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Yesterday, in a series of tweets, the Gen Z environmental activist branded the belief in ‘shiny, silver bullet solutions’ to the crisis as the most insidious form of climate denial. This has been met with intense backlash from not only users, but the CEO of Tesla and X himself, Elon Musk.
Yesterday, Gen Z environmental activist Clover Hogan, known for her non-profit educational movement Force of Nature, took to X to voice her concerns about a new form of climate denial that she deems worse than the ‘it’s not happening’ mindset.
She explained that the misguided belief in ‘incremental or tech solutions’ to solve complex climate problems is negatively impacting our efforts, both in terms of emissions and human rights violations.
In a series of tweets, she warned that ‘in the pursuit of shiny, silver bullet solutions, we are inadvertently doubling down on deeply-entrenched injustices.’
Citing electric cars as an example, she stressed that, as demand for them grows, so too does the need for cobalt; 70% of which is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This, as she writes, has led to an explosion in human rights violations, from child labour to miners being buried alive when tunnels cave in and workers making as little as £2 a day.
The most insidious form of climate denial is no longer, "It's not happening," but the belief that incremental or tech solutions will solve this crisis.
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— Clover Hogan (@cloverhogan) April 25, 2024
Suggesting that we ‘zoom out from the [greenhouse-gas releasing] combustion engine’ and focus our attention on ‘redesigning mobility’ instead, she argues that this would result in more accessible solutions serving the majority of people; ‘not just the handful who can afford a new Tesla.’
If we made cities less vehicle-friendly, she says, they could be both safer and greener.
‘Imagine if we prioritised community allotments, local gardens, playgrounds, public transport, and cycling infrastructure, all of which lead to cleaner air, improved climate resilience, and healthier, happier people. Sustainability should not be the end goal, but the means to creating a more fair and equitable society.’
Clover’s commentary is entirely valid, of course, as it calls into question the very real issue of major corporations swaying us with their greenwashed solutions to an emergency that would be far less serious if we simply phased out fossil fuels.
"Sustainability" should not the end goal; but the means to creating a more fair and equitable society.
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— Clover Hogan (@cloverhogan) April 25, 2024
Rather than interfere with big coal, oil, and gas, however, people in power and those with the financial faculties to actually do something about ecological breakdown have continued to push for more quick-fix technological innovations (despite the harmful repercussions of this for people and planet, as Clover correctly highlighted) like Elon Musk has done with Tesla.
