tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/overconsumption-32882/articlesOverconsumption – The Conversation2023-06-21T20:15:18Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2069182023-06-21T20:15:18Z2023-06-21T20:15:18ZHow Indigenous cultural practices can improve waste management in communities<p>Improper <a href="https://iddpnql.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/211129_IDDPNQL_Compte-rendu-colloque_EN.pdf">municipal solid waste (MSW) management</a> ranks high among environmental issues First Nations communities in Canada face. </p>
<p>Many communities face historical, structural and operational challenges, such as inadequate capacity and lack of financial resources. Many also lack waste diversion programs including recycling. All these challenges hinder efforts of communities to improve MSW management practices, attitudes and behaviours.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, some communities <a href="https://www.sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1642696402052/1642696428568">continue to push for improved MSW management systems by developing plans and pursuing waste diversion programs</a> such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vG6LXGr8PY">composting and recycling</a>. </p>
<p>These approaches, however, have <a href="https://mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca/items/4a1c8c69-ac39-4a23-99f0-908ce32af26c">not incorporated nor considered the culture of First Nations</a> in the process of finding solutions to MSW challenges. First Nations’ way of life is embedded in their culture. This means that any MSW management approaches that seek to improve conditions in communities must incorporate their unique cultures. </p>
<p>These are issues that need attention and that community members are interested in discussing to find community-specific solutions. </p>
<h2>How does culture impact MSW management?</h2>
<p>I am a settler non-Indigenous researcher, who works with Indigenous communities in Canada on MSW management. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/11771801231163635">My latest research</a> conducted in collaboration with 52 community members from Peguis First Nation in Manitoba and Heiltsuk Nation in British Columbia outlines five cultural factors that influence community members’ municipal solid waste management practices:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Avoiding waste: Taking just what one needs and not wasting anything taken from the environment or land. For example, community members use all parts of a hunted animal.</p></li>
<li><p>Taking care of one another: Sharing items, particularly food, with others and not hoarding prevents waste.</p></li>
<li><p>Protecting the land: Eschewing contamination and pollution of the environment or land and keeping it clean.</p></li>
<li><p>Respecting the land: Adhering to protocols about mother earth because it sustains life. </p></li>
<li><p>Connection to the land: Experiencing and having knowledge of the environment and land. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>The overarching goal of these practices, community members explained, is to prevent the overconsumption of resources that underpins society’s <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Toxic-Capitalism-Consumerism-Waste-Generation/dp/1477219048">throwaway culture</a> and to protect the environment for future generations. These cultural practices challenge them to think differently about how to deal with their waste.</p>
<h2>Dealing with waste today</h2>
<p>Many Indigenous communities have developed <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Indigenous-Peoples-Twenty-First-Century-Frideres/dp/019903317X">intrinsic relationships with the environment</a> that have sustained them throughout generations. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://unitingthreefiresagainstviolence.org/the-7-grandfathers-teachin/">Seven Grandfather Teachings</a> — respect, love, honesty, truth, bravery, humility and wisdom — have particularly guided First Nations in their relationships with the land and with others — <a href="https://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/abedu/perspectives/concepts.html">living and non-living</a>. </p>
<p>However, applying these important teachings and the five cultural factors above to the management of municipal solid waste was not widespread in the two communities we worked with, because of increased MSW generation, according to community members.</p>
<p>Most of the community members we spoke with indicated that the application of cultural teachings, values and beliefs to managing MSW is extremely lacking. One member said, “When I see litter around in the street and waterways, I see a disconnect from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/11771801231163635">our culture</a>. This is because our culture is to look after the land and respect it and leave it as you met it.” </p>
<p>Another member revealed that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“A lot of people ignore our culture when it comes to waste management… However, if you are taught to protect the land, then you need to care more about recycling…The culture here has died compared to when I was a child, because everybody cleaned the environment, and you attended ceremonies to learn how things are done.”</p>
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<p>The legacy of <a href="https://gladue.usask.ca/sites/gladue1.usask.ca/files/2023-01/Indian%20Act%20Amendment_1884.pdf">bans on cultural gatherings</a> and assimilationist policies continue to have negative impacts on Indigenous communities to this day. </p>
<p>For example, by forcefully <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/indigenous-peoples-within-canada-9780199028481?lang=3n&cc=lk">relocating First Nations to isolated or remote</a> lands from their original territories, they depend on packaged products, which increases waste generation. Many communities that were also <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/61687944.pdf">nomadic and lived off the land became sedentary</a>, leaving them unprepared to manage the high volumes of waste they produced.</p>
<p>And, with infrastructure, programs and finances lacking, communities have not been able to properly manage MSW and its <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364174909_Environmental_Sustainability_Impacts_of_Solid_Waste_Management_Practices_in_the_Global_South">resultant negative environmental and health impacts</a>. </p>
<h2>Holding culture at the centre of policy</h2>
<p>Through this research, we have established that the culture of First Nations influences MSW management. However, applying cultural practices is not common among community members because of the impacts of colonization. Most community members indicated that their culture has significantly eroded and some aspects lost because of it. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-pollution-is-as-much-about-colonialism-as-chemicals-dont-call-me-resilient-transcript-ep-11-170697">Why pollution is as much about colonialism as chemicals — Don't Call Me Resilient transcript EP 11</a>
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<p>Revitalizing Indigenous cultures is vital to improving the management of MSW and ensuring environmental protection in communities. It is through this reconnection with their traditions and practices that First Nations can apply their culture to protect the environment.</p>
<p>As participants in our research unequivocally suggested: </p>
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<p>“People must be taught and be aware of the teachings… The teachings have to be the connection to the land, and that will make them think differently about things like waste management.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As Canada works towards reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, supporting <a href="https://fpcc.ca">cultural revitalization programs</a> and efforts should be a responsibility for all persons, institutions and organizations. </p>
<p>The federal government, through Indigenous Services Canada, as well as provincial and municipal governments should work with Indigenous communities and incorporate their cultures into MSW policies, plans and activities. This could help engender greater participation in programs by community members, because of the connection with their values and beliefs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206918/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anderson Assuah does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The overarching goal of Indigenous cultural practices is to prevent the overconsumption of resources that underpins society’s throwaway culture.Anderson Assuah, Assistant Professor, Aboriginal and Northern Studies, University College of the NorthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2050852023-05-10T15:43:02Z2023-05-10T15:43:02ZExcessive personal consumption has serious global consequences<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524646/original/file-20230505-29-4jr98o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3834%2C2155&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Image of the affluent residential neighbourhood of Dubai Marina in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/es/image-photo/panoramic-aerial-view-dubai-marina-residential-1571360341">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Climate change is a global problem. Its origin is less so, however, because we do not all contribute equally: the countries that suffer the most from the impacts of climate change are precisely those that are the least responsible.</p>
<p>The problem is not only that these countries – and also the poorest sectors within rich countries – cannot cope with these impacts. While 195 nations around the world have signed the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-paris-agreement-is-working-as-intended-but-weve-still-got-a-long-way-to-go-173478">Paris Agreement</a>, and while the United Nations, the IPCC and the European Union speak of a <a href="https://www.unep.org/facts-about-climate-emergency">climate emergency</a>, we cannot ignore the fact that those who accumulate the most wealth are also the main emitters of greenhouse gases.</p>
<p>There is an accepted euphemism for this situation: excessive personal consumption. And it is essential to address it.</p>
<h2>10% responsible for 50% of emissions</h2>
<p>The figures speak for themselves. A <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214629621003340">2021 study</a> found that rich people leave a disproportionately large carbon footprint, and that the share of global emissions for which they are responsible is increasing.</p>
<p>In 2010, the richest 10% of households emitted 34% of global carbon dioxide, while the bottom 50% of the world’s population accounted for only 15%. In 2015 the situation worsened: the richest 10% were responsible for 49% of emissions, while the poorest half of the world’s population produced 7%. It seems clear that reducing the carbon footprint of the richest could be the fastest way to get to <a href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/net-zero-coalition">net zero</a> – cutting greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible.</p>
<p>The problem is that tackling <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214629621003340">high consumption</a> is not at the top of the agenda of governments, nor of key policy-makers. This is bad news for the planet and for our hopes of one day reaching zero emissions. This is why Greenpeace and Oxfam put the issue of the <a href="https://www.greenpeace.fr/les-milliardaires-francais-font-flamber-la-planete-et-letat-regarde-ailleurs/">cars of the super rich</a> on the public electoral debate in 2022 in France.</p>
<p>Although <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-022-01075-w">wealthier households are more energy efficient</a>, they are also larger and have more space to heat and cool. In addition, <a href="https://shura.shu.ac.uk/31041/">those with more financial resources own and use more</a> energy-intensive luxury goods and accessories. It is much easier for wealthier consumers to absorb any cost increases without changing their behaviour.</p>
<p>Another example: in most countries, before the Covid-19 pandemic, half of the emissions from passenger aviation were related to the 1% of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421522004979">people who flew more often</a>.</p>
<p>Policy neglect of these large resource consumers is a “missed opportunity” to address inequality and carbon reduction opportunities.</p>
<h2>Inequality environmentally very costly</h2>
<p>It’s not just a question of ethics. Economic inequality is environmentally costly. <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32729-8">Joel Millward-Hopkins</a> has calculated that, in energy terms, it is twice the consumption of an equal society.</p>
<p>Ecological collapse and economic inequality are among the greatest contemporary challenges, and the two issues are completely intertwined and have been throughout the history of civilisations. Yet the world economy continues to move toward ecological crisis, and the energy costs of inequality are far more significant than those of population size. Even the most moderate levels of inequality that citizens consider acceptable increase the energy needed to provide a universally decent life by 40%.</p>
<p>At that degree of socially tolerated inequality, a super-rich global 1% consumes as much energy as would be needed to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32729-8">provide a decent life for 1.7 billion people</a>. Mitigating climate change quickly requires profound social changes that reduce economic inequalities.</p>
<h2>Climate tax for the mega-rich</h2>
<p>Efforts to cut carbon emissions often focus on the world’s poorest, addressing issues such as food and energy security, and the increased emissions potential from projected population, income and consumption growth.</p>
<p>However, more policies are needed to target those at the opposite end of the social scale: <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0402-3">the super-rich</a>.</p>
<p>Countries are moving in this direction, but given the thorniness of targeting the influential classes, progress is very slow. Spain’s Ministry of Ecological Transition is proposing to Brussels that people with assets of more than 100 million euros pay a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01297-6">“climate tax”</a> that would enable the country to cope <a href="https://elpais.com/clima-y-medio-ambiente/2023-02-01/espana-impulsara-el-debate-sobre-la-creacion-de-una-tasa-climatica-a-los-megarricos-aprovechando-su-presidencia-de-la-ue.html">better with climate change</a>.</p>
<p>If the mega-rich were to pay a climate tax of approximately 2% of their wealth, this would raise an estimated 300 billion globally against climate change. The measure has <a href="https://wid.world/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/CBV2023-ClimateInequalityReport-2.pdf">the backing of science</a> and is one of the aspects that Spain wants to consider during its forthcoming EU presidency.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the <a href="https://inequalitylab.world/en/">World Inequality Lab</a> is not content with just appealing to our sense of ethics. Based on scientific knowledge, it seeks to address the gravest challenge that has ever confronted humanity: climate change and the socio-economic model that has generated it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205085/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fernando Valladares no recibe salario, ni ejerce labores de consultoría, ni posee acciones, ni recibe financiación de ninguna compañía u organización que pueda obtener beneficio de este artículo, y ha declarado carecer de vínculos relevantes más allá del cargo académico citado.</span></em></p>The countries that accumulate the most wealth are also the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. Tackling overconsumption would make it possible to reach the desired goal of zero emissions sooner.Fernando Valladares, Profesor de Investigación en el Departamento de Biogeografía y Cambio Global, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN-CSIC)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1925032023-01-03T19:19:42Z2023-01-03T19:19:42ZAustralians pay $163 a month on average to store all the stuff we buy – how can we stop overconsuming?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/498394/original/file-20221201-20-mtf71p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C224%2C5875%2C3923&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many of us are drowning in “stuff”. To find space for all our possessions, we are paying off-site storage companies. Australians spend an average of A$163 per month on self-storage, one recent <a href="https://www.canstarblue.com.au/stores-services/self-storage/">survey</a> found.</p>
<p>The number one item stored in these facilities is furniture. Other items we cannot fit in our houses include appliances and electronics, hobby items, sports equipment, collectibles, memorabilia, books and photographs, cars and wine. </p>
<p>Around a quarter of customers <a href="https://www.canstarblue.com.au/stores-services/self-storage/">cannot remember</a> what is actually in their storage unit. Around 13% use them to hide their purchases from others.</p>
<p>The massive growth of the household storage industry is a sign of overconsumption. It’s a problem in many developed economies that’s doing increasing harm to the planet. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the Earth does not have an off-site storage option. Curbing our desire to consume has to be the solution.</p>
<h2>Costs are mounting for us and the planet</h2>
<p>Australians <a href="https://www.canstar.com.au/savings-accounts/average-aussie-earn-save-owe/">owe, on average</a>, about $3,800 in credit card debt and a further $17,700 in personal debt (excluding property debt, which averages $565,880). </p>
<p>This year Australian shoppers were expected to spend <a href="https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/pre-christmas-sales-forecast-to-reach-63-9-billion-up-3-on-last-year">$63.9 billion</a> in the six weeks before Christmas, about $2,458 per person.</p>
<p>We waste a lot of what we buy. For example, each year Australia wastes <a href="https://www.fial.com.au/building-capability/feasibility-study-launch">7.6 million tonnes of food</a>, with consumers accounting for half of this waste. The food we throw out is worth between $2,000 and $2,500 per household – or up to $1,000 per person.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-best-before-food-labelling-is-not-best-for-the-planet-or-your-budget-189686">Why 'best before' food labelling is not best for the planet or your budget</a>
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<p>That’s just the start of the wasteful spending – think of all those gym memberships, gift cards, clothes, appliances and furniture we’ve bought but don’t use.</p>
<p>In total, Australian households produce about <a href="https://www.thejunkmap.com.au/australian-waste-recycling-reuse-statistics/#:%7E:text=Australian%20waste%20statistics,Australia's%20waste%20goes%20to%20landfill.">12.4 million tonnes</a> of waste each year. That equates to roughly half a tonne per person.</p>
<p>We are not just spending beyond our personal means but also beyond what our planet can sustain.</p>
<p>Eventually, we will run out of places for all this waste to go.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/spending-too-much-money-tempted-by-sales-these-ways-to-hack-your-psychology-can-help-194821">Spending too much money? Tempted by sales? These ways to 'hack' your psychology can help</a>
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<h2>I’m not a hoarder, but …</h2>
<p>People who own lots of stuff, or who collect things, are not necessarily hoarders, but may struggle to part with personal and household possessions. The reason can in part be explained by Belk’s concept of the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2489522?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">extended self</a>. This is when possessions become part of our identity and signal to others who we are and, importantly, who we want to be. </p>
