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Imagine a world. One where you're not living paycheck to paycheck, where social media doesn't bombard you with ads about the newest clothes, the newest phone, or the newest meal prep brand. Imagine a life where there's no pressure to consume, no keeping up with the Joneses, no need to go deep into credit card debt to lead a comfortable and ecologically sound life. A world where work is not a chore, but a passion. Where a zero-carbon life is a comfortable and fulfilling life. Compared to the world we live in right now, this sounds like a utopia. But today we'll
reveal that world is possible. We can and must build that future. A future where we break free from consumerism and ultimately capitalism. Here's how and why we need do it. This video is made possible by my amazing viewers who support me on Patreon. Over the last two years, my revenue from ads and patreon has dropped dramatically. So much so that if this trend continues, making videos like these will become less and less financially viable. So I have a quick ask. OCC is a one-person operation, and it would be nice to earn enough to cover rent and my
health insurance, which seems to increase in cost every year. So, if you've been a long time viewer, or just stumbled across the channel, thank you for watching, and please consider supporting Our Changing Climate on patreon with the link in the description. Literally pledging the cost of a coffee a month from just 200 viewers would be huge for the channel and to be honest, me. It's Not Consumerism? The world lives in a wash of products. Everything from Apple to boutique brands plaster every available surface with advertising.
[play clips] And we, in turn, respond. The siren songs of marketing play at our desires. We buy to feel happy, we buy to feel less stressed, we buy to feel love, to feel community, to feel worthy, to numb the pain. All this consumption pouring out of imperial core countries, and now quickly seeping into the imperial periphery, has meant immense material waste, extraction, and emissions. Single-use items and fast fashion pile up in landfills every year around the world, growing the already massive 2.01 billion tonnes of solid waste we already create annually. And as the waste accumulates, we delve deeper and mine harder to create all those
products. Mineral extraction rates have exploded since 1960, plastic production has accelerated, and energy consumption has also increased globally. And with all of this extraction and production, has come exploitation, as workers in places like Kolewezi in the Democratic Republic of Congo are forced into mines and toxic working conditions to extract precious metals like cobalt needed for the endless gadgets the rest of the world supposedly needs. To add insult to injury, all of these products are leading to a seemingly unstoppable rise in greenhouse gas emissions.
Since 1990, global annual emissions have almost doubled. These heat-trapping gases mean the world is heating up much faster than many climate scientists predicted. Indeed, we're on track for 2.7 to 3.2C of warming, which would be catastrophic in so many ways. In short, behind the comfort and consumption of some lies the immiseration of millions and the degradation of our biosphere- our very capacity to live. But as we will soon see, despite the crushing crowds at Black Friday events, despite mountains of Amazon packages piled at suburban doorways,
and despite the mountains of waste from fast fashion hauls and new tech, consumerism is not the problem. Those Black Friday crowds, those Amazon packages are spurred on by corporations hoping to offload their useless goods onto us, the consumer. Because to stay competitive, and to ultimately make more profit and accumulate more capital, companies must sell more commodities. In extremely simplistic terms, the more corporations can produce for the least amount of money, and then sell all of that product for a margin that outcompetes their adversaries, the better they
do. But to sell all the crap that they produce, capitalists need to generate among the masses what marxist philosopher Herbert Marcuse calls "false needs." Producers need to make us believe that their product is a must-have rather than a nice-to-have, and they do that primarily through marketing. [play clips of marketing]. Companies like Apple or H&M assign emotional value and meaning to objects whose actual value stems from the labor and costs needed to make that product. This process not only obscures exploitative practices employed during production but also
allows companies to set higher prices because the commodity is now imbued with certain politics and values. The range of brands and products on the shelves might make you feel like you have the freedom to buy better, but in reality, you are only served clothes, gadgets, or phones that generate profit or allow corporations to stay competitive. Factors that are often determined by labor costs, raw materials, and transportation logistics much more than consumer demand. The problem then is not the masses consuming, the problem is the producers- the owners of capitalist
