Every year Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” rings out across shopping malls. The accompanying music video, like so many other pop songs, plays on the charmed winter wonderland setting. The Christmas fairy-tale of Santa Claus flying in his sleigh from Lapland is all part of the same snowy dream which is behind so much of Christmas marketing and sales.
Taylor Swift is the latest pop star to release a Christmas single evoking the winter wonderland. The song entitled “Christmas Tree Farm” is made up of idyllic clips of Swift and her brother as little kids playing in the snow. But that enchanted winter scenery is becoming an ever more distant dream as the planet continues to heat up.
Global warming has already melted large parts of the Arctic sea ice, and snow is becoming much less common in mountain ranges like the Rockies. This not only affects the winter leisure sector of ski-ing and snowboarding, but also the wildlife and people that depend on it. Large areas of Northern California and the Mountain West depend on the snow for their supplies of drinking water which since 1982 has seen a 41 percent decline in the annual mass of snow, while Himalayan wildlife and people are facing a similar predicament.
The Arctic is even worse affected. Polar Bears are at the front line of this human caused tragedy. Each year their plight gets a bit worse as it becomes more and more difficult for them to hunt seals in the way they always used to. BBC’s Planet Earth documented incredible footage of a thin polar bear that swam miles to an island to try and hunt a walrus, while Seven Worlds, One Planet showed a group of polar bears trying to hunt beluga whales – something never seen before.
All the while the Christmas marketing machine spins the wheels of consumerism in every possible Christmas or snow themed product. While all sales are part of the carbon story, illuminated polar bears as Christmas decorations are a sad paradox: the plastic, energy hungry fake counterpart is burning the energy that is melting the real bears’ home. But even more jarring are wealthy pop stars selling the White Christmas dream when they are part of a tiny minority who among the biggest contributors to the CO2 in the atmosphere.
Taylor Swift and Mariah Carey are part of an elite who own private jets. They also own multiple homes, and are keen shoppers – Mariah has a lavish walk-in wardrobe which she is proud to show off, and when Swift paid a visit to Stella McCartney’s shop earlier this month she emerged laden with bags. They are not the only ones of course, but it does feel particularly jarring in climate emergency to see this kind of carbon intensive luxury while using the enchanted snow-covered landscapes to sell their music.
Private luxury is clearly not sustainable if we are to limit warming. While the average worldwide carbon footprint stands at around 4.5 tonnes a year, the average citizen of Australia, the USA and the Gulf States produce 3-4 times that amount annually – while India stands at less than 2. The IPCC (International Policy for Climate Change) suggests that we will need to halve the global average per capita if we are to limit warming. That means aiming for a maximum personal carbon budget of around 2.3. When you consider that Meghan and Harry’s return trip to Nice used up 9.5 tonnes of carbon in one go, it’s easy to see why environmental campaigners are talking about climate justice and an end to private luxury. Some people are taking way more than their fair share and it’s impacting the entire planet.
That’s not to say that it’s only the rich and famous that are responsible – but there is a clear correlation between wealth and carbon footprints. We all love the snow – and more important than that is it’s role as part of the natural world. Those conspicuously consuming have a moral duty to stop their excessive carbon overshoot. Leonardo Di Caprio has given up his private jet. Who will be next?
