It was a rainy July evening in Cape Town when I made my way to the launch of Clean Creatives, Fossil Free SA’s campaign to challenge greenwashing.
I’d taken an Uber to the event and on my way home, I summarised the evening to the driver as: A conversation on climate change in South Africa. The driver looked at me through his rear-view mirror, made a comment on global warming and an influx of tourists visiting Cape Town escaping the heat in Dubai.
Fast forward a month later and I joined Clean Creatives as a campaigner. I had some interest in climate change, thanks to Greta Thunberg and friends. I’d also met Clean Creatives campaign manager Jolynn Minnaar at the launch and remembered watching her 2014 film Unearthed, a documentary on fracking.
Closer to home, I’d recently spent lockdown in Zithulele in my home province Eastern Cape and closely followed the story in the Daily Dispatch and then Daily Maverick on Shell’s seismic blasting on the Wild Coast.
I needed to be a part of the solution to the climate crisis, so I joined Fossil Free SA to work on their Clean Creatives Campaign.
On Tuesday, I was invited to introduce Fossil Free SA’s Climate Reporting Guide at a SA National Editors Forum (Sanef) webinar on “Reporting on the social and economic impact of climate change in SA”.
The facilitator asked for my views on carbon tax in SA. I froze and told her I wasn’t well versed on South African carbon tax laws.
Embarrassed and confused, I made peace with the fact that it’s OK not to know everything, as most likely the majority of South Africans aren’t familiar with such topics: Do you know exactly what climate change is, and how dangerous it is? Do you know exactly what causes it? If so, you are part of a very small minority of South Africans, according to the Human Sciences Research Council.
Imagine a missile is headed for SA and this missile threatens to decimate maize crops, bring massive floods, droughts, wildfires and an increased burden of disease, in a world being hit by other such missiles.
Imagine the United Nations was telling us all the time about this missile, and who sent it, and how damaging it’s going to be — and that we just weren’t listening.
This is in fact our reality. The missile isn’t real — but the damage being done by climate change is probably worse than a missile, because it’s continuous, getting worse, and will never stop, unless we somehow stop our human habit of pumping global-warming carbon pollution into the atmosphere very soon.
We know exactly who has directed this missile at us — the fossil fuel industry that extracts and sells coal, gas and oil.
This industry continues to emit global warming gases even though they have known for over 40 years that doing so ran the risk of causing immense destruction.
A few fossil fuel companies have completely transformed themselves into renewable energy companies, demonstrating that this is possible, but most continue to base their business model on mass human sacrifice.
To build public understanding of this crisis, we need the media to report ever more on climate change, and integrate it everywhere because it is relevant, particularly energy reporting, but also our daily weather forecasts and alongside market indicators — because the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will shape our destinies far more than the rand-dollar exchange rate.
In South Africa and elsewhere, the fossil fuel industry excuses their pollution by claiming they want to create jobs and end poverty. But these are jobs based on the destruction of other jobs, and wealth built on creating mass poverty: the millions of Pakistanis facing starvation after climate change-accelerated flooding hit their country this month.
Globally, the current economic model is based on extraction and exploitation.
We need to first address this model if we want to see climate justice. There can’t be climate justice without social justice.
Each and every person employed by Sasol, for example, costs the world nearly R100m in present and future climate damage every year.
This is a scale of damage that obviously far outweighs the benefits of job creation.
Nobody who is worried about climate change wants anyone to lose their jobs — but we also don’t want climate breakdown to destroy the employment prospects of multiple future generations.
We need to simplify the jargon, make the climate crisis relatable to our daily lives and remember though the climate crisis is incredibly urgent, most South Africans are still experiencing more immediate problems than the all-too-slow implementation of the Paris climate accord.
It will take collective effort and learning to prioritise climate change in our country.
As UN secretary-general António Guterres has said: “Half of humanity is in the danger zone, from floods, droughts, extreme storms and wildfires. No nation is immune. Yet we continue to feed our fossil fuel addiction. We have a choice. Collective action or collective suicide. It is in our hands.”
But there’s an opportunity hiding in the crisis. As Guterres again explains: “The solutions are clear. Inclusive and green economies, prosperity, cleaner air and better health are possible for all if we respond to this crisis with solidarity and courage.”
Fossil Free SA is working on the problem of disinformation from fossil fuel companies from multiple angles.
Our Clean Creatives programme aims to put a stop to the fossil fuel industry greenwashing that has led to both journalists and the public doubting the seriousness of climate change.
* Akona Gwiliza is a campaigner for the Clean Creatives SA programme of Fossil Free SA.
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