669K views · Aug 12, 2020 · 9:54 · 1 HN recommender · 4 mentions · discussed 2022–2026
Climate Town argues that the personal carbon footprint idea shifts blame to individuals and traces it to oil company marketing, urging collective and political action.
Why Hacker News points people here: Cited in discussions of carbon footprints and corporate greenwashing, for the claim that the concept came from BP marketing.
“The Climate Town channel on Youtube has lots of video's on this”HN comment, 2026
“The Climate Town channel on Youtube has lots of video's on this”
Climate Town on BP marketing origin of the carbon footprint
You know the carbon footprint concept was literally created by BP marketing, to place the blame for climate change on society, and distract from all the evil stuff they did to promote more fossil fuel consumption and sabotage climate science. The Climate Town channel on Youtube has lots of video's on this, such as this one: this video
Climate Town on why carbon footprints shift blame to individuals
> Maybe consider your carbon footprint when performing that next full code compile? Why "Carbon footprint" is a lie. link this video link That said being efficient is not a bad idea. There is a market for chips with less power consumption. A 250GB seasonal DL is kinda wasteful. But the solution to climate change (and it's not a crisis) is not atoning for our eco-sins. That's a misapplication of the JudeoChristian myth of sin/salvation.
“Carbon footprints are a scam”
Climate Town argues the carbon footprint concept is a scam
Carbon footprints are a scam: this video Carbon offsets are a scam: link Hearing people talk about these give me the same vibes as techbros talking about stocks and crypto.
“was a piece of propaganda produced by a literal oil company[0]”
Origin of the carbon footprint idea in oil company marketing
>Given all those rhetorical shaming of individuals to consume less, it's illuminating to actually look at the data and see what's the actual the effect even if you could literally force (instead of shaming) everyone to live that lifestyle. Yeah, almost like the entire notion of a "carbon footprint" was a piece of propaganda produced by a literal oil company[0] to move the blame of polluting the planet from the corporations that knowingly did it, to earnest and empathetic individuals like the original person I replied to, causing them to abstain from vacation (and more) for negligible benefit while the corporations continue to pollute with impunity. [0] this video