<p>This is certainly the case for those who collect things. Our collections become a part of us and our life story. It can be difficult to disentangle ourselves from these possessions.</p>
<p>Some things we own may have symbolic value because they remind us of special people, places and events, such as gifts from a friend or souvenirs from a holiday. Possessions that still have potential financial or utilitarian value can also be hard to give up.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-and-how-retailers-turn-everyday-items-into-must-have-collectables-101672">Why and how retailers turn everyday items into 'must-have' collectables</a>
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<h2>Why buy so much in the first place?</h2>
<p>Part of the problem is we are exposed to <a href="https://mumbrella.com.au/australians-watch-twice-as-many-ads-as-they-think-they-do-google-and-kantar-research-638697">thousands of advertisements</a> every day and a huge array of cheap products. The temptation to keep buying things can be too much for many people.</p>
<p>In their 2005 book <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Clive-Hamilton-and-Richard-Denniss-Affluenza-9781741146714">Affluenza</a>, Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss describe the Western world as being in the grip of consumerism. Fast forward to 2022 and it appears we haven’t changed much. Behaving as though we have a chronic lack of stuff, we simply buy too many things we don’t need. </p>
<p>Many Australians live in small houses or <a href="https://www.commercialrealestate.com.au/news/boom-in-self-storage-units-as-more-australians-take-to-apartment-living-46133/">apartments that lack space</a> for all their things. Even those in large houses find they are overflowing with possessions but are loath to give up some of them. </p>
<p>The solution is we pay someone else to store our possessions – and we pay a lot. Self-storage in Australasia has grown into a <a href="https://selfstorage.org.au/">$1.5 billion</a> industry. </p>
<p>There are about <a href="https://www.cbre.com.au/insights/articles/the-rise-and-rise-of-australian-self-storage">2,000 self-storage facilities</a> across Australia and New Zealand. Some house hundreds of individual storage units.</p>
<p>Depending on the size, location and type of storage unit (for example, climate-controlled for wine collections), the costs can add up to thousands of dollars a year for some people.</p>
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<img alt="Man wheels a trolley of storage boxes into a rented storage unit." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503718/original/file-20230110-12-y3kds0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503718/original/file-20230110-12-y3kds0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503718/original/file-20230110-12-y3kds0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503718/original/file-20230110-12-y3kds0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503718/original/file-20230110-12-y3kds0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503718/original/file-20230110-12-y3kds0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503718/original/file-20230110-12-y3kds0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Self-storage businesses in Australasia have grown into a $1.5 billion industry.</span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-kids-should-not-have-lots-of-toys-and-what-to-do-if-yours-have-too-many-172611">Why kids should not have lots of toys (and what to do if yours have too many)</a>
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<h2>What can we do about it?</h2>
<p>It is easy to be swept up in the shopping frenzies of Christmas and new year sales. We are “programmed” to spend by marketers and retailers who surround us with temptation in stores and online. </p>
<p>But there are things you can do to help counter the impulse to buy and reduce its impacts.</p>
<p>Make a list and set a budget before you head to the shops, and try to stick to it. Use cash instead of cards when you can. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucv056">Research</a> shows people feel the cost of paying more when using cash. Don’t shop on an empty stomach or when you are tired. </p>
<p>Where possible, shop locally and buy locally made items. It’s great for your local economy, and the planet benefits from fewer air miles.</p>
<p>Rather than products, consider gifts of experiences, which don’t involve accumulating “stuff”. Options include creative classes, entertainment, sports, or health and beauty services.</p>
<p>Look for products with less packaging or with biodegradable packaging. Buy loose products and choose refillable options where you can.</p>
<p>Ask yourself: do I really need to buy this? If I didn’t have a credit card, could I actually afford it today? </p>
<p>We can all use self-monitoring to improve our spending habits and reduce the environmental costs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192503/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australians buy so much stuff that they have run out of space in their homes for it all, so storage businesses are booming.Louise Grimmer, Associate Head Research and Senior Lecturer in Marketing, University of TasmaniaGary Mortimer, Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour, Queensland University of TechnologyMartin Grimmer, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Marketing, University of TasmaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1945682022-11-15T16:33:33Z2022-11-15T16:33:33ZGlobal population hits 8 billion, but per-capita consumption is still the main problem<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495364/original/file-20221115-21-6rimv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1574%2C0%2C5831%2C2984&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ints Vikmanis / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The world population has just hit a new record: <a href="https://www.un.org/en/dayof8billion">8 billion</a>. As is often the case, there are heated debates about the planet’s so-called “carrying capacity” – the total number of people who can live on Earth sustainably. Experts are generally divided into two camps. There are those who argue that we need to drastically reduce the human population to avoid ecological catastrophe. And then there are those who believe that technology will find smart solutions without any need to actively tackle the issue head-on.</p>
<p>Scientists have been debating such demographic issues at least since the 18th century, when Thomas Malthus published <a href="http://www.esp.org/books/malthus/population/malthus.pdf">An Essay on the Principle of Population</a>, arguably the first global treatise on the relationship between population growth and scarcity. A few decades later, however, the Industrial Revolution (which the British economist had failed to anticipate) ushered the world into an era of abundance, relegating Malthus’s grim predictions about the inevitability of scarcity to the margins of scientific debate.</p>
<p>In a bestselling book published in the late 1960s, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-long-fuse-the-population-bomb-is-still-ticking-50-years-after-its-publication-96090">The Population Bomb</a>, Stanford professor Paul Ehrlich brought the topic back, advocating for immediate action to limit population growth on a finite planet. This recommendation was reiterated a few years later by the Club of Rome, an international network of scientists and industrialists. Its 1972 report <a href="https://www.clubofrome.org/publication/the-limits-to-growth/">The Limits to Growth</a> aptly demonstrated the dynamic relationship between increasing consumption and the idea of “planetary boundaries” which cannot be crossed without risking severe environmental change.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495403/original/file-20221115-21-x1e7fm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart of planetary boundaries concept" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495403/original/file-20221115-21-x1e7fm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495403/original/file-20221115-21-x1e7fm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495403/original/file-20221115-21-x1e7fm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495403/original/file-20221115-21-x1e7fm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495403/original/file-20221115-21-x1e7fm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495403/original/file-20221115-21-x1e7fm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495403/original/file-20221115-21-x1e7fm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Of the nine planetary boundaries, six have been exceeded. Only ozone, freshwater use and ocean acidification remain in the ‘safe’ zone.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html">Azote for Stockholm Resilience Centre, based on analysis in Wang-Erlandsson et al 2022</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s true that some technologies have made production more efficient (think of fertilisers), thus alleviating the impact of population growth on resource use. But there is little doubt that the human race has massively overstepped the <a href="https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html">planetary boundaries</a>, presently exceeding the safe operating space in six domains out of nine (see graphic above).</p>
<h2>A smaller population could still be more destructive</h2>
<p>It is difficult to estimate just how many humans the planet can carry sustainably, however. This is often overlooked in policy debates, which generally deal with the issue rather simplistically, resting on the assumption that increasing living standards will lead to lower birth rates. Therefore, the argument goes, the <a href="https://www.bsr.org/en/emerging-issues/the-global-population-slowdown">global population will decline</a> as soon as continents like Asia and Africa reach similar development levels as Europe and North America </p>
<p>The fallacy here is to assume that only technology and population matter. These days environmental scientists generally agree that the overall impact is also a function of affluence (the so-called <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095965260900242X?via=ihub">I=PAT equation</a>). This can easily generate a paradox. Countries continue increasing their living standards by pushing up per-capita consumption, thus resulting in smaller populations but much bigger ecological impacts. </p>
<p>Take China. Its population growth rates have gone down significantly from 2.8% in the 1970s to the first decline in absolute terms <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/07/china-population-shrink-60-years-world/">this year</a>. But in that period its overall consumption levels have increased enormously, resulting in a much worse net impact. The same applies to India and most emerging and developing economies. If this trend continues, we may end up with a smaller global population but significantly more destructive effects on the planet.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495406/original/file-20221115-11-w5cpj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Skyscrapers emerging through clouds" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495406/original/file-20221115-11-w5cpj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495406/original/file-20221115-11-w5cpj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495406/original/file-20221115-11-w5cpj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495406/original/file-20221115-11-w5cpj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495406/original/file-20221115-11-w5cpj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495406/original/file-20221115-11-w5cpj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/495406/original/file-20221115-11-w5cpj0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">China’s population growth has slowed but consumption has soared.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">HelloRF Zcool / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Developing a ‘wellbeing economy’</h2>
<p>The time has come to rethink our approach to affluence and develop different ways to improve living standards. In a new report to the Club of Rome titled <a href="https://www.earth4all.life/who-we-are">Earth4All</a>, we argue that countries (especially the most industrialised) should replace the pursuit of economic growth with broader measures of social and ecological wellbeing. This would result in a significant decrease in material consumption, while not undermining overall quality of life. </p>
<p>What might this involve in practice? Policies should encourage better work-life balance and gender equality, as women’s empowerment is a key determinant of population growth. They should also optimise energy use and efficiency because the most renewable energy is what we do not need to use. We also need regenerative practices and homegrown solutions to manufacturing and food production (roughly <a href="https://www.un.org/en/observances/end-food-waste-day">30% of food globally</a> is either lost or wasted due to overconsumption and aesthetic standards).</p>
<p>Such a “wellbeing economy” approach would help all countries (including the poorest) leapfrog to a different type of development, able to combine high quality of life with very limited impacts on the environment. It is the difference between an extractive, linear economy that turns resources into emissions and a regenerative, circular economy that produces no waste because the output of any process becomes the input for another one. </p>
<p>There is massive room for improvement. After all, most of our wellbeing <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1011492107">does not depend on material consumption</a> (above a minimum sufficient level) but on the quality of our social relations and the environment in which we live. Ultimately, living better and more equitably will help us find the right balance also in terms of global population, without the need to <a href="https://theconversation.com/8-billion-people-why-trying-to-control-the-population-is-often-futile-and-harmful-194369">impose restrictions</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194568/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As living standards rise, we could see smaller populations but much bigger ecological impacts.Lorenzo Fioramonti, Founding Director, Institute for Sustainability, University of SurreyIda Kubiszewski, Associate Professor, Institute for Global Prosperity, UCLPaul Sutton, Professor, Department of Geography and the Environment, University of DenverRobert Costanza, Professor of Ecological Economics, UCLLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1928362022-10-25T23:26:37Z2022-10-25T23:26:37ZThe most horrifying part of Halloween is the useless piles of waste it creates. Why not do it differently?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491683/original/file-20221025-19-bnkg4e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C0%2C5216%2C2799&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Thousands of young people roaming the streets at night in scary costumes, knocking on strangers’ doors and threatening pranks if their demands for treats are not met. What could possibly go wrong? </p>
<p>Well, for starters, there’s the frightening amount of waste produced by those few hours of Halloween fun.</p>
<p>In recent years, Halloween has joined Christmas and other <a href="https://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/7058/volumes/v17/NA-17/full">consumption rituals</a> to become an entrenched celebration on the Australian calendar – especially for young kids (and their parents).</p>
<p>But afterwards we’re left with mountains of discarded lolly wrappers, pumpkins, costumes and decorations. How did we end up here – and how can we create a more sustainable Halloween?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="skeleton and two zombies decorate front yard" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491689/original/file-20221025-15-se6zsm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491689/original/file-20221025-15-se6zsm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491689/original/file-20221025-15-se6zsm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491689/original/file-20221025-15-se6zsm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491689/original/file-20221025-15-se6zsm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491689/original/file-20221025-15-se6zsm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491689/original/file-20221025-15-se6zsm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">All those treats, pumpkins, costumes and decorations create a huge amount of waste.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A horrible history</h2>
<p>Halloween is celebrated each year on October 31. About one in four Australians <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2022/10/15/halloween-australia-celebrates/">intends to take part</a> this year. That’s a lot of people – but still far behind participation rates in the United States and United Kingdom.</p>
<p>Halloween began as an ancient Celtic harvest <a href="https://iso.mit.edu/americanisms/halloween-origins-and-current-traditions/">celebration</a>. Known as Samhain, the festival included storytelling, bonfires and costumes to ward off ghosts. </p>
<p>In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III <a href="https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=6210">declared</a> November 1 as a time to honour all saints. Those festivities included some Samhain activities, and the evening of October 31 became All Hallows’ Eve, then later, Halloween.</p>
<p>Halloween was <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1362/026725708X382028?casa_token=xOJFOtxjQYIAAAAA:lL4XOOc9eE4eFJR8BaPL0EgF2J15iQWCMHhd2Q_ZbayZPGArgWVCuCKCpN1jFIiLDlmC03L-qelITVE">brought to the US</a> in the 1840s by Irish immigrants. It has since transformed into a heavily marketed staple of the retail calendar, and spread to many other countries, including Australia.</p>
<p>Each year, mass-produced Halloween-related treats, costumes and spooky paraphernalia fill the shelves of supermarkets and department stores in the lead-up to October 31. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/halloweens-celebration-of-mingling-with-the-dead-has-roots-in-ancient-celtic-celebrations-of-samhain-191300">Halloween's celebration of mingling with the dead has roots in ancient Celtic celebrations of Samhain</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man looks at masks" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491693/original/file-20221025-11-g5cz4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491693/original/file-20221025-11-g5cz4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491693/original/file-20221025-11-g5cz4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491693/original/file-20221025-11-g5cz4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491693/original/file-20221025-11-g5cz4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491693/original/file-20221025-11-g5cz4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491693/original/file-20221025-11-g5cz4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Halloween is now a heavily marketed staple of the retail calendar.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A spine-chilling tale of waste</h2>
<p>All those consumables lead to a huge amount of waste. First, let’s start with food.</p>
<p>Most data on Halloween food waste relates to the US, but we can assume the problem extends proportionally to Australia.</p>
<p>About <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/10/30/452856477/are-we-wasting-millions-of-jack-o-lanterns-that-we-could-be-eating">one million kilograms</a> of pumpkins are grown in the US each year. Many are carved into jack-o’-lanterns and end up in landfill rather than on the plate. US authorities have <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/ypxn8j/the-government-says-our-halloween-pumpkins-are-destroying-the-environment">warned</a> all these decomposing pumpkins produce methane, which contributes to climate change. </p>
<p>Similarly, research released in 2020 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/08/over-half-uks-24m-halloween-pumpkins-destined-for-food-waste">found</a> half of the 24 million pumpkins carved for Halloween in the UK would become food waste. What’s more, 42% of survey respondents didn’t even know pumpkin flesh was edible.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="broken carved pumpkin" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491700/original/file-20221025-11-d86dsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491700/original/file-20221025-11-d86dsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491700/original/file-20221025-11-d86dsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491700/original/file-20221025-11-d86dsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491700/original/file-20221025-11-d86dsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491700/original/file-20221025-11-d86dsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491700/original/file-20221025-11-d86dsq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Decomposing pumpkins produce methane which contributes to climate change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And what about all those treats? Days out from Halloween last year, the US National Retail Federation <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-halloween-candy-sales-boom-20211028-oxb3ikie2jefvl4kty4u2i5jea-story.html">said</a> overall Halloween-related spending would hit US$10.14 billion, including about $3 billion in candy sales.</p>
<p>Some 70% of UK shoppers <a href="https://asdamediapartnership.com/sites/default/files/images/Halloween%202021%20(1)%20(1).pdf">expect</a> to buy sweets, chocolates and other treats on Halloween, and the celebration is now the UK’s third biggest commercial celebration after Christmas and Easter.</p>
<p>Individually wrapped lollies are popular fare in modern Halloween celebrations - especially in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/avoiding-single-use-plastic-was-becoming-normal-until-coronavirus-heres-how-we-can-return-to-good-habits-140555">pandemic era</a>. But it wasn’t always that way. In decades past, cookies, candied apples and home-made toffee were the common Halloween currency.</p>
<p>Wrapping and packaging <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652620353208?casa_token=mRKYRjdplrQAAAAA:gyzeGL153z1JLowwFA3S0cWtvckZ0aPQCXH6i4K3no35aKMbTp9nXlPvGj9JgFWeQ7JIRjjzVjk">does reduce food waste</a>, but it creates plastic waste that litters our roadsides, fills our bins, and pollutes the environment. </p>
<p>Research on Halloween consumption in Australia is in its infancy. But <a href="https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/halloween-to-deliver-a-430-million-spending-boost-for-retailers">research</a> this month by the Australian Retailers Association found Australians planned to spend about A$430 million on Halloween this year, up on previous years. </p>
<p>Items to be purchased included costumes, sweets, themed food and drinks, and party decorations.</p>
<p>If you plan to decorate your house, beware of buying fake cobwebs – wildlife experts this week <a href="https://honey.nine.com.au/parenting/wildlife-warning-for-halloween-decorations/e799991f-5c0b-4654-9f5d-239d6981409f">warned</a> that animals, particularly birds, could get caught in them and die.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="fake cobweb and spider on bush" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491779/original/file-20221025-18353-zpgazd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491779/original/file-20221025-18353-zpgazd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491779/original/file-20221025-18353-zpgazd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491779/original/file-20221025-18353-zpgazd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491779/original/file-20221025-18353-zpgazd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491779/original/file-20221025-18353-zpgazd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491779/original/file-20221025-18353-zpgazd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fake cobwebs can be lethal for birds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Have a sustainable Halloween</h2>
<p>Australia is a largely blank slate when it comes to Halloween culture and tradition. We have a chance to make the tradition our own.</p>
<p>Why not carve a real pumpkin, rather than buying a plastic one, and turn the innards into pumpkin soup or scones? Or try hitting your local op-shop and reworking a fashion nightmare from yesteryear into a spooky Halloween costume? </p>
<p>The World Wildlife Fund offers these other tips for a <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/10-green-halloween-tips">“green” Halloween</a>:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Reuse decorations from previous years instead of buying new ones. Better still, make your own</p></li>
<li><p>Keep old clothes that can be used as costumes, such as worn-out t-shirts</p></li>
<li><p>Reduce party waste by avoiding disposable cups, plates and cutlery</p></li>
<li><p>Buy locally produced lollies and treats. Look for those with minimal packaging or packaged in recycled materials</p></li>
<li><p>Don’t buy a special trick-or-treat bag. Use and decorate household items such as a bucket, pillowcase or old bag, and re-use it each year</p></li>
<li><p>When trick-or-treating, walk around your neighborhood instead of driving to do it elsewhere</p></li>
<li><p>compost and recycle as much party food, treats, pumpkins and other items as possible.</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/not-spooked-by-halloween-ghost-stories-you-may-have-aphantasia-170712">Not spooked by Halloween ghost stories? You may have aphantasia</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192836/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Olav Muurlink is the Project Leader of the Fight Food Waste Co-operative Research Centre's Future Leaders Program.</span></em></p>Halloween has become yet another consumption ritual – but you can choose to celebrate it sustainably.Olav Muurlink, Associate Professor, Social Innovation, CQUniversity AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1865752022-08-01T13:55:00Z2022-08-01T13:55:00ZHow used clothes became part of Africa’s creative economy – and fashion sense<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/474835/original/file-20220719-12-z5sje2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Second-hand clothes, locally known as mitumba, on display in a shop in Nakuru, Kenya.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by James Wakibia/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent years the global secondhand apparel market for clothing and shoes has grown exponentially. In 2002 used clothing exports were <a href="https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/used-clothing?yearSelector1=tradeYear1">worth</a> US$1.4 billion. Despite a slowdown during the COVID-19 pandemic exports were close to US$4 billion in <a href="https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/used-clothing?yearSelector1=tradeYear19">2020</a>. </p>
<p>Some of this growth has been driven by well known brands and high street retailers developing in-house clothing resale and establishing partnerships with digital secondhand platforms to find new uses for preloved fashions, especially luxury fashions. </p>
<p>In the west, secondhand clothing has acquired a new cachet for its sustainability and its role in <a href="https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/circular-economy-introduction/overview">circular economies</a>. A circular economy links production and consumption to minimise waste through reusing, repairing, refurbishing, recycling as well as sharing and leasing. This has driven a trend that by far surpasses the growth of the overall apparel market. </p>
<p>In addition to reuse and upcycling in the west, substantial volumes of used clothing donated to charitable organisations continue to be exported to countries in the global south, among them in Africa. </p>
<p>But the west’s over-consumption of clothing and the export it gives rise to is not without problems. Firstly, secondhand clothing imports in Africa generate millions of tonnes of <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/static/planet4-international-stateless/2022/04/9f50d3de-greenpeace-germany-poisoned-fast-fashion-briefing-factsheet-april-2022.pdf">textile waste</a>. Secondly, the popularity of the secondhand clothing trade has prompted arguments about its <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/4810517_Used-Clothing_Donations_and_Apparel_Production_in_Africa">adverse effects on domestic textile and clothing industries</a>. </p>
<p>Time and again, controversies arise over whether to <a href="https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/business/region-wrestles-with-proposals-to-ban-imports-of-used-clothes-3854868">ban imports</a>. But smuggled imports of used clothing flow readily across Africa’s porous boundaries, making bans largely ineffective. </p>
<p>I <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3644128.html">wrote</a> about the international secondhand clothing trade in a book published in 2000. My research was focused largely on Zambia. In the book I examined the interplay between environmentalism, charity, recycling and thrift. I also explored how secondhand clothes were about more than imitating Western styles. And traced how items were altered into garments that fitted into local cultural norms of etiquette.</p>
<p>Over the last two decades several processes with global scope have changed the landscape in unimaginable ways. This is true in Africa too. Despite these changes, I still think that, rather than representing fashion dumping, current clothing practices demonstrate some of the cultural and socioeconomic benefits of the used clothing trade. Holding significant value for those who create and pursue them, such clothing projects have transformative potentials that are far from trivial.</p>
<h2>Changes in the global clothing landscape</h2>
<p>The first big change has been the digital age which brought internet access and new inspirations from transnational images, products and styles. It has also facilitated internet commerce and innovations in both new and secondhand markets.</p>
<p>Secondly, fast fashion has affected clothing markets everywhere. </p>
<p>Thirdly, the <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_emp/---emp_ent/---ifp_seed/documents/publication/wcms_117697.pdf">expiration</a> in 2005 of the World Trade Organisation’s Multi-Fibre Arrangement enabled tariff-free entry for clothing and textiles manufactured in China into previously restricted markets on an <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/227979723_China's_Textile_and_Clothing_Exports_in_a_Changing_World_Economy">unprecedented scale</a>. Concerns about the growing import from China soon eclipsed the public criticism of imported secondhand clothing, which continued to fill its own popular market niche. </p>
<p>And fourthly, new actors entered the global export of secondhand clothing. Among these were <a href="https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/used-clothing?yearSelector1=tradeYear12">India</a> and <a href="https://oec.world/en/profile/hs/used-clothing?yearSelector1=tradeYear11">China</a>. </p>
<p>For a while, the global COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced or closed production of clothing and apparel almost everywhere. Problems at many points of the global commodity circuits and their upstream and downstream supply chains came into glaring view along with widespread retail closures and the piling up of excess inventory. </p>
<p>At <a href="https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/southeast-asia-sees-factory-shutdowns-and-massive-lay-offs-due-to-covid-19-outbreak-2/">one end</a>, in South and Southeast Asia, poorly remunerated garment workers were not paid. At <a href="https://fashionlawjournal.com/why-do-luxury-fashion-brands-burn-their-own-unsold-goods/">another</a>, in France and elsewhere, some luxury brands incinerated unsold goods to prevent devaluing the brand name on resale markets. And brand retailers in the US and Europe sold deadstock (unsold inventory) to upcyclers to use in their design rather than ending as waste in landfills. </p>
<h2>Survival strategies</h2>
<p>Today in Zambia as elsewhere in Africa, small-scale tailors and fashion entrepreneurs operate in a segmented clothing market that is far less competitive than it is interactive as they diversify and shift their activities to get by. The secondhand clothing seller, the retailer of ‘Chinese clothing’, the upscale boutique operator in the shopping mall along with the tailor, the seamstress, and the up-and-coming designer are serving the different needs of their fashion-conscious customers. </p>
<p>At the same time they all are contributing to that overall well-dressed presentation and stylistic innovation for which many African countries are so well known. Their work entails an ongoing economic and creative struggle to make a living and professionalise the fashion scene. Most operate within their country’s huge informal economy, lacking substantive state support or enduring sponsorships. </p>
<p>The fashion potential from the creative clothing economy in African countries has not been tapped. At the same time, secondhand clothing has not fallen away from popular dress practice. Quite the contrary. Used clothes are being repurposed but with fresh fashionable spins. This sometimes involves turning recycled garments into upcycled outfits. Open-air tailors and seamstresses working from markets and homes as well as aspiring designers in fashion studies in Africa and beyond are busy sourcing readily available secondhand clothes for alteration and creative redesign into new garments and accessories. </p>
<p>There is also a practical and economic aspect involved in this reuse of secondhand clothing. Consumers in many African markets consider imported garments from China to be of inferior quality to the clothes they find in secondhand markets. </p>
<p>Attracting customers from diverse economic and ethnic backgrounds has developed as an accepted part of the overall clothing market. Select secondhand clothing enters a special niche as vintage clothing while damaged garments are shredded and creatively repurposed. They are recycled into knotted and crocheted toys and woven into baskets, for example, and objects for interior decoration such as table runners and pillowcases.</p>
<p>And pop-up shops with creatively styled used clothing outfits appear during special events, attracting fashion conscious customers. </p>
<p>In addition, everyday fashions are changing as young people challenge constraining gender and religious dress norms, for example by wearing tight and short clothing in public, playing out their desire to dress as they like. Adapting imported used clothes to their cultural sensibilities about bodies and dress, they localise them in the process.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186575/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Tranberg Hansen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Used clothes are being repurposed but with fresh fashionable spins.Karen Tranberg Hansen, Professor Emerita, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1862502022-07-11T15:37:38Z2022-07-11T15:37:38ZHow much money do people want to achieve their ideal life? Our research gave a surprising result<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472831/original/file-20220706-18-pjb2in.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=197%2C98%2C8045%2C5388&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How much money would you have to win in a lottery to achieve your ideal life?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/portrait-crazy-funky-funny-oold-bearded-1495944458">Roman Samborskyi / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Money can’t buy happiness. Many of us are told this at some point in our lives, but that doesn’t seem to stop many people from wanting more of it – even very rich people. The question is, how much money do we each need to satisfy our desires?</p>
<p>Economists often treat people as having unlimited economic wants but limited resources to satisfy them – a foundational economic concept known as <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/scarcity.asp">scarcity</a>. This idea is often presented as a basic fact about human nature. Our <a href="https://rdcu.be/cPNcD">recently published research</a> found instead that only a minority of people actually have unlimited wants, and that most would be happy with a limited, if still significant, sum of money.</p>
<p><a href="https://rdcu.be/cPNcD">We surveyed people about this issue in 33 countries</a> spanning all inhabited continents, obtaining responses from about 8,000 people in total. We encouraged participants to focus on what it would mean to have all their wants fulfilled by asking them to imagine their “absolutely ideal life”, without worrying about whether it was realistically achievable. </p>
<p>To assess economic wants, we asked people to consider how much money they wanted in this ideal life. But money rarely comes for free, and we thought their responses could be influenced by what they imagine it would take to obtain large amounts of money – working long hours, high-risk investments, or even criminality. </p>
<p>So we made it about chance, by asking them to choose a prize in a hypothetical lottery. They were told the chances of winning each lottery were the same so their choice was about how much money they wanted in their ideal lives, not which lottery they were most likely to win.</p>
<p>The lottery prizes started at US$10,000 (converted to local currencies, so £8,000 for UK participants) with options increasing by a multiple of 10. At the time we ran the study, the top prize of US$100 billion would have made them the richest person in the world. </p>
<h2>Who wants to be a billionaire?</h2>
<p>Our prediction was straightforward: if people truly have unlimited wants, they should always choose the maximum US$100 billion. But in all 33 countries, only a minority chose the top prize (8% to 39% in each country). In most countries, including the UK, the majority of people chose a lottery equivalent to US$10 million or less, and in some countries (India, Russia) the majority even chose US$1 million or less.</p>
<p>We also wanted to understand differences between people with limited and unlimited wants. Our analyses ruled out many personal factors – responses didn’t vary meaningfully by gender, education, or socioeconomic status. However, more younger people reported unlimited wants than older people, although this varied across countries. In less economically developed countries, the influence of age was weaker.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Neck-down photo of woman with lots of colourful shopping bags on her arms." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472845/original/file-20220706-22-ndntzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472845/original/file-20220706-22-ndntzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472845/original/file-20220706-22-ndntzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472845/original/file-20220706-22-ndntzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472845/original/file-20220706-22-ndntzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472845/original/file-20220706-22-ndntzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472845/original/file-20220706-22-ndntzh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Unlimited wants and consumerism are bad for the planet – but most people want less than you’d imagine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-holding-shopping-bag-mall-626081396">PaO_STUDIO / Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>We also examined cultural differences using an widely used model of major <a href="http://www.cyborlink.com/besite/hofstede.htm">dimensions of cultural difference</a>. We found that more people chose the US$100 billion lottery in countries where there was greater acceptance of inequality in society (called “power distance”), and where there was more focus on group life (called “collectivism”). </p>
