Juno News - May 24, 2022


The WEF wants you to reduce your carbon footprint


Episode Stats

Length

2 minutes

Words per Minute

203.32806

Word Count

558

Sentence Count

28


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey, this is Andrew Lawton coming to you from Davos on the promenade at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting.
00:00:06.060 As you can see, a bit more of a gloomy, grayer day today, not like the sunny weather we've been having in what one protester called a few days ago,
00:00:13.740 and I've mentioned a few times since, a corporate Disneyland.
00:00:17.000 One of the big questions, and this was one that people were asking me before I even got here to Davos,
00:00:21.120 is how do all of these wealthy elites justify flying here on their private jets, getting into their limos,
00:00:26.740 and then lecturing us all about climate change?
00:00:30.000 You may have seen a video clip I took just on a whim a couple of days ago of all the limos backed up for hundreds and hundreds of meters
00:00:36.740 as all the VIPs in their private cars tried to get in to Davos.
00:00:41.240 Well, the private jets are, again, no exception to the rule here in what's happening,
00:00:44.880 and then we continue on and have the fundamental question of what is it they actually want.
00:00:50.360 Well, this morning, the president of Alibaba Group, J. Michael Evans,
00:00:53.700 pitched one idea that he's really excited about debuting in the coming years.
00:00:58.280 We're developing through technology an ability for consumers to measure their own carbon footprint.
00:01:06.020 What does that mean?
00:01:07.460 That's where are they traveling?
00:01:09.660 How are they traveling?
00:01:11.040 What are they eating?
00:01:12.520 What are they consuming on the platform?
00:01:14.760 So individual carbon footprint tracker.
00:01:18.800 Stay tuned.
00:01:19.620 We don't have it operational yet, but this is something that we're working on.
00:01:22.880 Ah, so right there we have it.
00:01:25.520 An app that you can use that will track your carbon footprint, where you travel, how you travel, what you eat, what you buy.
00:01:32.840 But again, this is just for eco-conscious consumers, he's saying.
00:01:35.500 This is for people that want to do it.
00:01:36.980 Well, sure, maybe there are a few people that want to do that, but we're talking about Alibaba,
00:01:41.160 a company with very deep ties to the Chinese regime, a social credit state.
00:01:46.800 Social credit, not just being a government program, but something that also influences what is the so-called private sector there.
00:01:53.660 So do we really trust that data in the hands of a company like Alibaba or anyone?
00:01:59.420 But that's the whole thing.
00:02:00.460 These people are talking about it as though you and I are the problem.
00:02:03.320 I've never been on a private jet in my life, so my carbon footprint isn't near what it is for the Davos elite.
00:02:08.800 I ran into earlier the World Economic Forum's head of climate, a fellow Canadian, and I wanted to ask her about this.
00:02:15.580 I'm just wondering what the climate, what the global emissions are for this conference.
00:02:19.120 Like, does the WEF tell people to not take private jets here?
00:02:22.180 I'm sorry, guys. I'm on fire.
00:02:24.240 Well, it was a very short clip.
00:02:26.020 As you can see there, she didn't really want to answer the questions.
00:02:28.500 She said she didn't have time, but it was yes or no.
00:02:30.940 Does the WEF tell its attendees not to travel here by private jet?
00:02:34.980 That seems like, at the very minimum, at the very minimum, if nothing else, something Davos attendees could agree to do without.
00:02:42.580 From Davos, for True North, I'm Andrew Lawton.