Reduce commercials by 90% and add climate impact!

I have just stressed to other friends in the climate movement how important I find to control commercials 1) in terms of quantity and 2) environmental risk information to reduce consumption last week. Therefore, when I discovered George Monbiot’s article [1] on the role of advertisements and academia in society, I was very excited to read that he was thinking  the same and expressed it so clearly. He also described the ruthless influence of academia which I have  not aware of yet.

Advertising – with its destructive impacts on the living planet, our peace of mind and our free will – sits at the heart of our growth-based economy. This gives us all the more reason to challenge it.

Therefore, my demand is to introduce laws to reduce the quantity of advertisements  in media (internet, TV, print,…) corresponding to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by a factor of 10 [2]. These reductions may be stepwise over a period of 3-5 years, to allow media to adjust and find alternative sources of income. In addititon, all media should ad from now on environmental risk warnings on how the production and consumption of the product impacts the environment. Here, importantly the risk should be communicated in quantifiable units which are understandable to lay persons. My proposal is, for example, to convert tons of emissions of carbon dioxide to corresponding areas of tropical forest.

[1] George Monbiot (2018-12-31). Advertising and academia are controlling our thoughts. The Guardian. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/31/advertising-academia-controlling-thoughts-universitiesre

[²] Naturvardsverket (2018-11-28) . Konsumtionsbaserade växthusgasutsläpp per person och år. URL: https://www.naturvardsverket.se/Sa-mar-miljon/Statistik-A-O/Vaxthusgaser-konsumtionsbaserade-utslapp-per-person/

 

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