are not facing it as humans living on the planet earth not just Americans.
ReplyDeleteThis video is really interesting. I thought it was particularly poignant because it portrays an issue relatively unknown to most Americans. Specifically, it portrays how third world, impoverished nations "pick up the tab" of western nations in regards to environmental costs. The brunt of the burden we know face is how to deal with environmental change in a changing world. As the past ten years have shown, we are loath to adapt, or even acknowledge the reality of a changing earth; let alone accept the blame we have in instigating the change. This video shows how the way we live directly impacts the lives of millions of people around the globe, and how our carbon foot print has much further reaching consequences than we thought before.
ReplyDeleteI really like how at first, this video comes off as a lighthearted, friendly situation, but as it progresses further, it becomes more and more hard-hitting. By the end, it is incredibly straightforward and blunt about what the issue at hand is. The sad truth is that most developed countries act like they are making an effort to reduce worldwide climate change, but their actions simply aren't enough. We cannot keep driving gas-guzzling cars and using unsustainable materials at the current alarming rate. People act like they don't need to worry about it too much because someone else will care more and act on it, but unfortunately, almost no one is doing that. The people receiving the harsh effects from climate change are those who can barely do more to change their way of life, those who as an entire country produce less CO2 emissions than some cities in the United States. It is really sad that this is an issue that we keep putting off, saying that we'll fix it later, and yet it is changing our world right in front of our eyes. This is a classic example of a social movement- people will only acknowledge that the problem exists and do something about it when it gets too big to ignore.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the issues with climate change and other human problems that this video subtly points out is that; because we can't actually see the problem right in front of us, we don't consider it a pressing issue. A lot of social issues have this problem and its very hard to move past. We can't just sit around and wait until the Maldives is actually flooding. So I think an interesting question to take away from this video is how can we get people to care about and create a sustained movement (especially one that has almost no easily observal effects from one's work) that is not just a token show of support for combating climate change?
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed that video! I had a professor that talked about our global hesitation to address climate change in, what I thought, was a very interesting analysis. He said that there is the classic idea, including with issue like radioactivity, that when we can't see and generally don't understand COMPLETELY the dynamics of an issue, we ignore it. Diverging from radioactivity in likeness however, global warming doesn't have a sole individual to blame, so the clean-up necessarily has to be global and unanimous. Eventually, we would get to this point of unanimity. But the scary part of global warming, is we can not wait the normal scientific and social cycle length to get there.
ReplyDeleteI really like that someone brought up the issue of climate change as I feel that this issue is growing more and more pressing every day. I also find it very interesting that you mention the fact that it is often left to developed nations to face the brunt of the consequences regarding climate change, while the countries that have brought about the crisis in the first place continue to with some even being oblivious to the damage that they are causing. For years people have pushed the issue to the next generation, but now we're out of time and many fear that it may even be too late. I think that this video is an eye-opening experience to both the dangers of climate change and the western hypocrisy that has caused it.
ReplyDelete