production, but more specifically, capitalism itself. An economic system that relentlessly pushes the owners of production to try to sell as many of their goods to masses in order to make the most profit and continue the endless accumulation of capital. As we will see later in the video, changing our lifestyles or consuming "better" is a Sisyphian task. Consumerism needs to be seen as a symptom of the relentless churn of capital accumulation. Because capitalists goad us into using our hard-earned money on waste, and in turn we berate ourselves for
not doing better in a broken system, when, in reality the larger system is to blame. The Symptoms of Capitalism We feel disconnected. Lonely. Numb. Stressed. Anxious. Fearful. We live in a world of uncertainties, where fossil fascism is on the rise, where climate shocks loom larger with each passing year. It would be easy to say that overconsumption stems from savvy marketing tactics nudging us with emotional cues and imagery of what our life could be like, and just leave it at that. But it's not that simple,
one of the deeper questions to ask concerning consumerism is why we are so are so numb, anxious, stressed, and disconnected in the first place. The answer, at least in part, can be found in capitalist alienation. I covered alienation much more thoroughly in another video I made on consumption, but in short, capitalism relies on a system of private ownership and socialized production. In other words, individual capitalists own the factories, tools, and means of production, but in order to actually make stuff, those capitalist owners rely on a mass of workers,
who must sell their labor for money to live. As a result of this system, the worker does not own the product they create. There is no purpose to the work for the laborer except to put food on their table by selling their labor. So, not only is the product the worker toils over all day not theirs, but they are forced into selling their labor to capitalists in order to live. All of this tireless and unfulfilling work makes us easy targets for marketing. We seek to fill the void of meaningless work and unfulfilling creation with seemingly meaningful products. Especially
if we're spammed with ads every 30 seconds while scrolling on Instagram or TikTok. Yet, consumption never quite brings the fulfillment we crave, especially as capitalism also alienates us from our communities- pushing us into suburban sprawl, cars, cubicles, while gathering spaces and groups disappear. A culture of individualism and siloed living is a perfect environment to sell us more products and generate more profit, but terrible for the environment and our well-being. Ultimately, we live under a mode of production built to satisfy the needs of a few capitalists.
And those needs, alongside the structure of capitalism running on fossil fuels, are directly antagonistic to the needs of all people and the planet. Put another way by organizers from the group Climate Vanguard, "The imperatives of capital (i.e. profit maximisation and accumulation) are in direct contrast with people's interests (i.e. material needs and social aspirations)." So it's not enough to just stop consuming or to break free from consumerism and the environmental destruction that comes with it; we need to break free of capitalism itself.
Luckily, within the contradictions of capitalism lie the kernels for a path forward. The conflict between the needs of capitalism and the needs of the people is fertile ground for revolution, or as Climate Vanguard again explains, "much like gravity compels an apple to fall, this class antagonism breeds grassroots resistance." And building the power of that grassroots resistance, not buying better or less, is how we will escape consumerism and ultimately capitalism. How We Escape Consumerism: Trapped within the sphere of capitalism, it often feels like the only solution to the horrors of overconsumption and overproduction is just to
buy better or less. To "vote with your dollar." An idea that links very tightly with the libertarian philosophy of consumer sovereignty, which I covered extensively in this video about the trap of ethical consumerism. Essentially, the idea is that in a market system, consumers will make rational choices based on their best interests, and in turn, producers will respond to that demand and produce more ethical products. The myth of voting with your dollar is so powerful because it feels correct. Unfortunately, as we've already seen, our system of production is controlled by
the choices of the owners of production. They generate and fan the flames of false needs among the masses. Yes, decreasing and shifting consumption on a mass scale might change the way capitalism looks, but it does not address the foundational rot of the system. As environmental sociologist Allan Schnaiberg writes, "consumption cannot be the leading factor in the expansion of production. Increased consumption may permit expanded production, but it does not generally cause it." On top of this, as eco-marxist philosopher Ian Angus writes, "the theory [of
consumer sovereignty] depends on the assumption that consumers know everything relevant about products, prices, etc., and so can make informed and rational buying decisions." So, we live in an irrational economic system and are unable to make rational choices. Whether it's highly misleading food labels like cage-free, grass-fed, or free range, or greenwashed fast fashion, the actual exploitation and ecological destruction of production is so shrouded in false claims, which means that even if we wanted to we can't actually make the "rational" or ethical choice.
