BBC Fails Us

I traipsed through the Internet to the Green Room, a small sanctuary at
BBC.com where I sometimes find comfort in rational environmental
discussions. Not this week, however. Instead, an eager young man named
Matt Prescott wrote an article entitled, "Sex sells, but at what cost?"
The byline is, "Our fixation with status symbols and material wealth is
undermining our efforts to take climate change, argues Matt Prescott.
In this week's Green Room, he outlines how he thinks we can love
ourselves and the planet."

Ironic, because it seems as though
BBC was using the article's discussion of sex to attract more visitors
to the Green Room - more people have responded to Matt's Viewpoint than
I have seen respond to any of the previous articles posted there.
Perhaps that is unfair - but the article attempts to conjoin two themes
which have been riddled with misunderstanding since their beginning -
namely sex and climate change. Here are some of the more simple minded
quotes:


Matt Prescott, on why today's society seems unable to conquer their long time foes, global poverty and climate change:

"In
early human societies, people were able to compete in non-lethal ways,
by collecting beautiful objects such as feathers, unusual pebbles or
animal skins." However, today, he goes on to say, "modern technologies
have given us a far greater capacity to alter and to degrade our
environment."

He calls this effect: Unnatural Selection. Darwin may be rolling over in his grave.

Additionally - that sentence is enough to send me into hysterical laughter. I can just imagine cavemen puzzling for hours over beachy sand, trying to find that one, "unusual pebble" which may win the heart of fair maiden. Jeez.


Matt Prescott, continuing his ill-fated analogy:

"In
my view, climate change is an unintended side-effect of many of the
ways in which we show off, such as driving over-sized cars, owning
holiday homes and buying the latest electronic gadgets. But where does
our obsession with showing off come from?
In the animal kingdom, the
massive size and impressive quality of a peacock's tail is used to
signal to females the size of handicap that a male can endure while
also meeting his basic needs. This is known as the handicap principle."

His underwhelming thesis is that our desire to outcompete each other
with carbon-intense technology is destroying the world. I have many
problems with this theory, but it is frankly not worth confronting in a
serious, academic way. So I will merely point out one, teeny, weeny
detail. Where are the women in all of this macho, carbon-wasting,
peacock tailing competition? Is one half (a little bit more) of the
human race actually not involved in climate change? Can we women pack
up our bags and go home, safe in our energy-efficient light bulbed
houses and plugged in sports cars. What on earth is this man talking
about, and how did he end up on BBC.com.