Green growth is a myth, over-consumption is a root cause of climate crisis

We can't buy our way out of a climate crisis. Quite the opposite. The only way we can possibly make a difference to the environment is to stop buying things.

Whilst there are exceptions, any solution to the climate crisis which requires you to buy something which has been manufactured is unlikely to be a good solution. Even the ones which you think must surely be good for the environment.

Take an electric car. The manufacturing costs, in emissions and pollution, are such a huge part of the equation that, unless you undertake stratospherically high mileage, the environmental payback is measured in decades. In many cases, that EV might never actually result in a overall reduction in emissions. Doing less is the right answer here. Keep your existing car and drive it as little as possible - cut out unnecessary journeys, use alternate travel methods for those you have to take and when it is no longer serviceable give up car ownership entirely. Less is more.

Realistically though, the problem spreads further than this. Governments and enterprise have to push the green growth message because the idea that the world can be a better place with fewer products, less manufacturing and by individuals action goes against their reason for being.

Enterprise focuses on the bottom line, governments on GDP - neither is a good measure of the prosperity of society as a whole. Indeed, it could be argued that both are really metrics to show how quickly global wealth is being concentrated in the hands of the few, at the expense of the many.

If we want to fix the environment we need to stop buying things for the sake of buying things - as status symbols, for the dopamine hit of having something new, for frivolous wants. Manufacturing is the singularly most damaging industry to our planet. It consumes resources, pollutes the air, poisons the water and drives inflation. We need to do less of it.

Asking manufacturers to shut off their production lines is going to be completely pointless though. Manufacturing is only a problem whilst over-consumption allows it to be. Whilst we continue to buy, things will continue to be manufactured. Only when we stop buying can we get off the hamster wheel and start to address climate issues.

Realistically, there can be no change until conspicuous consumers understand this. You cannot buy your way out of a climate crisis, only further into one.