Bullshit Climate Jobs

I am not using the term “bullshit” for shock value.

I am referencing David Graeber’s Bullshit Jobs Theory where he asserts that “roughly two out of every five people are stuck in work that is bereft of purpose.” A lack of ‘purpose’ is not the same not having targets or goals. Graeber means that an increasing number of jobs have no purpose that is meaningful, creative, or productive in the context of delivering something of genuine use-value to society and humanity. He makes the case that not only is this a waste of resources, physical and emotional, but for many many people it is a path of deep unhappiness and lack of fulfilment.

The kind of work he refers to includes things like bureaucracy, legal work, sales and advertising, most admin, lobbying, public relations, middle management.

Sustainability is becoming increasingly full of bullshit work.

The first time this idea took root in my head was after last year’s COP: COP28, held in Dubai. According to official numbers there were 100,401 participants in attendance, the majority in-person (3,074 were online). The parties participating in the negotiations numbered 195.

At the first COP, in 1995, there were 170 parties at the negotiating table. So just a little less than today. The total number of participants at the time: 3,969.

This is a 2430% increase. The only other comparable increase in a similar timeframe is the global use of fossil fuels and annual CO2 emissions.

I’m sure the irony doesn’t escape you.

So what were all those people doing at COP if not reducing emissions and fossil fuel use? Well it turns out most of them are doing bullshit jobs. They were lobbying, hustling for clients, live blogging, selling something at a booth, scouting for startups to invest in, networking, handing out promotional material for the sponsors, and of course, a very large number doing admin. Again according to official numbers a full 16,345 were there doing admin. Admin.

Bullshit climate jobs.

Anecdotally I note similar trends with other major events around Europe like Innovation Zero in London (boasting 10,000+ delegates and 250+ exhibitors), the Green Tech Festival in Berlin (14,000+ delegates and 200+ exhibitors), and a raft of other similar mega-events across the globe.

None of these events publish an impact report.

I don’t mean a carbon footprint report. I can imagine that any report on the carbon footprint of an event drawing 10k+ participants to a major city is going to look pretty horrific. But they don’t even offset that with an attempt at saving face by trying to calculate a downstream positive impact of how these events are ‘saving the world’. If I had to guess I’d say that’s because it’s impossible.

And so another irony: an industry that lives by the mantra of “you can only improve what you measure” is relying on unmeasurable and unquantifiable events. (Except in the loosest sense of saying “more people attending must mean more climate action” which is of course an unsubstantiated claim.)

So what’s happening?

Even in Graeber’s original short essay, published in 2013, he wondered why this happened. It seems to go counter to the capitalist approach of shedding unnecessary work:

It’s as if someone were out there making up pointless jobs just for the sake of keeping us all working. And here, precisely, lies the mystery. In capitalism, this is precisely what is not supposed to happen...

The ruling class has figured out that a happy and productive population with free time on their hands is a mortal danger.

This so far is the best explanation I have found for why so many bad actors sponsor such events. Major expos like the ones mentioned above as well as the various COPs have been sponsored by a who’s who of fossil fuel giants, banks who fund them, and other multinational consumerist companies like Coca-Cola.

This goes beyond just greenwashing.

This is a deliberate and co-ordinated attempt at keeping us busy. The ruling class does not benefit when the treadmill stops and you get a chance to look around.

Graeber’s solution was to scrap bullshit jobs and give people a Universal Basic Income. Interestingly a solution also proposed independently by post-growth ideologies.

Increasingly it seems that the solutions that prioritise (genuine) human wellbeing also work to reduce environmental harm and encourage regeneration of soils and minds.

Beware bullshit jobs.

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash