Personal carbon data surveillance tied to social credit is coming, but it must start with elites

One of the big conspiracy theories circulating right now is that managerial elites crafting climate policies out of Davos are going to institute a new financial system that ties citizen autonomy to carbon thresholds.

This will be achieved, the theorists presume, by the introduction of Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) that is linked to a social credit score generated from AI surveillance of consumers’ energy bills, credit card statements, and even their posts on social networks.

The fact that governments, NGOs, and central bankers are now openly touting a digital currency system that was, only a few years ago, just the musing of a few talking heads at Davos only adds fuel to the theory. Notably this April at the World Economic Forum gathering, IMF Deputy Managing Director Bo Li acknowledged the imminent connection of social credit scores to CBDC allowances for consumers based on the success of the Chinese state system.

I don’t blame them.

Given the total disconnect between consumption habits of the average European and North American and the state of the biosphere — mass extinction, polar melts, oceanic pollution, deforestation — I am actually all for the introduction of a carbon tracking program to help bring our human family into line with the limits of our planetary ecosystem.

But it needs to start with the financial elites, celebrities, and politicians who are advocating for these systems.

That’s right. If Leonardo DiCaprio, Nancy Pelosi, Anderson Cooper, or Klaus Schwab want to have any public-facing role in guiding behavior change for the general population — let alone mandating top-down data mining systems that will restrict peoples’ travel, home energy consumption, or access to financial resources — they should have to commit all of their own personal data to the surveillance model and have it placed on a public dashboard so that we know our climate leaders are walking their talk.

If not, they are actually doing more damage to the climate movement than good.

This was the subject of a thesis written by one of our Stanford interns at dashboard.earth, a climate start-up I cofounded with its CEO Gayatri Roshan.

In the paper, our intern (who will remain anonymous) argued that celebrity activists like DiCaprio and Al Gore were actually harming the message of aligning personal consumption with planetary thresholds because they were so flagrantly and publicly in breach of them, themselves.

And she is right.

Nothing gives critics of the climate narrative more fuel (while simultaneously deflating the idealism of young true believers) than the fleets of private jets and convoys of SUVs that ferry leaders to Davos and COP each year. Only to have the chariotted leaders sit on elevated stages proclaiming the need for limits on everything from meat consumption to farm fertilizer to how many times people should wash their clothes per week.

Even more insidious are the hi-life yachty snaps that fill social feeds from stars like DiCaprio who position themselves as climate advocates and star in otherwise noble creative projects like Don’t Look Up. And I love Leo. He is, in my opinion, one of the best film actors of his generation. I have zero problem with him living the life he has earned, if that is how he wants to do it.

But he simply should not be anywhere near a camera or microphone talking about what people need to do to regenerate the biosphere.

The same goes for Klaus Schwab, Jeff Bezos, or Elon Musk. And frankly, the thousands of other hi-net worth people who are out there masquerading as climate-sentients while blowing more carbon in a month than entire city blocks in Lagos or Bangalore.

Again, I understand very well the work and sacrifice it takes to amass great fortunes. Everyone is at different stages of their soul journey, so if that’s where they’re at, they should enjoy their riches. But many of us in the bleacher seats have heard the call for humanity to start shifting its needs toward a more equitable balance with the ecosystem.

And we know it starts with us.

The reality is that we now have the systems in place for any individual, family, or company to plug their personal financial and behavioral data into algorithms to learn exactly how many ‘Earths’ it takes for them to enjoy the life they live. This can be an extremely eye-opening experience, and one that should help people to alter their habits much like the Prius-effect in which drivers respond to real time feedback on gasoline consumption.

But these self-monitoring systems have been around for a while. And mostly ignored by the great unwashed, who as I heard one legendary climate leader say, are so disconnected from the urban systems that support them that they don’t even know where their shit goes after they flush the toilet.

So elites are now taking matters into their own hands. Digital fiat currencies are being drafted that will eventually replace paper money. And that is one step away from a system which allocates spending autonomy based on prescribed limits that will be issued from a top-down system governed by elites who will, if history serves as any indicator, not want those applied to their own lavish lifestyles.

There is already talk of a carbon “allowance” in which the working poor (who are actually the most climate-aligned members of our society) can sell their credits to the rich so they can keep on keeping on.

I’ll say it again: we may very well need to institute a period of rigid governance of personal travel and consumption behavior to get us on track toward a sustainable future. But if that is going to happen then its architects and advocates are going to have to go first. And if not, then they need to clear out of the frame and allow a new generation of actual, self-realized climate leaders to step into view. Ones who will have no problem volunteering to live in full transparency so that they can both lead by example, and teach others how to live a 1–1 existence.

Otherwise, history also tells a story about what happens to luxury-loving elites who forceably impose vastly disproportionate social and economic restrictions on the people. Which is another plank of the conspiracy theory: that elites can see the future and want to build a digital stockade to stave off the slave rebellion.

It may be too late.

There was a rumor last year that Greta Thunberg had begun corresponding with the Unabomber.

[Full transparency: In 2018, my partner and our two toddlers actually transitioned to 1–1 carbon lifestyle — meaning we were at par with the suggested allowance — for four years, living in a 1000 square-foot bungalow with one hybrid car (and lots of bikes) and one flight per year. Admittedly it was a bit of a trial. We ended up separating just before COVID — whether that was because of the close-quarters or other reasons is a valid question — but it was a profound and transformative experience. One that verifiably altered my intrinsic and even biological relationship to the planet and its needs.].