So, we need to break free from the distraction of buying less or buying better. And no, I don't mean start revving up your fossil fuel guzzling car and buy whatever you want. Luxury consumption of the capitalist class and the rich needs to end. And even in your own life, it doesn't hurt to keep trying to live your values through your buying habits and lifestyle choices, but it's crucial to keep in mind that those actions will never be enough to create the system change we need. Indeed, at their worst, consumer-side ecological tactics limit our
imagination about what is possible, which part of the agenda of the oppressors. As Ashley C. Ford writes, "The goal of oppressors is to limit your imagination about what is possible without them, so you might never imagine more for yourself & the world you live in." Consumer-side environmental actions have siloed and dispersed the mass ecological movement for decades as we eschew marching in the streets and blocking pipelines for recycling better and picking up trash. Indeed, as eco-anarchsit Murray Bookchin writes, "This privatization of the environmental crisis,
like New Age cults that focus on personal problems rather than on social dislocations, has reduced many environmental movements to utter ineffectiveness and threatens to diminish their credibility with the public. If 'simple living' and militant recycling are the main solutions to the environmental crisis, the crisis will certainly continue and intensify." In short, if we attempt to tackle consumerism alone, we will fail. Buying better or buying less can be costly, uncomfortable, and ostracizing endeavours in a capitalist world urging all of us to do the exact opposite. And often, all that struggle and hardship does little to move the needle.
So, if we know that alienation, overproduction, rampant consumerism, exploitation, and extraction are all inherent to our current stage of capitalism, then tinkering around the edges is not the answer. To truly break free from consumerism, we need to break free from capitalism. And we can only do that collectively, building power from the ground up, towards ecosocialism. Towards Ecosocialism: In 2019, it seemed as if the world was on the cusp of a mass environmental revolution. Millions of people took to the streets, walked out of schools, and blocked pipelines, and demand a world without fossil fuels. And then, the
pandemic hit, other struggles arose, and in the blink of an eye, all of that momentum disappeared. The coming decades will require us to face down this failure and build a movement that's not just powerful in a brief moment, but endures. But to do that, we must chart a path. To start, we must collectively recognize that capitalism is causing overconsumption, overproduction, and vast environmental degradation; we must tear it down and replace it with a new economic system. For me, that system is ecosocialism. For others it's eco-anarchism, or some sort of eco-social democracy. But if anything was made clear by
the percipitous rise and fall of the 2019 mass environmental protest movement, it's that any successful challenge to the capitalism system must be organized and structured. Which means that there must be some sort of ecosocialist party, a "vanguard party" as Lenin called it, whose goal is to unify, direct and endure to build an ecosocialist world by and for working and oppressed peoples. What's crucial here is that this is not the social democratic "progressive" liberal party of Sweden or Bernie Sanders. This is an explicitly revolutionary
ecosocialist party. One that delves into electoral politics as one tool of many to build political and organizational power, but it is not the end goal to win elections. As the members of the ecosocialist group Climate Vanguard write, an ecosocialist vanguard's goals should be threefold. First, to connect and unite the vast array of liberatory struggles for oppressed and working people into a people's bloc. Acting as a compass, the party should help hone the power of all of these disparate movements into a spear to pierce the vale of capitalism. Again,
Climate Vanguard writes, "while capitalism and imperialism gives rise to resistance, it does not unify them into a coherent front. This is the job of the eco-socialist party. It overcomes atomisation by forging an 'organised collectivity,' or a people's bloc, of social movements and communities that is united in the common objective to build eco-socialism." The second purpose of an ecosocialist vanguard party is direction. To truly topple capitalism, to end ecological destruction, to fight racism, homophobia, ableism, misogyny, imperialism, and to build a just and equitable world, we all need to be working towards a similar direction. The goal of the vanguard party should be to
coordinate and connect the power of movements. Instead of pulling in two separate directions, we are all augmenting each other's power. This requires seeing the black lives matter uprisings, the struggle for climate action, and the fight for Palestinian liberation among many others as all part of one struggle. An ecosocialist party's task is to help hammer that reality home. And finally, the third is endurance. This crucial. To successfully challenge the terrors of capitalism, we need a movement and organizational structure that continues operating through the booms of the 2019 mass environmental protests and the 2020 uprisings,
and the subsequent busts as they lose momentum. A vanguard party would function to capture that momentum and energy of these waves of action and provide already-in-action structures that drive us closer to upending capitalism. Already around the world, socialist vanguard parties are trying to do all of this, like the Worker's Party of Belgium, the communist party in the Philippines, or the communist territories in India. Or in the U.S., where members of the Marxist Unity caucus in the Democratic Socialists of America are trying to steer the organization towards a more revolutionary agenda. None of these groups are by any means perfect, but they are a launching point for the struggle against capitalism.
