How to Model Climate Solutions
Bryony Worthington interviews actor, model and businesswoman Lily Cole.
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How does society decide what is valuable? This was the question my conversation with Lily Cole left me pondering. The gemstone industry is worth $55bn, growing at around 6% per annum. It’s based on the perceived value of natural formations of the earth. Cleaned and cut into geometric shapes, gems meet our needs either as articles of decoration or as industrial tools, thanks to their stable and highly durable qualities. Diamonds are forever as they say.
Geological forces applied to carbon atoms – a highly abundant element – create admirable structures but the results are far more commonplace than we are led to believe. According to the documentary ‘Nothing Lasts Forever,’ the industry maintains an illusion of scarcity through controlling the supply chain.
The market for useful uses of gems is relatively small compared to the market for adornments. And it’s here that the industry expends most effort to ensure we continue to attribute great value. The relative scarcity of naturally ‘radiant emeralds’ is what led one German company to build a nuclear reactor in the heart of the jungle on the Indonesian island of Java to convert regular gemstones into more attractive ones. I doubt their German customers would approve.
But rather than expensive tinkering with physics, the industry has mainly relied on supply controls and advertising to add value to their product. De Beers, the world’s largest gemstone company, uses marketing to equate the gift of a diamond with love. A norm has been established in western society: to prove you love someone, save up as much money as you can, and buy the most expensive gemstone.
Advertising is a powerful tool. We are all susceptible to it. Especially if it is based on powerful fundamental emotions. Our desire for love and our reverence for beauty are powerful, hard-wired emotions. There is, however, nothing fundamental that says these emotions should be triggered by small polished rocks dug out of the earth. That takes work.
In my conversation with Naomi Oreskes in episode 141, we spoke about the ‘merchants of doubt’ and her latest book the ‘The Big Myth’ which exposes how marketing tricks and propaganda were, and are, being used by a small cadre to oppose moves to value our environment more. Ensuring the protection of free markets has become the preeminent focus of society in many places. At the end of that conversation I mentioned a group of ex-commercial marketers I work with who are trying to reverse this and dubbed them the ‘merchants of love’.
Love, it turns out, is the underlying emotion that makes us all care about threats to the natural world and the future of humanity. Love for our families, our children, our homes and for the beauty of nature. What if instead of saving up money to buy diamonds we decided the real symbol of love is to act to preserve the safety of our planet and our species? Is it possible to cut through the noise of 21st century life to sow the seeds of a revolution in how we attribute value?
In my conversation with Lily, I posited that the hand decorated ostrich eggs, sold as jewellery by the San tribeswoman of Botswana, were likely rarer than diamonds. Compared to the stockpile of diamonds held by De Beers, they are undoubtedly rarer and more precious. Yet we do not value them as highly.
While ‘merchants of bling’ keep us misinformed about what’s truly rare, persuading us to hand over money for meaningless symbols, the ‘merchants of doubt’ use fear and division to block progress, pitting the safety of the planet against overblown fears about the cost of living or economic contraction. The fossil fuel industry spends billions on advertising – which as Solitaire Townsend pointed out in episode 150 is not to convince us of the merits of their product but rather to try to greenwash their brands and convince us that they continue to be essential.
If the merchants of love are successful we could throw off these lies and find new social norms that are based on our common humanity and desire to protect. I’m not sure how they will do it – ‘want to show the woman in your life you care? Install a heat pump,’ is not quite as catchy as ‘if you liked it, then you should have put a ring on it.. Though, that said, California based NGO Electrify has just released a heat pump funk and rap song
I’m switched on, sipping on electrons, Never gonna burn fuel, cos I prefer to keep the planet cool, All day all night I keep humming, keeping hydrocarbon quaking cos I’m a coming
If we want society to really value things correctly and to preserve the things we truly love, we need to use the tools that have worked so well to preserve the free market and the profits of large corporations.
Lily herself has experimented with advertising – appearing in an anti-Shell advert produced by the comedian Joe Lycett, and there’s also a deep fake Kardashian advert on her website you can enjoy. Lily has witnessed first-hand how society is shaped by the harnessing of desire, and she’s dedicated her talents to trying to upend the status quo in favour of a more sustainable future. I hope you enjoy the episode – and don’t forget to listen to her podcast ‘Who Cares Wins’.
To listen to the full interview with Lily Cole, visit cleaningup.live, search for Cleaning Up on your podcast platform of choice, or watch the video on YouTube.
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