<p>For example, Indonesia is high in power distance and collectivism and almost 40% of the Indonesian sample chose US$100 billion. The UK is relatively low on collectivism and power distance, and fewer than 20% chose the maximum lottery prize. </p>
<p>Finally, we asked people about the most important change they would make if they won the prize, as well as to rank different values that were important to them, such as having power or helping others. Here there was some inconsistency. People with unlimited wants were more likely to tell us they would use the money to help others, but in terms of values they were no more concerned with helping others than those with limited wants. </p>
<h2>The consequences of (un)limited wants</h2>
<p>Assuming people have unlimited economic wants provides a rationale for policies that prioritise economic growth, <a href="https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/knowledgebank/why-does-economic-growth-matter">such as interest rate policies</a>, to allow people to achieve as many wants as possible. But the never-ending pursuit of wealth and growth has <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16941-y">increasingly damaging consequences for our world</a>.</p>
<p>Showing that unlimited wants is not a human universal, and that the level of people’s wants varies with values and culture, suggests they are open to social influence. Advertisers already know this, spending huge amounts to try to convince us to want things we previously neither knew nor cared about. Even some <a href="https://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2006/04/john_kenneth_ga.html">economists have questioned</a> whether wants produced by marketing should really be called wants. </p>
<p>The results of this research give us hope that human nature is not fundamentally at odds with sustainable living. Many are paying more attention to how to improve and even reorient society to live fulfilling lives without <a href="https://timjackson.org.uk/ecological-economics/pwg/">exhausting our planet’s resources</a>. Understanding the lives and motivations of people with limited economic wants may teach us something about how to achieve this.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/186250/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Bain received funding that supported this research from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>New research shows that humans don’t necessarily have unlimited wants, and that an ‘ideal life’ costs less than you might think.Paul Bain, Reader in Psychology, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1750492022-01-19T18:59:37Z2022-01-19T18:59:37ZHow long to midnight? The Doomsday Clock measures more than nuclear risk – and it’s about to be reset again<p>In less than 24 hours the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists will update the <a href="https://thebulletin.org/doomsday-clock/">Doomsday Clock</a>. It’s currently at 100 seconds from midnight – the metaphorical time when the human race could destroy the world with technologies of its own making.</p>
<p>The hands have never before been this close to midnight. There is scant hope of it winding back on what will be its 75th anniversary.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1480252823719890951"}"></div></p>
<p>The clock was originally devised as a way to draw attention to nuclear conflagration. But the scientists who <a href="https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/bulletin-atomic-scientists">founded the Bulletin</a> in 1945 were less focused on the initial use of “the bomb” than on the irrationality of <a href="https://thebulletin.org/2022/01/five-nuclear-weapon-states-vow-to-prevent-nuclear-war-while-modernizing-arsenals/">stockpiling weapons</a> for the sake of nuclear hegemony. </p>
<p>They realised more bombs did not increase the chances of winning a war or make anyone safe when just one bomb would be enough to <a href="https://thebulletin.org/2021/11/the-untold-story-of-the-worlds-biggest-nuclear-bomb/">destroy New York</a>.</p>
<p>While nuclear annihilation remains the most probable and acute existential threat to humanity, it is now only one of the potential catastrophes the Doomsday Clock measures. As the Bulletin puts it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Clock has become a universally recognized indicator of the world’s vulnerability to catastrophe from nuclear weapons, climate change, and disruptive technologies in other domains.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="atomic bomb from 1944" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441417/original/file-20220118-17-1gbw1vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441417/original/file-20220118-17-1gbw1vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441417/original/file-20220118-17-1gbw1vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441417/original/file-20220118-17-1gbw1vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441417/original/file-20220118-17-1gbw1vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441417/original/file-20220118-17-1gbw1vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441417/original/file-20220118-17-1gbw1vx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The atomic bomb codenamed ‘Little Boy’, the same type later dropped on Hiroshima, at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1944.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<h2>Multiple connected threats</h2>
<p>At a personal level, I feel some sense of academic kinship with the clock makers. Mentors of mine, notably <a href="http://molbio.uoregon.edu/novick-history/">Aaron Novick</a>, and others who profoundly influenced how I see my own scientific discipline and approach to science, were among those who formed and joined the early Bulletin.</p>
<p>In 2022, their warning extends beyond weapons of mass destruction to include other technologies that concentrate potentially existential hazards – including climate change and its root causes in over-consumption and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16941-y">extreme affluence</a>. </p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/affluence-is-killing-the-planet-warn-scientists-141017">Affluence is killing the planet, warn scientists</a>
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<p>Many of these threats are well known already. For example, <a href="https://www.unep.org/resources/report/global-chemicals-outlook-ii-legacies-innovative-solutions">commercial chemical use</a> is all pervasive, as is the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/18/chemical-pollution-has-passed-safe-limit-for-humanity-say-scientists?CMP=twt_a-environment_b-gdneco">toxic waste</a> it creates. There are tens of thousands of large scale waste sites in the US alone, with 1,700 hazardous “<a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/superfund/">superfund sites</a>” prioritised for clean-up.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/08/us/houston-hurricane-harvey-harzardous-chemicals.html">Hurricane Harvey</a> showed when it hit the Houston area in 2017, these sites are extremely vulnerable. An estimated two million kilograms of airborne contaminants above regulatory limits were released, 14 toxic waste sites were flooded or damaged, and dioxins were found in a major river at levels over <a href="https://response.epa.gov/site/site_profile.aspx?site_id=12353">200 times higher</a> than recommended maximum concentrations.</p>
<p>That was just one major metropolitan area. With increasing storm severity due to climate change, the <a href="https://environmentnorthcarolina.org/reports/nce/perfect-storm">risks to toxic waste sites</a> grow.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-zealand-could-take-a-global-lead-in-controlling-the-development-of-killer-robots-so-why-isnt-it-166168">New Zealand could take a global lead in controlling the development of 'killer robots' — so why isn't it?</a>
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<p>At the same time, the Bulletin has increasingly turned its attention to the rise of artificial intelligence, <a href="https://thebulletin.org/2021/04/worried-about-the-autonomous-weapons-of-the-future-look-at-whats-already-gone-wrong/">autonomous weaponry</a>, and mechanical and biological robotics.</p>
<p>The movie clichés of cyborgs and “killer robots” tend to disguise the true risks. For example, <a href="https://bch.cbd.int/protocol/risk_assessment/cp-ra-ahteg-2020-01-04-en-2.pdf">gene drives</a> are an early example of biological robotics already in development. <a href="https://www.genome.gov/about-genomics/policy-issues/what-is-Genome-Editing">Genome editing</a> tools are used to create gene drive systems that spread through normal pathways of reproduction but are designed to destroy other genes or offspring of a particular sex.</p>
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<img alt="aerial view of Houston showing the extent of flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441418/original/file-20220118-21-2fdb90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441418/original/file-20220118-21-2fdb90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441418/original/file-20220118-21-2fdb90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441418/original/file-20220118-21-2fdb90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441418/original/file-20220118-21-2fdb90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441418/original/file-20220118-21-2fdb90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441418/original/file-20220118-21-2fdb90.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">An aerial view of Houston showing the extent of flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in 2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Climate change and affluence</h2>
<p>As well as being an existential threat in its own right, climate change is connected to the risks posed by these other technologies. </p>
<p>Both <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.abj5593">genetically engineered viruses</a> and gene drives, for example, are being developed to stop the spread of infectious diseases carried by mosquitoes, whose <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-51962100132-7/fulltext">habitats spread</a> on a warming planet. </p>
<p>Once released, however, such biological “robots” may <a href="https://thebulletin.org/2019/03/gene-editing-on-autopilot-what-could-go-wrong/">evolve capabilities</a> beyond our ability to control them. Even a few misadventures that reduce biodiversity could provoke <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(19)30113-5/fulltext">social collapse</a> and conflict.</p>
<p>Similarly, it’s possible to imagine the effects of climate change causing concentrated chemical waste to escape confinement. Meanwhile, highly dispersed toxic chemicals can be concentrated by storms, picked up by floodwaters and distributed into rivers and estuaries. </p>
<p>The result could be the despoiling of agricultural land and fresh water sources, displacing populations and creating “chemical refugees”.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-been-75-years-since-hiroshima-yet-the-threat-of-nuclear-war-persists-144030">It's been 75 years since Hiroshima, yet the threat of nuclear war persists</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Resetting the clock</h2>
<p>Given that the Doomsday Clock has been ticking for 75 years, with myriad other <a href="https://scientistswarning.forestry.oregonstate.edu/journal-articles-related-scientists-warning">environmental warnings from scientists</a> in that time, what of humanity’s ability to imagine and strive for a different future? </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="J. Robert Oppenheimer in 1946" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441420/original/file-20220118-23-nwqrmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441420/original/file-20220118-23-nwqrmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441420/original/file-20220118-23-nwqrmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441420/original/file-20220118-23-nwqrmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441420/original/file-20220118-23-nwqrmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441420/original/file-20220118-23-nwqrmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441420/original/file-20220118-23-nwqrmx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=947&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">J. Robert Oppenheimer in 1946.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Part of the problem lies in the role of science itself. While it helps us understand the risks of technological progress, it also drives that process in the first place. And scientists are people, too – part of the same cultural and political processes that influence everyone.</p>
<p>J. Robert Oppenheimer – the “father of the atomic bomb” – <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191826719.001.0001/q-oro-ed4-00007996">described</a> this vulnerability of scientists to manipulation, and to their own naivete, ambition and greed, in 1947:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In some sort of crude sense which no vulgarity, no humour, no overstatement can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin; and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If the bomb was how physicists came to know sin, then perhaps those other existential threats that are the product of our addiction to technology and consumption are how others come to know it, too.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the interrelated nature of these threats is what the Doomsday Clock exists to remind us of.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175049/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack Heinemann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Doomsday Clock has never before been as close to midnight as it is now. There is scant hope of it winding back on its 75th anniversary.Jack Heinemann, Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, University of CanterburyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1744432022-01-07T12:26:38Z2022-01-07T12:26:38ZWhy TV decluttering shows need to clean up their act<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439802/original/file-20220107-23-13wk110.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2695%2C1641&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">GoodStudio / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><blockquote>
<p>Homes across Britain looking fine on the outside but secretly they’re drowning on their inside…Homes, people, lives, they’re crushed by loads of stuff.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is the opening sequence of Nick Knowles’ Big House Clearout, a TV show on Channel 5 in the UK. In each episode a family have the entire contents of their home laid out on the floor of a warehouse for them to declutter. In episode one Nick says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Many many piles are going off to charity shops and stuff’s being gifted away and then of course there is the pile that is being thrown away…So now you have the fun of getting this into the skip.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The family then whoop and cheer as they fill the skip with their unrecyclable and unwanted stuff.</p>
<p>The house decluttering and makeover TV show is a popular format that has been re-worked over the years. Other recent examples include Hoarder SOS on Channel 4, Sort Your Life Out on BBC One and Tidying Up with Marie Kondo and Get Organized with The Home Edit on Netflix. I enjoy watching these shows but, as an academic who researches sustainable consumption and <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-spoke-to-minimalists-to-find-out-why-they-are-giving-up-their-personal-possessions-155353">minimalist living</a>, I’ve been worried about what happens to all the stuff that gets decluttered. </p>
<p>A standard format involves a tour of the home of a family that is struggling to live with large amounts of clutter. The family’s belongings are then all taken away to be sorted or are sorted in their house. A home makeover or reorganisation is carried out, with the help of the TV show host, and a transformation to a tidy, organised home and happy family is revealed at the end.</p>
<p>However, there is often little to no consideration of the environmental impact associated with these major clear-outs.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1429413315361529859"}"></div></p>
<p>Some decluttering shows give little consideration of where the large bags of unwanted things are <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/15327086211049703?af=R&ai=1gvoi&mi=3ricys">going to end up</a>. Although the objects in these shows seem to magically disappear, they are still in existence somewhere in the world. Perhaps they do find a new home and are re-used – or perhaps they end up incinerated or in landfill.</p>
<p>While some shows just don’t mention where the decluttered items are going to go, others turn the act of throwing them away into an enjoyable event. As mentioned above, throwing unwanted possessions in a skip destined for landfill is described as “fun”, or in the second episode: “This is the exciting bit when you get to chuck it all in the skip”. With the UK producing around <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49827945">27 million tonnes</a> of household waste in 2017, I’m not sure throwing objects into a skip is something that should be celebrated.</p>
<p>Also, despite these sorts of TV shows being focused on families that clearly have tendencies to accumulate a lot of possessions, there is often little to no advice given to them from the show hosts as to how they might try and prevent accumulating so much again in the future. Only focusing on decluttering and not focusing on how things are acquired in the first place, seems to treat the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/14695405211039608">symptoms rather than the cause</a>.</p>
<p>Sometimes shows do consider the wider impact of disposing of objects. For instance in Hoarder SOS there is a focus on selling some items, while in Sort Your Life Out there are clear signs put up for piles of things to donate, recycle and sell. But perhaps these good intentions are contradicted by the unsustainable central message of the format which essentially rests on people accruing lots of things, being encouraged to get rid of a lot of them, and then being offered little to no advice on how to stop this happening again.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1137883425501827072"}"></div></p>
<p>Overall, decluttering shows reflect excessive capitalist consumption in which people are becoming increasingly unhappy with increasing amounts of stuff and are finding greater happiness through <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1469540512444019">owning less</a>. The shows’ focus on the positive outcome of having a tidy and decluttered home is helpful for the individual’s personal happiness. But if shows do not highlight disposing of things sustainably, or not continuing to acquire objects in the future, this raises environmental waste issues.</p>
<p>To be more sustainably conscious, any show promoting the personal benefits of decluttering should focus on ways of preventing unwanted objects from going into landfill. This could be through upcycling – where waste material is turned into something more valuable – or through giving unwanted items away as gifts or selling them.</p>
