Let’s Face it!
The Avocado Dilemma
A Social Design project by Catalin Betz, Citlalí Gomez Escobar, Sophie Bösker, 2019
“Let’s Face” is facing the complex issue of Climate Change. Starting with the observation of the individual and expanding until the examination of the system, it becomes an exploration of the tension of the individual stuck in the systematic problems of climate change.
The project consists of two parts: a short movie that documents our observations and investigations and the establishment of a CO2 consulting company for climate sins and modern sales for indulgences.
Part 1:
Documentary short, 13 min.
Climate change is currently on everyone’s mind; nobody can escape the debate. CO2 taxes, electromobility and driving bans are dominating the short-term political media. Social change is necessary. How do we behave as individuals and where do we reach the limits of our scope for action? Does individual action have any effect at all?
The documentary short film "Let’s Face it! The Avocado Dilemma” deals with the question of the influence of the individual within a system that is designed for infinite economic growth and does not demand for social change in itself .
Living a conscious lifestyle is in fashion. But are we in truth clearing our guilty conscience through compensation and is the avocado dilemma forcing us into a kind of modern indulgence trade.
Let’s Face it – the Movie
Documentary short, 13 min.
Climate change is currently on everyone’s mind; nobody can escape the debate. CO2 taxes, electromobility and driving bans are dominating the short-term political media. Social change is necessary. How do we behave as individuals and where do we reach the limits of our scope for action? Does individual action have any effect at all?
The documentary short film "Let’s Face it! The Avocado Dilemma” deals with the question of the influence of the individual within a system that is designed for infinite economic growth and does not demand for social change in itself .
Living a conscious lifestyle is in fashion. But are we in truth clearing our guilty conscience through compensation and is the avocado dilemma forcing us into a kind of modern indulgence trade.
Part 2:
Co2 Consulting
Growth induced climate change threatens the survival of every species on earth. Politics is not yet acting efficiently and the global system is supporting climate change instead of fighting against it. Although all three of us are very concerned and engaged in the battle against climate change, we realized that we had something in common: a certain absurdity in our behaviour. Even if we were aware about the proper way of acting, we did not act accordingly. Instead of facing it, the individual tends to resolve the contradiction to reduce the discomfort.
«I’m separating my garbage, that's why I can afford to fly to Asia, even though I’m conscious about the bad impact.»
For that reason, we developed a code of guidelines based on compensations that shows the absurdity of human behavior regarding this global emergency. A consulting agency named “Co2 Consulting” was established that interacts with potential clients through Instagram.
Our objective was to reduce individual emissions to have zero effect on climate change. It is not realistic to stop all bad behavior, but there’s no need to give up everything. Just follow some easy rules as the following:
«If you go on a skiing trip and drive from Vienna to Puchberg am Schneeberg and back, you produce 30.2 kg of CO2. To compensate these emissions, you simply cannot heat your apartment in wintertime for 18 days.»
