As the Globe Heats Up, Will The Consumer Go Cold?

Sitting in candle light during Earth Hour on Saturday I wondered: What options do we have for maintaining our lifestyles once the Carbon Cops have taken control? I see two potential scenarios, one of which could dramatically change the way you do business and live your life:

1. The Silver Bullet – No Change. “Clean Coal” technology is the only ace in the’s hand. If it works (it has ‘uncertainty’ written all over it) we will be able to continue burning coal for 500 years. Apart from paying more for power, nothing much would change. Plasma screens for everyone. The party goes on.

2. The Consumer Goes Cold – Disaster for Everyone. This scenario sees a major shift in consumer sentiment and a permanent change in habits. Fear and danger tighten purses. Products are no longer expected to be disposable. Instead of boasting about her new outfit, the young female consumer revels in recycled clothes and a more or less stable wardrobe. The skyrocketing price of energy robs consumers of spending power.

Can our culture of consumption change 180° in 25 years? Australians as a nation have encountered such a shift only once: World War 2*. Rationing, blackouts, empty shelves in shops... But there was no argument about the cause of the threat and the cure, and there was no consumer society. People in 1939 were not engaged in a feeding frenzy of historic proportions. No, society is likely to get gradually more restrictive with technology running to catch up.

This assumes, of course, that Cyclone Katrina’s angry cousin Katie doesn’t slam in through Sydney Heads, that the crops don’t fail and cause famine in China and that floods don’t cause Indonesia to disintegrate, sending the single largest movement of human beings in history fleeing south to our shores, as a flotilla of Tampas arrive looking for clean water and dry land. (The Pentagon, the Australian Defence Force, the Australian Federal Police, Professor Ross Garnaut, top brass in the US Military, and Senator Bill Heffernan have all raised this as a serious scenario in recent times.

The media doesn’t feature these scary thoughts. If consumers panic, they stop spending. Then marketers stop spending on advertising in the media.

We have time to change this scenario.

* While the Depression saw 30% unemployed, the wealthy and those who kept their jobs were better off because prices fell faster than wages.