<p>Or, perhaps a new, even more environmentally conscious TV show, could help people find ways to reduce their shopping and consumption habits, and to re-use and upcycle what they already own, to prevent the need for mass decluttering in the first place?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174443/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amber Martin-Woodhead has received a small research grant from the Royal Geographical Society to research the (non)consumption practices of minimalists in the UK. </span></em></p>These shows treat the symptoms of overconsumption but not the causes.Amber Martin-Woodhead, Assistant professor in Human Geography, Coventry UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1728542021-12-12T14:46:17Z2021-12-12T14:46:17ZHow the holiday buying season adds fuel to a rapidly warming planet<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436483/original/file-20211208-25-1sb1eul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=94%2C68%2C5587%2C3759&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The average American's consumption of stuff has doubled in the past 50 years. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As <a href="https://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/state-of-climate-2021-extreme-events-and-major-impacts">extreme weather events in Canada and around the world are linked to human-made climate change</a>, there is one story that continues to be left out: the connection between climate change and the products we purchase.</p>
<p>Recent research shows that across a product’s life cycle — from raw material extraction through manufacturing, distribution, use and disposal — the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-62030-x">total embedded carbon emissions are 6.3 times the product’s weight</a>. Interestingly, it is the product’s supply chain, or what we do not see related to making and distributing products, that is <a href="https://www.cdp.net/en/articles/media/supply-chains-hold-the-key-to-one-gigaton-of-emissions-savings-finds-new-report">especially carbon intensive</a>. </p>
<p>In the context of human history, the changes to our relationship with the material world have happened in the blink of an eye. Our ancestors lived in direct connection with the land that physically and spiritually sustained them. </p>
<p>Only in very recent human history have so many of us lived our lives at such a great distance from that which sustains us. Today, unchecked consumerism is helping drive a changing climate that is very much affecting all people. </p>
<h2>Stories to buy more stuff</h2>
<p>Since the Industrial Revolution introduced mass production, companies have devoted tremendous quantities of time and money to educating people about the value of the ever-increasing quantities of stuff for sale. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40719456">They have told us</a> what to covet, what our stuff says about who we are or our status in the world and why we need to buy even more. As marketing consultant Victor Lebow wrote in the <em>Journal of Retailing</em> in 1955, “<a href="http://ablemesh.co.uk/PDFs/journal-of-retailing1955.pdf">We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing pace</a>.” </p>
<p>Appeals to consume more stuff — clothes, electronics, appliances, toys, cars and so on — used to be found only in advertisements. In the 1990s, the average American was targeted by <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/shenk-data.html">3,000 advertising messages a day</a>. </p>
<p>Today, appeals to consume are barely countable, as they are seamlessly and endlessly woven into our screen-filled lives, arriving via text message, personalized pop-up appeals and social media posts that celebrate consumption such as <a href="https://www.elle.com.au/fashion/problem-with-fashion-hauls-25078">influencer haul videos</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hksQtIpYCvs?wmode=transparent&start=153" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Haul videos by social media influencers grew in popularity between 2008 and 2016. In them, the person shows off clothing, household goods, jewellery and makeup, sometimes from one store in particular.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Our stuff and climate change</h2>
<p>In the past few decades, those in more materially affluent parts of the world have enthusiastically added more stuff to their lives and discarded hastily. For example, in the U.S., <a href="https://www.storyofstuff.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/StoryofStuff_AnnotatedScript.pdf">the average person’s consumption of stuff has doubled in the past 50 years</a> and, in 2019, North Americans disposed of almost <a href="https://globalewaste.org/statistics/region/northern-america/2019/">21 kilograms of electronic waste per person</a>.</p>
<p>The consequences of our rabid consumption are borne out in the planet’s ecosystems. Consumption in “developed” countries has led to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-56566377">massive-scale logging of the Earth’s forests</a>, leaving just <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/15/just-3-of-worlds-ecosystems-remain-intact-study-suggests">three per cent of the world’s ecosystems intact</a>. The widespread production, use and disposal of plastics has deposited about <a href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/speech/marine-litter-and-challenge-sustainable-consumption-and-production">eight million tonnes of plastic waste into the world’s oceans each year</a>. </p>
<p>These outcomes have historically been experienced as “tragedies of the commons.” This implies that the consequences are “out there,” that the degradation and devastation were not been experienced firsthand — but climate change has changed that, taking lives and livelihoods, destroying homes and entire towns with extremes of heat, drought, wind, fire and floods.</p>
<h2>Life cycles matter</h2>
<p>It begins with the collection of “resources” — minerals, metals, oil, water and wood — and follows with their assembly into products, their distribution, use and often quick disposal. Each step in a product’s life cycle has environmental consequences and a carbon footprint. </p>
<p>For example, trees are the Earth’s carbon storehouse but the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) estimates that <a href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/un-report-worlds-forests-continue-shrink-urgent-action-needed">10 million hectares of forests are lost each year</a>. Furniture and furnishings in municipal waste (mostly wood products) amounted to <a href="https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/durable-goods-product-specific-data">almost nine million tonnes</a> in 2018, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, nearly five times more than what was landfilled in 1960. Yet, old-growth forests continue to be cut down and <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-is-there-an-800-year-old-tree-in-your-toilet-paper-the-case-for-an-old/">consumers don’t know which forest products contain 100-year-old trees</a>. </p>
<p>While producing or buying differently may decrease our carbon footprint, ultimately, the planet’s wealthiest will need to produce and consume less.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Stacks of logs piled alongside a narrow road, with the ocean behind." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436484/original/file-20211208-19-11taqqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436484/original/file-20211208-19-11taqqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436484/original/file-20211208-19-11taqqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436484/original/file-20211208-19-11taqqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436484/original/file-20211208-19-11taqqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436484/original/file-20211208-19-11taqqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436484/original/file-20211208-19-11taqqm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The timber port of Owendo near Libreville, Gabon. A recent study found U.S. demand for furniture from China was contributing to forest lost in Central Africa. Gabon supplied the most wood to China from the region until a 2010 law slashed the export of unprocessed logs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Large-scale and small-scale change needed</h2>
<p>Making an effort to buy less during the holidays could have a meaningful impact. Americans, for example, produce 25 per cent more waste between U.S. Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, discarding <a href="https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2020/12/16/buying-stuff-drives-climate-change/">half of their yearly paper waste — holiday wrapping and decorations — totalling about eight billion tonnes</a>. Likewise, Canadians will send more than <a href="https://oecd-environment-focus.blog/2019/12/24/what-is-the-environmental-footprint-of-christmas/">2.6 billion cards and wrap gifts using 540,000 tonnes of wrapping paper</a> over the holidays. For every kilogram of paper, 3.5 kilograms of carbon dioxide are produced.</p>
<p>Indeed, a big part of coming to terms with consumption and climate change involves acknowledging the inordinate consumption and climate impact of the wealthy. <a href="https://wid.world/news-article/climate-change-the-global-inequality-of-carbon-emissions/">UNEP points out that the planet’s richest 10 per cent contribute almost 50 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions</a>, while the planet’s poorest 50 per cent contribute only 12 per cent of global emissions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Courier delivering shopping to an elderly woman with face mask." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436487/original/file-20211208-19-11j9054.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436487/original/file-20211208-19-11j9054.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436487/original/file-20211208-19-11j9054.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436487/original/file-20211208-19-11j9054.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436487/original/file-20211208-19-11j9054.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436487/original/file-20211208-19-11j9054.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436487/original/file-20211208-19-11j9054.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Giving is important, but we must give less stuff, more slowly and thoughtfully.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Giving is a wonderful way for us to connect with those in our lives. Giving builds families, friendships and communities. Arguably such connections are needed more now than ever. But what we have been taught by the endless onslaught of consumption stories we must unlearn. </p>
<p>We must challenge stories that encourage fast and “cheap” consumption and demand the telling of — and share — stories that accurately link our copious consumption to the devastating effects of climate change. We must elect leaders who will do the hard work of transitioning away from an endless growth economy based on the excessive consumption of <a href="http://www.doi.org/10.2458/v24i1.20882">monetarily cheap but planet-expensive products</a>. We must demand vital product information such as <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12372">life cycle carbon footprints</a>. And we must all commit to resisting the constant appeals to consume fast and cheap, by giving less stuff, more slowly and thoughtfully.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172854/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Ellen Good does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A big part of coming to terms with consumption and climate change involves acknowledging the inordinate consumption and climate impact of the wealthy.Jennifer Ellen Good, Associate Professor Communication, Popular Culture and Film, Brock UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1530912021-01-13T05:00:06Z2021-01-13T05:00:06ZWorried about Earth’s future? Well, the outlook is worse than even scientists can grasp<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378461/original/file-20210113-21-rwemte.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5568%2C3692&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Mariuz/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Anyone with even a passing interest in the global environment knows all is not well. But just how bad is the situation? Our new paper shows the outlook for life on Earth is more dire than is generally understood. </p>
<p>The research <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcosc.2020.615419/full">published today</a> reviews more than 150 studies to produce a stark summary of the state of the natural world. We outline the likely future trends in biodiversity decline, mass extinction, climate disruption and planetary toxification. We clarify the gravity of the human predicament and provide a timely snapshot of the crises that must be addressed now. </p>
<p>The problems, all tied to human consumption and population growth, will almost certainly worsen over coming decades. The damage will be felt for centuries and threatens the survival of all species, including our own.</p>
<p>Our paper was authored by 17 leading scientists, including those from Flinders University, Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles. Our message might not be popular, and indeed is frightening. But scientists must be candid and accurate if humanity is to understand the enormity of the challenges we face.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Girl in breathing mask attached ot plant in container" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378462/original/file-20210113-21-1vk2ung.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378462/original/file-20210113-21-1vk2ung.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378462/original/file-20210113-21-1vk2ung.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378462/original/file-20210113-21-1vk2ung.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378462/original/file-20210113-21-1vk2ung.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378462/original/file-20210113-21-1vk2ung.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378462/original/file-20210113-21-1vk2ung.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Humanity must come to terms with the future we and future generations face.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Getting to grips with the problem</h2>
<p>First, we reviewed the extent to which experts grasp the scale of the threats to the biosphere and its lifeforms, including humanity. Alarmingly, the research shows future environmental conditions will be far more dangerous than experts currently believe.</p>
<p>This is largely because academics tend to specialise in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15487733.2007.11907989">one discipline</a>, which means they’re in many cases unfamiliar with the <a href="https://www.dymocks.com.au/book/fragile-dominion-by-simon-levin-and-simon-a-levin-9780738203195">complex system</a> in which planetary-scale problems — and their potential solutions — exist. </p>
<p>What’s more, positive change can be impeded by governments <a href="https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/embr.201643381">rejecting</a> or ignoring scientific advice, and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0884-z">ignorance of human behaviour</a> by both technical experts and policymakers.</p>
<p>More broadly, the human <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0884-z">optimism bias</a> – thinking bad things are more likely to befall others than yourself – means many people underestimate the environmental crisis. </p>
<h2>Numbers don’t lie</h2>
<p>Our research also reviewed the current state of the global environment. While the problems are too numerous to cover in full here, they include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25138">halving</a> of vegetation biomass since the agricultural revolution around 11,000 years ago. Overall, humans have altered almost <a href="https://ipbes.net/global-assessment">two-thirds</a> of Earth’s land surface</p></li>
<li><p>about <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6471/eaax3100">1,300 documented</a> <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-019-0906-2">species extinctions</a> over the past 500 years, with many more unrecorded. More broadly, population sizes of animal species have declined by more than <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/publications/living-planet-report-2020">two-thirds</a> over the last 50 years, suggesting more extinctions are imminent</p></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-mass-extinction-and-are-we-in-one-now-122535">What is a 'mass extinction' and are we in one now?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<ul>
<li><p>about <a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/nature-decline-unprecedented-report/">one million</a> plant and animal species globally threatened with extinction. The combined mass of wild mammals today is less than <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/115/25/6506">one-quarter</a> the mass before humans started colonising the planet. Insects are also <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-ento-011019-025151">disappearing rapidly</a> in many regions</p></li>
<li><p>85% of the global wetland area <a href="https://www.publish.csiro.au/mf/mf14173">lost</a> in 300 years, and more than 65% of the oceans <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms8615">compromised</a> to some extent by humans</p></li>
<li><p>a halving of live coral cover on reefs in less than <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate1674">200 years</a> and a decrease in seagrass extent by <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/366/6471/eaax3100">10% per decade</a> over the last century. <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/113/48/13785">About 40%</a> of kelp forests have declined in abundance, and the number of large predatory fishes is <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1467-2979.2003.00103.x">fewer than 30%</a> of that a century ago.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378178/original/file-20210112-15-1ornvrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="State of the Earth's environment" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378178/original/file-20210112-15-1ornvrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378178/original/file-20210112-15-1ornvrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378178/original/file-20210112-15-1ornvrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378178/original/file-20210112-15-1ornvrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378178/original/file-20210112-15-1ornvrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378178/original/file-20210112-15-1ornvrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378178/original/file-20210112-15-1ornvrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=654&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Major environmental-change categories expressed as a percentage relative to intact baseline. Red indicates percentage of category damaged, lost or otherwise affected; blue indicates percentage intact, remaining or unaffected.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Frontiers in Conservation Science</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A bad situation only getting worse</h2>
<p>The human population has reached <a href="https://www.prb.org/2020-world-population-data-sheet/">7.8 billion</a> – double what it was in 1970 – and is set to reach about 10 billion by 2050. More people equals more food insecurity, soil degradation, plastic pollution and biodiversity loss. </p>
<p>High population densities make pandemics more likely. They also drive overcrowding, unemployment, housing shortages and deteriorating infrastructure, and can spark conflicts leading to <a href="https://theconversation.com/by-inciting-capitol-mob-trump-pushes-u-s-closer-to-a-banana-republic-152850">insurrections</a>, terrorism, and war.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-explained-why-we-need-to-focus-on-increased-consumption-as-much-as-population-growth-138602">Climate explained: why we need to focus on increased consumption as much as population growth</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Essentially, humans have created an ecological <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/ponzischeme.asp">Ponzi scheme</a>. Consumption, as a percentage of Earth’s <a href="https://www.footprintnetwork.org">capacity to regenerate itself</a>, has grown from 73% in 1960 to <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/7/3/58">more than 170% today</a>. </p>
