Spa Sybarite
Joshua Dawson

“The World health Organisation states that: ‘Although it is unequivocal that climate change affects human health, it remains challenging to accurately estimate the scale and impact of many climate-sensitive health risks. In the short- to medium-term, the health impacts of climate change will be determined mainly by the vulnerability of populations, their resilience to the current rate of climate change, and the extent and pace of adaptation.’

But what happens in the long term, when adapting to climate change becomes harder and our bodies can no longer withstand the growing hostility of the environment?

Capitalism functions as designed when powerful actors profit from human distress by offering market-based fixes to the very social problems it creates – focusing on adapting to the consequences of climate change rather than addressing its root causes.

With the wellness industry now being ‘one of the world’s fastest, most resilient markets,’ outranking the pharmaceutical industry several times over, it’s easy to see wellness, not healthcare, becoming the clear and present winners of the climate change business providing ‘coping with climate-anxiety’ an emerging market to capitalise off of. The International Finance Corporation posits out that the Climate Investment Opportunities will total $23 Trillion in Emerging Markets by 2030.

When you have a total addressable market of the entire planet, the climate crisis provides a perfect excuse to make every business a climate business. Climate spas are an example of a near-future venture that weaponises the declining health of the planet to profit from its impact on the body.”

Dawson has made three other short films with related themes: In Cáustico, it is the politics of water privatisation; in Loa’s Promise, the ecological and human impacts of unregulated resource extraction; and in Denervation, the threats posed by counterfeiting in an unscrupulous pharmaceutical industry. Concern with the environment and health underlie everything.