SVT Profile's Climate Attack on White Men: Block Credit Cards

Up until 2024, she traveled around the world without flight shame in her role as SVT’s climate correspondent. That same year, she moved to Dagens industri to write columns. Then as now, white men appear to be a particular group that Erika Bjerström is especially disturbed by and attacks.

In a segment on SVT Aktuellt in 2023, then-SVT climate correspondent Erika Bjerström tracked down a white man to interview, only to simultaneously complain about his skin color, gender, and age. The interview sparked strong criticism among viewers.

– What right do you, as a white, middle-aged man in the UK, have to give advice to women in the Global South about their fertility, was the question Bjerström posed to a somewhat taken aback Robin Maynard, campaign director for the organization Population Matters, which advocates for smaller families in the West and more aid funding for family planning in poorer countries.

READ ALSO: SVT on Erika Bjerström’s climate attack on white men: “Relevant”

After SVT, Bjerström moved on to Dagens industri, and once again, white men are in focus in her latest column, published on Monday. The text argues that white men have a more negative impact on the climate than women and that their travel habits and higher meat consumption are bad for the planet. As if that weren’t bad enough, a majority of men also vote for the right and don’t care about the so-called climate crisis.

How is it that men and women vote so differently, Bjerström wonders.

What is the reason for this? One answer is that women traditionally take responsibility for others, for care, welfare, and human relationships. To this can now be added the responsibility for future generations and the survival of the planet. Men have historically considered themselves to be above both nature and women. It is also overwhelmingly men who both own and run heavy, fossil-fuel-dependent industries such as mining, agriculture, steel production, and the military complex.

Furthermore, it is stated that we live in a time “when denial of facts makes it increasingly difficult to agree on what is true”.

The great fear – man, middle-aged, and right-wing. Photo: Sweden Democrats

Carbon Credits for Men

The solution, she suggests, is to attack “what perhaps speaks most deeply to wealthy white men – the wallet” with individual carbon allowances linked to credit cards, but she seems to have completely forgotten about her own trips around the world during her time at SVT.

When the meat-eating man is about to jump on the next plane to Barcelona for a weekend trip (again), the card lights up red with the text “transaction denied.” He then has to buy carbon credits from someone who hasn’t used up their quota, probably a female nurse who hasn’t been able to afford a vacation abroad for years. That might bring about a change in behavior.