<p>High-consuming countries like Australia, Canada and the US use multiple units of fossil-fuel energy to produce one energy unit of food. Energy consumption will therefore increase in the near future, especially as the global middle class grows.</p>
<p>Then there’s climate change. Humanity has already exceeded global warming of 1°C this century, and will almost assuredly <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/chapter/spm/">exceed 1.5 °C</a> between 2030 and 2052. Even if all nations party to the <a href="https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement">Paris Agreement</a> ratify their commitments, warming would still reach between 2.6°C and 3.1°C by 2100.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="people walking on a crowded street" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364900/original/file-20201022-18-iwc4eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364900/original/file-20201022-18-iwc4eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364900/original/file-20201022-18-iwc4eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364900/original/file-20201022-18-iwc4eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364900/original/file-20201022-18-iwc4eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364900/original/file-20201022-18-iwc4eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364900/original/file-20201022-18-iwc4eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The human population is set to reach 10 billion by 2050.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The danger of political impotence</h2>
<p>Our paper found global policymaking falls far short of addressing these existential threats. Securing Earth’s future requires prudent, long-term decisions. However this is impeded by short-term interests, and an economic system that <a href="https://theconversation.com/piketty-challenges-us-to-consider-if-we-need-to-rein-in-wealth-inequality-67552">concentrates wealth among a few individuals</a>.</p>
<p>Right-wing populist leaders with <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07236-w">anti-environment agendas</a> are on the rise, and in many countries, environmental protest groups have been labelled “<a href="https://theconversation.com/extinction-rebellion-terror-threat-is-a-wake-up-call-for-how-the-state-treats-environmental-activism-129804">terrorists</a>”. Environmentalism has become weaponised as a political ideology, rather than properly viewed as a universal mode of self-preservation.</p>
<p>Financed <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-brief-history-of-fossil-fuelled-climate-denial-61273">disinformation campaigns</a>, such as those against climate action and <a href="http://alert-conservation.org/issues-research-highlights/2014/11/27/progress-in-the-battle-against-illegal-logging">forest protection</a>, protect short-term profits and claim meaningful environmental action is too costly – while ignoring the broader cost of not acting. By and large, it appears unlikely business investments <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2019/ecosoc6972.doc.htm">will shift at sufficient scale</a> to avoid environmental catastrophe.</p>
<h2>Changing course</h2>
<p>Fundamental change is required to avoid this ghastly future. Specifically, we and many others suggest: </p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/life-in-a-degrowth-economy-and-why-you-might-actually-enjoy-it-32224">abolishing</a> the goal of perpetual economic growth</p></li>
<li><p>revealing the true cost of products and activities by forcing those who damage the environment to pay for its restoration, such as through <a href="https://theconversation.com/carbon-pricing-works-the-largest-ever-study-puts-it-beyond-doubt-142034">carbon pricing</a></p></li>
<li><p>rapidly eliminating fossil fuels</p></li>
<li><p>regulating markets by curtailing monopolisation and limiting undue corporate influence on policy</p></li>
<li><p>reigning in corporate lobbying of political representatives</p></li>
<li><p>educating and <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/katharine_wilkinson_how_empowering_women_and_girls_can_help_stop_global_warming">empowering women</a> across the globe, including giving them control over family planning.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A coal plant" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378465/original/file-20210113-15-6b1vqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378465/original/file-20210113-15-6b1vqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378465/original/file-20210113-15-6b1vqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378465/original/file-20210113-15-6b1vqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378465/original/file-20210113-15-6b1vqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378465/original/file-20210113-15-6b1vqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378465/original/file-20210113-15-6b1vqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The true cost of environmental damage should be borne by those responsible.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Don’t look away</h2>
<p>Many organisations and individuals are devoted to achieving these aims. However their messages have not sufficiently penetrated the policy, economic, political and academic realms to make much difference.</p>
<p>Failing to acknowledge the magnitude of problems facing humanity is not just naïve, it’s dangerous. And science has a big role to play here. </p>
<p>Scientists must not sugarcoat the overwhelming challenges ahead. Instead, they should <em>tell it like it is</em>. Anything else is at best misleading, and at worst potentially lethal for the human enterprise.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mass-extinctions-and-climate-change-why-the-speed-of-rising-greenhouse-gases-matters-56675">Mass extinctions and climate change: why the speed of rising greenhouse gases matters</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153091/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Corey J. A. Bradshaw receives funding from the Australian Research Council. The Rockefeller Foundation provided funding for elements of this research via a Bellagio Writer's Fellowship to CJAB and PRE.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel T. Blumstein receives funding from the US National Science Foundation and the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Ehrlich does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Humanity is destroying Earth’s ability to support complex life. But coming to grips with the magnitude of the problem is hard, even for experts.Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders UniversityDaniel T. Blumstein, Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, University of California, Los AngelesPaul Ehrlich, President, Center for Conservation Biology, Bing Professor of Population Studies, Stanford UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1506392020-11-23T19:03:53Z2020-11-23T19:03:53Z5 reasons why banishing backpackers and targeting wealthy tourists would be a mistake for NZ<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/370716/original/file-20201123-23-b2dshp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C0%2C5447%2C3645&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Raise your hand if you’ve ever travelled for weeks or months as a backpacker on a limited daily budget. Keep your hand up if you were made welcome in the places you visited on your <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249631253_The_big_'OE'_Young_New_Zealand_travellers_as_secular_pilgrims">OE</a>, enjoyed chance encounters and experienced the generosity of strangers.</p>
<p>And did those experiences leave a lifelong affection for the places you visited and people you met? If the answer is yes, then we need to consider what might happen in New Zealand were Tourism Minister Stuart Nash’s latest ideas to become policy.</p>
<p>To recap, Nash told the Tourism Summit in Wellington last week the industry should move away from catering for low-spending backpackers and instead <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/18/new-zealand-tourism-looks-past-backpackers-in-favour-of-high-net-worth-individuals">target the rich</a>. This would solve two problems: the environmental damage allegedly caused by freedom campers (including using <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/defecating-freedom-campers-cause-a-big-stink-at-otagos-smaills-beach/IQXG2C6HLDTFJCH3JOIFA4UBSM/">nature as their toilet</a>), and the pressure of too many visitors in general.</p>
<p>Nash was right to say we cannot return to the pre-COVID normal when the border reopens and the tourism recovery begins. Overcapacity, strained infrastructure and environmental impacts meant <a href="https://www.pce.parliament.nz/our-work/news-insights/media-release-pristine-popular-imperilled">growing community resistance</a> was reaching a tipping point.</p>
<p>But do we really want to banish backpackers and position New Zealand as expensive and exclusive — the Switzerland of the South Pacific? There are five reasons this approach would be a mistake.</p>
<h2>1. Big spenders are big polluters</h2>
<p>Lower-budget travellers generally stay much longer than the average. They usually make a higher aggregate economic contribution than those whose daily spend is high but who pass through quickly.</p>
<p>Does New Zealand really want only the uber-rich to experience our natural wonders, when flying business class, travelling by cruise ship and hiring helicopters are the most environmentally damaging ways to do so? </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/serving-time-how-fine-dining-in-jail-is-helping-prisoners-and-satisfying-customers-149161">Serving time: how fine dining in jail is helping prisoners and satisfying customers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If we were to consider the wider social, economic and environmental impacts of discrete tourism markets, we would be banishing the <a href="http://www.physics.otago.ac.nz/space/cruise_ship_EnergyPol.pdf">cruise industry</a> first, not backpackers. </p>
<h2>2. Backpackers bring many benefits</h2>
<p>Because they stay longer, backpackers can bring wider benefits to our society, economy and environment. They tend to be more dispersed, bringing economic development and employment opportunities to regional communities.</p>
<p>Also, their travel behaviours tend to align more with the concept of <a href="https://pureadvantage.org/news/2020/07/31/regenerative-tourism-opportunity-for-tourism-recovery/">regenerative tourism</a>. Backpackers are more likely to be conscious of their carbon footprint, engage in beach cleanups, plant trees and involve themselves in conservation projects.</p>
<p>They are a seasonal labour force, too, as has been shown by critical <a href="https://www.odt.co.nz/rural-life/horticulture/no-change-seasonal-worker-shortage">labour shortages</a> in rural and regional economies due to border closures.</p>
<h2>3. The importance of diverse tourism</h2>
<p>Backpackers and freedom campers support small regional tourism businesses, attractions and local services that would not survive without them. Backpacker hostels, home-stays, camping grounds and other low-budget accommodation subsectors would be at risk, as would many small and medium tourism businesses.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/traditional-skills-help-people-on-the-tourism-deprived-pacific-islands-survive-the-pandemic-148987">Traditional skills help people on the tourism-deprived Pacific Islands survive the pandemic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>During crises it is important that tourism destinations have a broad portfolio of markets. This ensures resilience and mitigates potential economic impacts from periodic disruptions to global tourism. Furthermore, as the mayor of Queenstown has <a href="https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/caution-urged-over-tourist-van-ban">observed</a>, today’s backpackers return in future as high-end visitors.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1328515944839225344"}"></div></p>
<h2>4. Tackling climate change and overconsumption</h2>
<p>Social tourism refers to the principle that opportunities to engage occasionally in leisure and tourism are important for personal well-being and an inclusive society. It is a form of tourism based on an <a href="https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/8zz55/what-is-social-tourism">ethic of social inclusion</a>, as opposed to exclusion based on wealth. </p>
<p>By contrast, the carbon-intense lifestyles and sense of entitlement of the super-wealthy are major barriers to climate action.</p>
<p>Our tourism policies should not celebrate and encourage over-consumption, which works against shifting attitudes towards less carbon-intensive and more sustainable travel.</p>
<h2>5. Damage to our international reputation</h2>
<p>Do we really want to be perceived as exclusionary and elitist? A colleague based at a university in the Netherlands, for example, reported a social media backlash: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Everyone is complaining about the news that Kiwis do not want to have us anymore and they are only interested in tourists who fly business class and hire a helicopter around Franz Josef.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Similarly, the policy can look petty. A <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/new-zealand-vows-crackdown-on-defecating-backpackers/articleshow/79277723.cms">story</a> headlined “New Zealand vows crackdown on defecating backpackers” in the Times of India reported the New Zealand government’s promise “to take action against backpackers relieving themselves at natural beauty spots as part of post-coronavirus tourism plans”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BbTPvvlCLh4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Tiaki Promise is a charter for inclusive tourism based on host and visitor sharing mutual responsibility.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The post-COVID challenge</h2>
<p>Should New Zealand’s post-coronavirus tourism rebuild really be perceived as revolving around the defecations of low-budget tourists? While there have been cases of disgusting behaviour, this problem can be actively managed.</p>
<p>Non-self-contained campervans could be required to park overnight in fully serviced camping grounds for a nominal fee. New Zealanders should not bear the costs of tourism, anyway. Local councils transfer the costs of freedom camping to ratepayers when they provide “free” overnight parking and toilet facilities — putting rate-paying local camping grounds out of business.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-four-day-working-week-could-be-the-shot-in-the-arm-post-coronavirus-tourism-needs-139388">A four-day working week could be the shot in the arm post-coronavirus tourism needs</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Above all, our tourism rebuild should be closely aligned with what makes New Zealand unique. First and foremost, it should be founded on the Māori principles of <a href="https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?idiom=&phrase=&proverb=&loan=&histLoanWords=&keywords=kaitiakitanga">kaitiakitanga</a> and <a href="https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?keywords=manaakitanga">manaakitanga</a> — a mutual responsibility to care for the land and culture, as expressed in the <a href="https://tiakinewzealand.com/">Tiaki Promise</a> charter.</p>
<p>This would honestly reflect the ideals of generations of Kiwis who have set off on their own OEs to experience the world. If we consider this a birthright, is it fair that we deny the same to others who want to visit us?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150639/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If the tourism minister is worried about the wider social, economic and environmental impacts of visitors, he’d be better off banning cruise ships, not backpackers.James Higham, Professor of Tourism, University of OtagoHazel Tucker, Professor, University of OtagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1483472020-10-22T03:31:04Z2020-10-22T03:31:04ZBob Brown is right – it’s time environmentalists talked about the population problem<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364899/original/file-20201022-15-1a4rhvb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C4950%2C3221&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In all the talk of tackling environmental problems such as climate change, the issue of population growth often escapes attention. Politicians don’t like talking about it. By and large, neither do environmentalists – but former Greens leader Bob Brown has bucked that trend.</p>
<p>Brown recently <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=TAWEB_WRE170_a_GGL&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theaustralian.com.au%2Fnation%2Fbob-brown-urges-green-movement-to-get-behind-cuts-to-population-levels%2Fnews-story%2Fe47a78bf0d8b53d144b6c49800bb0cba&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium">declared</a> the world’s population must start to decline before 2100, telling The Australian newspaper:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We are already using more than what the planet can supply and we use more than the living fabric of the planet in supply. That’s why we wake up every day to fewer fisheries, less forests, more extinctions and so on. The human herd at eight billion is the greatest herd of mammals ever on this planet and it is unsustainable to have that growing.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Research <a href="https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/67/12/1026/4605229">suggests</a> our species has far exceeded its fair share of the planetary bounty, and Brown is right to call for the global population to peak. It is high time others joined the chorus – not only other environmentalists, but those concerned with international development and human rights.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="people walking on a crowded street" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364900/original/file-20201022-18-iwc4eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364900/original/file-20201022-18-iwc4eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364900/original/file-20201022-18-iwc4eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364900/original/file-20201022-18-iwc4eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364900/original/file-20201022-18-iwc4eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364900/original/file-20201022-18-iwc4eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364900/original/file-20201022-18-iwc4eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bob Brown says the global population should peak before 2100.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Population growth, by the numbers</h2>
<p>COVID-19 has killed more than <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-29/coronavirus-million-deaths-told-in-10-charts/12710378">one million people</a>. While undeniably tragic, the figure is minor compared to world’s annual growth in population, estimated by the United Nations at about <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-population-prospects-2019.html">83 million</a>.</p>
<p>In 1900, the world’s population was about <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/9/140920-population-11billion-demographics-anthropocene/">1.6 billion</a> people. By 2023 it’s <a href="https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/world-population-2020-overview">expected to</a> hit 8 billion. <a href="https://population.un.org/wpp/Publications/Files/Key_Findings_WPP_2015.pdf">According to the UN</a>, it will reach 9.7 billion by 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100.</p>
