In the Netflix sitcom, “The Good Place” (fair warning: spoilers ahead), Michael, (a reformed demon), and a group of humans are trying to escape eternal damnation. Along the way they discover that the celestial moral accounting system is broken. Every action we perform here on earth has moral points attached to it. You gain points for good actions and lose points for bad actions. When you die the celestial accountants add up your points. If your total is high enough you get into the good place.
But, and here’s the twist, the system is broken! It used to work, but not anymore. No-one has got into the good place in the last 500 years. Not even the guy who lives alone in the woods eating only what he can grow himself. The problem, we find out, is that the world is so complex now that no action is consequence free. When you buy a tomato, the production process is so convoluted that you’re implicated in child labour – there is no moral choice you can make. There are too many unintended consequences. This is a good analogy for climate action.
It is impossible to live a carbon free life. If you try you will burn yourself out. Just as in the good place every action, no matter how well intended, generates negative points, in our world every action generates carbon. This is why it is ridiculous to criticise Extinction Rebellion protestors for going to McDonalds. We have to eat. McDonalds might not be the lowest carbon meal. But ultimately, in the world we live in, there is no sustainable meal. Where the analogy with The Good Place falls down is at unintended consequences.
