Hervé Kempf and Juan Méndez reflect on the causes of climate catastrophe in a comic.

Many of us believe the scientific data that makes it clear that the planet is depleting, that climate change is merely a symptom of the limits of resource exploitation. There is evidence, speeches are made, measures are approved, but then things continue as they are, and there is less and less room for error. Without going any further, a recent study by the Polytechnic University of Zurich has established that the contribution of the richest 1% of the planet to global warming is up to 26 times greater than that of the rest of the world's population. For French environmental journalist Hervé Kempf (Amiens, 1957), a large part of the responsibility lies with the super-rich, as he explains in the comic "How the Rich Plunder the Planet (and How to Prevent It)" (Garbuix Books, in Spanish and Catalan), drawn by Belgian illustrator Juan Méndez.

Kempf published the essay "How the Rich Destroy the Planet" (FCE, 2008 / Clave Intelectual, 2011) a few years ago in the hope of contributing to change, and he is convinced that this was partly the case, given that a few years later Greta Thunberg's climate strikes followed, and mass demonstrations spread. "I saw a lot of young people at these protests, and I think they needed a political explanation for what happened. Comics are a good way to convey ideas to the general public, and Méndez and I have formed a very good team," explains Kempf.

We must change the cultural model of what is prestigious to ensure that less consumption occurs.

“We have a problem with the super-rich. The inequality between the wealth and income of the upper class and the middle class in countries like Spain, France, Germany, and the United States is greater than ever. The super-rich consume a lot, but they also create a cultural model of overconsumption that influences the entire society, and on top of that, they reject all real ecological policies. We need to change the cultural model of what is prestigious, of what is pleasant to live, otherwise it won't be possible for middle-class people to change and travel less by plane, eat less meat, ride bicycles or drive small cars, etc.,” he asserts. According to the author, “the rich keep money that comes from the wealth of society, and we have to recover it to use it for the very poor, to develop new agriculture to combat drought, to create new transportation systems, to create jobs in cities and drought-adapted housing, for example.”

In the comic, the author and illustrator portray themselves investigating the causes of the current situation, with a historical perspective, and bases the argument on a theorem of economist Thorstein Veblen based on the potlatch, a ritual practice of indigenous peoples of North America: "We all compete with each other through the prestige we gain by imitating people of the upper class, who also compete by imitating those who are superior, at the very top." The super-rich, many of whom are what Kempf calls "the techno oligarchy," want to maintain their privileges: "We are ruled by crazy people, even if they are smart. Trump is smart, Musk is smart, but at the same time they are crazy."

One solution is to degrowth: “Economic growth is not the solution; it has become the problem. Our global system is flawed because it doesn't take into account climate change, ocean pollution, the plastic waste accumulating everywhere, including in our own bodies, the extinction of many animals... We are children of a global ecological situation that may be good now, but in a few years, it will create problems. When we think we're gaining new wealth, we're actually impoverishing the overall biosphere we need to live normally.”