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Frame from Why your 'Carbon Footprint' Is A Lie | Climate Town Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

Why your 'Carbon Footprint' Is A Lie | Climate Town

9 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
1 HN user recommended this commentary1 month2022–2026 score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Cited in discussions of carbon footprints and corporate greenwashing, for the claim that the concept came from BP marketing.

Climate Town argues that the personal carbon footprint idea shifts blame to individuals and traces it to oil company marketing, urging collective and political action.

“The Climate Town channel on Youtube has lots of video's on this” (HN, 2026)

1 recommendations · 3 citations · Commentary

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@Maarten88 Mar 2026 Recommends
on HN thread Judge finalizes order for Greenpeace to pay $345M in ND oil pipeline case
You know the carbon footprint concept was literally created by BP marketing, to place the blame for climate change on society, and distract from all the evil stuff they did to promote more fossil fuel consumption and sabotage climate science. The Climate Town channel on Youtube has lots of video's on this, such as this one: [this video]
Climate Town on BP marketing origin of the carbon footprint

Citations, criticism and jokes

@kleer001 Apr 2022 Cites it
on HN thread Ask HN: Shouldn't we be turning an eye to power consumption?
> Maybe consider your carbon footprint when performing that next full code compile? Why "Carbon footprint" is a lie. [link] [this video] [link] That said being efficient is not a bad idea. There is a market for chips with less power consumption. A 250GB seasonal DL is kinda wasteful. But the solution to climate change (and it's not a crisis) is not atoning for our eco-sins. That's a misapplication of the JudeoChristian myth of sin/salvation.
Climate Town on why carbon footprints shift blame to individuals
@mptest Aug 2023 Cites it
on HN thread Gov. Newsom declares state of emergency for southern California
Read more
>Given all those rhetorical shaming of individuals to consume less, it's illuminating to actually look at the data and see what's the actual the effect even if you could literally force (instead of shaming) everyone to live that lifestyle. Yeah, almost like the entire notion of a "carbon footprint" was a piece of propaganda produced by a literal oil company[0] to move the blame of polluting the planet from the corporations that knowingly did it, to earnest and empathetic individuals like the original person I replied to, causing them to abstain from vacation (and more) for negligible benefit while the corporations continue to pollute with impunity. [0] [this video]
Origin of the carbon footprint idea in oil company marketing

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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