<p>(The US-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673620306772">recently forecast</a> a lower peak of about 9.7 billion by 2064, falling to about 8.8 billion by 2100.)</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-global-fertility-really-plummeting-how-population-forecasts-are-made-142848">Is global fertility really plummeting? How population forecasts are made</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Why is the population growing so fast? Much of it is due to advanced fertilisers and intensive farming practices, leading to higher crop yields that can sustain more people. Health care has improved, and people are living much longer. And many parts of the world have historically had high fertility rates.</p>
<p>There is no expert consensus on how many people the planet can support. The answer will largely depend on how much humans produce and consume, now and in the future. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02211719">Some experts believe</a> we’ve already hit the limit.</p>
<p>The “<a href="https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html">planetary boundaries framework</a>” is one way to measure Earth’s carrying capacity. Introduced about a decade ago, it involves nine planetary boundaries such as biodiversity loss, climate change and ozone depletion. If the boundaries are crossed, Earth’s capacity to support civilisation is at risk. Research <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479720306186">suggests</a> in some parts of the world, multiple boundaries have already been breached.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Aerial view of coal mine" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364903/original/file-20201022-20-oavojb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364903/original/file-20201022-20-oavojb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364903/original/file-20201022-20-oavojb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364903/original/file-20201022-20-oavojb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364903/original/file-20201022-20-oavojb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364903/original/file-20201022-20-oavojb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364903/original/file-20201022-20-oavojb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In some places, Earth’s limits have already been exceeded.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>It’s time to talk</h2>
<p>In recent decades, many conservationists, politicians and scientists have been reluctant to talk about population growth.</p>
<p>When The Australian approached Greenpeace, the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Wilderness Society regarding Brown’s remarks, the groups said they did not comment on population growth. Brown told the newspaper environmentalists avoided the issue because they were “frightened” of being targeted by News Corp.</p>
<p>In an address to the National Press Club this month, Greens leader Adam Bandt reportedly wouldn’t say whether he is concerned about population growth, saying “my priority is getting energy at running on 100% renewable. That makes much more of a difference than […] population size.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-breastfeeding-sparked-population-growth-in-ancient-cities-128812">How breastfeeding sparked population growth in ancient cities</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Bandt wouldn’t be the first environmental advocate to <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/26/16356524/the-population-question">avoid the topic</a>. But why? I believe there are three main reasons.</p>
<p>Most obvious is the fear of being <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11615086/">accused of</a> racism. Some past advocates of population “control” supported eugenics and coercion, including forced sterilisation and abortion. In fact, eugenics and forced sterilisation has been reported in both <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09687599826669?casa_token=Su93YigrMYAAAAAA:YkJ_E0sVtucOAyP2Y0p6FJgyxcEKSahdurfUiDGy-7xgS3Oqg6xZFSPNkPT-zxN_kUrICwkbzoj4UsQ">rich</a> and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1057/fr.1988.28?journalCode=fera">poor</a> countries. </p>
<p>Second, the Catholic Church has <a href="http://churchandstate.org.uk/2015/02/the-pope-and-the-new-apocalypse-the-holy-war-against-family-planning/">played a big role in</a> suppressing the topic. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6081774/">In the 1960s</a> a papal commission suggested the church’s decades-long <a href="https://w2.vatican.va/content/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xi_enc_19301231_casti-connubii.html">ban</a> on birth control be dropped. But in 1968, Pope Paul VI rejected the advice, and <a href="http://w2.vatican.va/content/paul-vi/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae.html">declared</a> artificial birth control to be morally wrong.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A statue of Pope Paul VI" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364902/original/file-20201022-18-6f4xwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364902/original/file-20201022-18-6f4xwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364902/original/file-20201022-18-6f4xwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364902/original/file-20201022-18-6f4xwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364902/original/file-20201022-18-6f4xwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364902/original/file-20201022-18-6f4xwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364902/original/file-20201022-18-6f4xwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A statue of Pope Paul VI, who believed birth control was morally evil.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Third is the ascendancy of free-market economics. High population growth in low-income countries is <a href="http://sk.sagepub.com/reference/the-sage-handbook-of-nature/i6463.xml">convenient</a> for capitalism, because these <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0309816811418952?casa_token=Kr7gvAup370AAAAA%3AQPJ-wEoAYPihbu8xehZO_6BJ0_LAi72QHi3IS0-SMTIC2SRuFZe7MDkwH8VewIDwQw2pEeT90Mp72hE">populations</a> depress wages worldwide.</p>
<p>In 1984, the Reagan administration became the first in a long line <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1973376?casa_token=u2bU3SICLdcAAAAA%3AMD4MS-UA4OlxnJEDBrh5uYZ5ZbfNg64FnFPVcCtwLd1URTyXDzao243-97O6oOjErIY4DmUpiFHK7rbINWicFLO8aE1jz7wZlj9AhL0hCS2GwU60mCeYSg&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">to deny</a> the importance of population problems. Its views were <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0016328785900564">influenced</a> by economic theorist Julian Simon, who <a href="https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1119/1.14144?casa_token=hgdmvrmmjhgAAAAA%3ATy0tjqS1PAD0CTUi94ao1rMkB5BKmYY5DlzgfumOyW6QRCbKLYJPyV38AnOKJuEKI-CaDE4UWBOPIA&">believed</a> adding to the world’s population was good for human well-being.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Globe populated by people" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364901/original/file-20201022-18-uc8kox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364901/original/file-20201022-18-uc8kox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364901/original/file-20201022-18-uc8kox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364901/original/file-20201022-18-uc8kox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364901/original/file-20201022-18-uc8kox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364901/original/file-20201022-18-uc8kox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364901/original/file-20201022-18-uc8kox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Julian Simon argued adding to the world’s population was good for human well-being.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Starting the conversation</h2>
<p>As Brown said, we should be “having a mature debate” about population growth. But where to start? </p>
<p>An obvious beginning is the unmet demand for contraception. For example, a <a href="https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/UNFPA_Reproductive_Paper_20160120_online.pdf">UN report</a> in 2015 reported fewer than half of African women who are married or in a union, and who need contraception, have their family planning needs satisfied.</p>
<p>Slowing global population growth will be helped by promoting the <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals">UN Sustainable Development Goals</a>. One goal seeks to ensure “universal access to reproductive health and family planning” by 2030. Improving female literacy – especially when combined with internet access – is also an important way to empower women.</p>
<p>Apart from reproductive health care, general improvements to health, including well-funded health systems, would give couples greater confidence their children will thrive. This would reduce their perceived need for <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00324728.1976.10412734">additional children</a> in case one or more dies. </p>
<p>These measures all require increased investment and public attention. The environmental movement, in particular, must awaken to the link between population growth and environmental degradation. “Business as usual” will hinder human development, further oppress women and magnify many forms of environmental damage.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-explained-why-we-need-to-focus-on-increased-consumption-as-much-as-population-growth-138602">Climate explained: why we need to focus on increased consumption as much as population growth</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148347/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colin D. Butler received funding from the Australian Reseach Council from 2011 to 2015. He is a member of the scientific advisory committee for Doctors for the Environment, Australia</span></em></p>Our species has far exceeded its fair share of the planetary bounty, and Brown is right to call for the global population to peak.Colin D. Butler, Honorary Professor, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1413612020-08-18T20:11:05Z2020-08-18T20:11:05ZWe each get 7 square metres of cropland per day. Too much booze and pizza makes us exceed it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353115/original/file-20200817-22-1gv66l8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C13%2C2978%2C1983&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Croplands are a valuable, yet scarce natural resource. To guard against serious and potentially irreversible environmental harm, croplands should not extend beyond <a href="https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss2/art32/">15% of the earth’s ice-free surface</a>. </p>
<p>Croplands are mainly used for food production. So it’s important to ask whether our diets are biting off more than our fair share.</p>
<p>In recent <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/5/1212">research</a>, we looked at the cropland footprints of the diets of more than 9,000 Australian adults, involving more than 5,000 foods.</p>
<p>We found if everyone ate like the average Australian, the 15% limit on the area for global croplands would be exceeded, albeit modestly. Reducing our intake of discretionary foods such as cakes, biscuits, pizza and hot chips is the best way to make our diets more sustainable.</p>
<h2>The average Australian diet</h2>
<p>Ploughing new lands for crop production entails the loss of forest and grassland, which can threaten biodiversity through habitat loss, and disturb water and nutrient cycles through changes in drainage and fertiliser use.</p>
<p>Croplands are used to grow cereals such as wheat. They are also used to grow fruits and vegetables, nuts, oilseeds and legumes. Perhaps less obviously, crops are used to feed livestock and in aquaculture.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353291/original/file-20200818-20-uqsilj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353291/original/file-20200818-20-uqsilj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353291/original/file-20200818-20-uqsilj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353291/original/file-20200818-20-uqsilj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353291/original/file-20200818-20-uqsilj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353291/original/file-20200818-20-uqsilj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353291/original/file-20200818-20-uqsilj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353291/original/file-20200818-20-uqsilj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Australian dietary habits vary enormously.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In <a href="https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss2/art32/">landmark research in 2009</a>, leading scientists proposed the idea of “planetary boundaries” to mark the thresholds for our use of the environment, such as the area of croplands.</p>
<p>If global croplands are to occupy no more than 15% of the ice-free land surface, as they proposed, the total area cannot extend beyond about 2 billion hectares. It’s difficult to know for sure, but it’s likely the world is already approaching this boundary, or even marginally exceeding it. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-food-system-is-at-risk-of-crossing-environmental-limits-heres-how-to-ease-the-pressure-104715">Our food system is at risk of crossing 'environmental limits' – here's how to ease the pressure</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>With today’s global population of around 7.8 billion, this limit means the requirements of an individual’s daily diet should not exceed more than 7 square metres of cropland.</p>
<p>Our research found that on average, Australian adult diets slightly exceed this amount, requiring 7.1 square metres per day.</p>
<p>However, the world’s population is rapidly increasing and is expected to surpass <a href="https://www.un.org/en/sections/issues-depth/population/index.html#:%7E:text=The%20world%20population%20is%20projected,and%2011.2%20billion%20by%202100.">8.5 billion by 2030</a>. At 9 billion, the global share of croplands shrinks to around 6.1 square metres per person per day.</p>
<h2>Eating beyond the boundary</h2>
<p>The good news is Australian dietary habits vary enormously. Already, many Australians are eating well and within the global cropland boundary. Australians with healthier diets and lower cropland footprints required only 4.2 square metres per day.</p>
<p>These lower footprint diets were distinguished by much lower consumption of <a href="https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/food-essentials/discretionary-food-and-drink-choices">discretionary foods</a>. These are energy-dense and nutrient-poor foods high in saturated fat, added sugars, added salt, and alcohol — ingredients associated with foods with high-crop use. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/it-takes-21-litres-of-water-to-produce-a-small-chocolate-bar-how-water-wise-is-your-diet-123180">It takes 21 litres of water to produce a small chocolate bar. How water-wise is your diet?</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<p>For example, potato chips are made from potato and vegetable oil, both of which require cropland. Even beer depends on cropland, using barley and hops in its production. </p>
<p>Along with reducing food waste, reducing the intake of discretionary foods to sensible levels is the most important action Australians can take to make their diets healthier and more sustainable. </p>
<p>These discretionary foods also tend to lead to the over-consumption of energy due to their high energy density, which is not only a problem for the environment, but also our waistlines.</p>
<p>Processed foods often use a surprising amount of cropland. An apple might weigh 100 grams, but a small glass of apple juice might use 400 g of apples.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353295/original/file-20200818-24-1g3wm5a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The five food groups" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353295/original/file-20200818-24-1g3wm5a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353295/original/file-20200818-24-1g3wm5a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353295/original/file-20200818-24-1g3wm5a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353295/original/file-20200818-24-1g3wm5a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353295/original/file-20200818-24-1g3wm5a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353295/original/file-20200818-24-1g3wm5a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353295/original/file-20200818-24-1g3wm5a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stick to the five food groups, though it’s important to limit the consumption of poultry and pork to keep your cropland footprint down.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/food-essentials/five-food-groups">eatforhealth.gov.au</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/guidelines">Australian Dietary Guidelines</a>, most Australian’s consume too many discretionary foods instead of choosing foods from the <a href="https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/guidelines/australian-guide-healthy-eating">five food groups</a>: grains, vegetables and legumes, fruits, dairy products and meats.</p>
<h2>Animal-sourced foods</h2>
<p>Following discretionary foods, the second largest contribution to the cropland footprint is from the “fresh meat and alternatives” food group. This food group includes eggs, nuts and legumes and is an important source of protein and nutrients.</p>
<p>In this food group, wild-caught seafood and game meats had no associated cropland use. Also at the lower end of the scale were tofu and pulses like chickpeas (0.17 and 0.18 square metres per serving).</p>
<p>Lamb and beef had moderate cropland footprints (0.64 and 0.82 square metres per serving). That’s because in Australia, sheep and cattle mostly graze on grasslands.</p>
<p>But livestock have higher cropland footprints when they’re fed with crop-based feed such as cereals, soybeans and oilseed meals.</p>
<p>This includes aquaculture salmon (0.70 square metres per serving), chicken (1.62 square metres per serving) and pork (2.21 square metres per serving). Eggs require 0.98 square metres of cropland per serving.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/vegan-foods-sustainability-claims-need-to-give-the-full-picture-121051">Vegan food's sustainability claims need to give the full picture</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>If Australians follow the <a href="https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/guidelines/australian-guide-healthy-eating">Australian Dietary Guidelines</a>, it is possible to eat within the global cropland boundary and there is flexibility to enjoy a variety of foods in the “fresh meats and alternatives” food group. </p>
<p>However, the guidelines don’t specify how much poultry or pork should be eaten, which becomes an issue if these meats make up a big part of a diet. </p>
<p>Diets compliant with the Australian Dietary Guidelines that were within the global cropland boundary contained more seafood, beef, lamb and vegetarian food. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353289/original/file-20200818-16-rgq8fk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353289/original/file-20200818-16-rgq8fk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353289/original/file-20200818-16-rgq8fk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353289/original/file-20200818-16-rgq8fk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353289/original/file-20200818-16-rgq8fk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353289/original/file-20200818-16-rgq8fk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353289/original/file-20200818-16-rgq8fk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353289/original/file-20200818-16-rgq8fk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Make chips a sometimes food to eat within the appropriate cropland boundary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s also important to note croplands across Australia and the world are not equally productive. To provide a reliable measure of resource use, we calculated cropland footprints taking both the area occupied and productive potential into account. </p>
