Task 6 : The Story of Cap & Trade

 

The Story of Cap and Trade


Industrial designers play a critical role in the climate change problem and solution. We are the ones that
design the products that our clients - the economists – wants whose only concern is about the profits
earned and not much so for environment or the people. For instance when the client request for a
product variation of the old existing one or a product extension for their company's product line, we as
industrial designers will just obey them and fulfill their request. This is because we are doing this as a
profession and a job that pays our bills and support ourselves and families like every other normal
human beings in the modern world. Thus, we are required to design to satisfy our client's wishes even
of it harms the environment or the people. Money rules the modern world and everything around cost
us costs money, there is not much we can do about it.

However, I feel that this ideology should change we as industrial designers are the agents of change. As
Annie Leonard asserts in the documentary, she said that “ the factories that makes all of our stuffs, the
ships and trucks that carries it all around the world, our cars and buildings and appliances and just
about everything” contributes to climate change, we have power to change for the better. Most of the
climate change problems derive the product production process and industrial designers are involved
heavily in that process. Thus, I believed that we should reflect on our past mistakes and repent for them
by making significant contribution towards a sustainable ecological economy.

Firstly, industrial designers should contemplate about the ecological problems in our design process
and alter them to be more sustainable. Annie Leonard explains that “since we are in the richest
countries that releases the most carbon for centuries and lived a pretty comfortable lifestyle in the
process, don't we have a responsibly to help those who are most harmed ?” To acknowledge one's
mistakes and to recognize its impact are steps for change. We can begin by rethinking every design
decision that we make in the design process and to reconsider its environmental implications. For
example, we can start by reducing the number of parts in a product to reduce waste or change the
material and manufacturing process to another that is more ecological. Next, industrial designers can
help to influence our clients' mindset in our discussion with them and ask them to reevaluate the
environmental consequences in their businesses and its short term benefits, and enlighten them on the
long term benefits of an ecological approach. Annie Leonard states that it is better to “talk to them (as)
they probably want a future that is safe from climate change too.” As industrial designers, we are
consultants hired by our clients and it is our responsibly and job to educate them in the overall situation
that their businesses will create.

As industrial designers who design products in our daily lives, we are the culprits in the evil scam that
the economists have created for profits. Thus, I feel that it is time for us to reflect and repent our sins to
the environment and change our ideology and lifestyles to sustain our planet and to ensure the survival
of the human race. As Annie Leonard conclude in the documentary, “ it wouldn't be easy, but it is time
we dream bigger. It is time to design a climate change solution that will really work.”