And we need this organizational and structural capacity not just to build power, but because if we don't, the forces of fossil capitalism will surely crush or subsume us. The capitalist class, especially the fossil capitalist class, will fight tooth and nail to prevent any change to business as usual. As evidenced by the militancy of police and private mercenaries protecting pipelines, and the growing violence of the far right and fossil fascism. But what happens if an ecosocialist vanguard party is actually successful in capturing power? What happens next? One vision could be a platform of planned ecosocialist degrowth. One
that continues to steal power away from individual capitalists and hands it to the masses. One that heals the alienation we all feel deep within our bones with nature and each other. One that seeks to end consumption and brings us some semblance of a good life on a thriving planet. It starts with the expansion and decommodification of universal basic services. That means free and accessible health care, education, housing, public transit, energy, water, parks, gyms, and yes, even beautifully grown food. This necessitates democratically decided planning
on a large scale. We must transform production to create goods that are actually useful and needed, rather than just make profits for a select few. In addition, we must dramatically downscale spending on violence, both against people and the land, this means banning fossil fuel use, ending imperialist wars, cutting military spending, and abolishing police and prisons. This might sound radical, but at its core this is an agenda of care. Prioritizing and planning for the needs of the people and our environments, rather than the pocketbooks of capitalists.
Because the goal is to build a world based not on profits, but instead on the true needs of all people and the planet. A world that we see in the visions of solarpunk. A world where we can enjoy a beautiful, harmonious relationship with the natural world and the people around us. Where we don't need hundreds of Amazon packages or useless kitchen appliances, because our true needs are satisfied, we know that we will be comfortable, and we no longer feel alienated from the communities and environments around us. As we draw reach the middle of the year, I have an ask. For almost nine years, I've been making
Our Changing Climate videos all by myself, seeking to educate and ask questions about the root causes and solutions to the climate and environmental crisis. My videos will always be free to watch, but recently, my revenue has slipped because of a combination of demonetization, lower sponsor rates, and a declining number of Patreon supporters. So I'm turning to you, the wonderful people who watch my videos month in and month out. If you have the means, please consider supporting the channel on Patreon using the link in the description. My goal is to double my supporters by the end of the year, and with your help, I think we can do that. Just
pledging a dollar or two a month is huge for the channel. And when you become a patreon supporter, you get access to so much! Like over 20 bonus and extended OCC videos ad-free, like this guided meditation for climate anxiety, or this one envisioning an ecosocialist city of the future. You also get access to an archive of raw, uncut interviews like this one with the authors of Half-Earth Socialism. But that's just the start! When you support OCC on Patreon, you get to join the patreon-only discord, which has a wonderful climate memes channel,
and get to watch all of my videos a month before they release without any ads! But if you aren't able to become a channel patron, please don't worry, just by watching this video to the end, you've done your part. Thank you, and thank you so much to those who already support me on Patreon, you're the reason I'm able to make videos like this. Thanks again, and I'll see you next month.