<p>In Australia, for example, average wheat yields are typically below 2 metric tons per hectare. Compare this to northern Europe, where <a href="http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#home">wheat yields</a> of between 6 and 10 metric tons per hectare are common. </p>
<p>In any case, sticking to a healthier diet as described in the dietary guidelines, with moderate intake of cropland-intensive poultry and pork, is the best way to ensure you’re eating within sustainable cropland boundaries. Otherwise there just won’t be enough food to go around.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-is-hurting-farmers-even-seeds-are-under-threat-128722">Climate change is hurting farmers – even seeds are under threat</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141361/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brad Ridoutt has undertaken food systems research related to environmental issues for a variety of private sector organizations and Australian government agencies. This includes Dairy Australia and Meat and Livestock Australia - the latter of which partially funded this research.</span></em></p>Reducing our intake of discretionary foods such as cakes, biscuits, pizza and hot chips is the best way we can make our diets more sustainable.Brad Ridoutt, Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Agriculture, CSIROLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1386022020-05-19T07:03:06Z2020-05-19T07:03:06ZClimate explained: why we need to focus on increased consumption as much as population growth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335290/original/file-20200515-138610-a2el71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C133%2C5559%2C3567&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thomas La Mela/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287622/original/file-20190811-144878-bvgm9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287622/original/file-20190811-144878-bvgm9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287622/original/file-20190811-144878-bvgm9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287622/original/file-20190811-144878-bvgm9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287622/original/file-20190811-144878-bvgm9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287622/original/file-20190811-144878-bvgm9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287622/original/file-20190811-144878-bvgm9l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p><em><strong><a href="https://theconversation.com/nz/topics/climate-explained-74664">Climate Explained</a></strong> is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.</em> </p>
<p><em>If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz</em></p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Almost every threat to modern humanity can be traced simply to our out-of-control population growth (think about arable land going to housing; continued growth in demand for petroleum fuels). Is anything being done to contain population growth on a national and international scale?</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The question of population is more complex that it may seem – in the context of climate change as well as other issues such as biodiversity loss and international development. </p>
<p>As a starting point, let’s look at the statement “out-of-control population growth”. In fact, population growth is more “in control” than it has been for the past 50 years.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-explained-how-growth-in-population-and-consumption-drives-planetary-change-126671">Climate explained: how growth in population and consumption drives planetary change</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Population isn’t growing everywhere</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/">global rate of population growth</a> has been declining from just over 2% per year in 1970 to less than 1.1% in 2020 (and this estimate was made before COVID-19 erupted globally).</p>
<p>To put this in perspective, if the 2% growth rate had continued, the world’s population would have doubled in 35 years. At a 1.1% growth rate, it would now be set to double in 63 years – but the growth rate is still declining, so the doubling time will be lengthened again.</p>
<p>Population growth also varies significantly between countries. Among the <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/population-by-country/">20 most populous countries in the world</a>, three countries have growth rates of more than 2.5% – Ethiopia, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo – while Japan’s population is in decline (with a negative growth rate, -0.3%) and China, Russia, Germany and Thailand all have very low growth rates.</p>
<p>These growth rates vary in part because the population structures are very different across countries. <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/270087/age-distribution-in-japan/">Japan</a> has an aged population, with 28% over 65 years and just 12% under 15 years. <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/382296/age-structure-in-nigeria/">Nigeria</a> has only 3% of people in the over-65 bracket and 44% under 15. </p>
<p>For comparison, 20% of New Zealanders are younger than 15 and 16% are older than 65. For Australia, the respective figures are 18% and 17%. </p>
<p>Migration also makes a significant contribution in some countries, propping up the working-age population and shaping the demographic structure. History and levels of economic development play an important role too: higher-income countries almost consistently have smaller families and lower growth rates. </p>
<h2>Rise in consumption</h2>
<p>It’s certainly valid to link population growth (even a more limited “in control” population growth) with climate change and loss of land. Everything else being equal, more people means more space taken up, more resources consumed and more carbon emitted. </p>
<p>But while population growth has slowed since the 1970s, resource consumption hasn’t. For example, there is no equivalent decline in <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/fossil-fuels">fossil fuel use</a> since the 1970s.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335589/original/file-20200518-138639-u00co6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335589/original/file-20200518-138639-u00co6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335589/original/file-20200518-138639-u00co6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335589/original/file-20200518-138639-u00co6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335589/original/file-20200518-138639-u00co6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335589/original/file-20200518-138639-u00co6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335589/original/file-20200518-138639-u00co6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335589/original/file-20200518-138639-u00co6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fuel consumption varies throughout the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mpcaphotos/22710974150/">Flickr/Minnesota Pollution Control Agency</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This is an area where not everyone is equal. If all people were to use the same amount of resources (fossil fuels, timber, minerals, arable land etc), then of course total resource use and carbon would rise. But resource use varies dramatically globally. </p>
<p>If we look at <a href="https://www.indexmundi.com/g/r.aspx?v=91000">oil consumption per person</a> in 2019, the average American used almost twice as much as someone in Japan, the second oil-thirstiest populous nation, and almost 350 times as much as a person living in the Democratic Republic of Congo.</p>
<p>It is an easy out for us in the industrialised world to say “out-of-control population growth” is killing the planet, when instead it is equally valid – but more confronting – to say our out-of-control consumption is killing the planet.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/can-your-actions-really-save-the-planet-planetary-accounting-has-the-answer-104005">Can your actions really save the planet? 'Planetary accounting' has the answer</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Population growth slows when women are educated</h2>
<p>To come to the final part of the question: is anything being done to contain population growth, on a national or international scale?</p>
<p>Even if we set aside the argument above that population is not the only issue, or even the most significant one, in terms of threats to humanity, what factors might influence population growth in parts of the world where it is high?</p>
<p>Things are being done, but they may not be what most people expect. It has long been <a href="http://prelim2009.filmbulletin.org/readings/04-Population/Caldwell-Toward_a_Restatement_of_Demographic_Transition_Theory-1976.pdf">shown</a> that as incomes rise and health care improves, more children survive and people tend to have smaller families. </p>
<p>This effect is not instantaneous. There is a lag where population growth rates might rise first before they begin to drop. This demographic transition is a relatively consistent pattern globally. </p>
<p>But, at the country level, the single most significant influence on reducing fertility rates, family size and overall population growth is <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/07/how-education-can-moderate-population-growth/">access to education for girls and women</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335592/original/file-20200518-138610-1y3pm5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335592/original/file-20200518-138610-1y3pm5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/335592/original/file-20200518-138610-1y3pm5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335592/original/file-20200518-138610-1y3pm5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335592/original/file-20200518-138610-1y3pm5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335592/original/file-20200518-138610-1y3pm5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335592/original/file-20200518-138610-1y3pm5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/335592/original/file-20200518-138610-1y3pm5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fertility rates drop when girls get access to education.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Oksana Kuzmina/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2016/02/16/climate-change-fertility-and-girls-education/">study in 2016</a>, drawing on World Bank population data across a wide range of countries, found:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… the main driver of overall fertility reduction is clearly the change in proportions of women at each education level. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In relation to climate change action, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2016/02/16/climate-change-fertility-and-girls-education/">this study</a> specifically notes: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is education, or more specifically girls’ education, that is far more likely to result in lower carbon emissions than a shift to renewables, improved agricultural practices, urban public transport, or any other strategy now being contemplated.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Recent <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/113/50/14294/" title="Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals leads to lower world population growth">research</a> looked at how the global population might change if we implemented the aspirations of the 17 UN <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300">Sustainable Development Goals</a>. It found the change would be significant and could even mean the global population stabilises by mid-century.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/138602/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Glenn Banks does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It is easy for people in the industrialised world to blame population growth elsewhere for environmental damage. But increased consumption is just as important – if more confronting.Glenn Banks, Professor of Geography and Head of School, School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1227782019-09-02T15:36:31Z2019-09-02T15:36:31ZFocusing on cutting emissions alone won’t halt ecological decline, we must consume less – former UK chief environmental adviser<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290546/original/file-20190902-175705-lmsuf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6101%2C2991&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Our consumption is not without impacts.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/poor-culture-consumption-achieve-progress-modern-646823572?src=-1-40">Roman Mikhailiuk</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Reaching net zero emissions has become the focal point of government efforts to halt climate and ecological breakdown. It is easy to aim for but much more difficult to deliver – and worse, we may be focusing on the wrong objective. During my past seven years spent as chief scientific adviser at the UK’s environment ministry, it has become clear to me that even if governments succeed in reaching net zero by 2050, it may do nothing significant to halt environmental decline.</p>
<p>To produce goods and services, the global economy needs materials – and that means growing or mining natural resources. Since the industrial revolution, the rate at which we have been using these resources <a href="http://internationalresourcepanel.org/reports/global-resources-outlook">has been increasing</a>, and in the last 15 years this rate has accelerated considerably. As an example, China used <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/03/24/how-china-used-more-cement-in-3-years-than-the-u-s-did-in-the-entire-20th-century/?noredirect=on">50% more</a> cement between 2011 and 2013 than the US did in the whole of the 20th century.</p>
<p>The second of Newton’s seminal laws of thermodynamics tells us that the outputs of a stable system have to equal its inputs – and the global economy is no exception. Because the economy – and in particular the circular economy – is still growing, the increase in waste <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378017313031">lags a little behind</a> the increase in inputs of natural resources. However, retention of materials in the economy is temporary. All materials will eventually exit as waste, whether in minutes or centuries.</p>
<p>Greenhouse gases are among the quickest of the global economy’s waste products to be felt, and eliminating emissions is essential if we are to halt catastrophic global heating. But focusing our efforts on curbing one of the waste outputs without addressing how much we’re putting into the system is like putting a bung in a car’s tail pipe and hoping nothing will go wrong.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290547/original/file-20190902-175682-1bpgx11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290547/original/file-20190902-175682-1bpgx11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290547/original/file-20190902-175682-1bpgx11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290547/original/file-20190902-175682-1bpgx11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290547/original/file-20190902-175682-1bpgx11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290547/original/file-20190902-175682-1bpgx11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290547/original/file-20190902-175682-1bpgx11.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Just one drop in the more than 2500 billion tonne ocean of waste humanity has expelled from the global economy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/garbage-pile-trash-dump-landfill-aerial-1324816124?src=-1-25">Avigator Fortuner/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Everything we consume needs energy to create, and while we are making progress at reducing the energy costs per unit consumption, current evidence does not indicate that the total energy costs of consumption <a href="https://www.iea.org/weo">are declining</a>. Even if the world’s energy demands stay the same, our transition away from fossil fuels will require massive amounts of new renewable infrastructure, which will in turn require vast quantities of raw materials.</p>
<p>Global stocks of most basic resources aren’t low – although sand for construction is already <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/world-facing-global-sand-crisis-180964815/">becoming scarce</a>. But when you consider that the projected trend is for energy demand <a href="https://www.iea.org/we">to nearly double</a> by 2050 as developing economies consume more, skyrocketing resource use is likely to become a serious problem. As the most accessible deposits of resources become depleted, the energy and environmental costs of accessing <a href="https://victorcourt.files.wordpress.com/2016/08/court-fizaine-2017_long-term-estimates-of-the-eroi-of-coal-oil-and-gas-global-productions.pdf">further reserves increase</a>. Eventually, we will be faced with a dangerous excess of new forms of waste, or worse, run out of a crucial building block of the global economy.</p>
<p>If we think that technology can come to the rescue, then we are almost certainly mistaken. Claims about the rapidity with which we can <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01312-5">transition away from fossil fuels</a> are exaggerated, and evidence suggests that levels of innovation within advanced economies <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/10544.html">is declining</a>, in spite of continuous investment in research and development.</p>
<h2>Less in, less out</h2>
<p>If we continue on our current trajectory, then by 2050 the amount of waste we produce, in all its forms, is likely to be <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378017313031">three to four times</a> what we produce now. It’s difficult to say exactly how soon resource use and resulting waste will become a problem with existential implications. But its crucial that we stop treating the planet as a bottomless pool of resources long before that point. We must act now, before the task becomes any harder.</p>
<p>To do this, as a society we must focus not on emissions themselves, but on the root cause behind them – consumption. If we truly want to reduce the damaging waste produced by our global economy, then we need to reduce the amount of materials we put into it.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290545/original/file-20190902-175691-1t7zy2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290545/original/file-20190902-175691-1t7zy2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290545/original/file-20190902-175691-1t7zy2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290545/original/file-20190902-175691-1t7zy2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290545/original/file-20190902-175691-1t7zy2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290545/original/file-20190902-175691-1t7zy2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/290545/original/file-20190902-175691-1t7zy2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How much stuff do you really need?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/Bznd9GT1RQo">Monika Kozub/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We need policies that are explicitly designed to reduce demand and build a very different model of economic prosperity. Governments need to pull their three main strings – public investment, regulation and taxation – in concert, and across all departments. That’s a gargantuan task. To oversee such a shift, governments could create a department with the explicit remit of realigning the entrenched economic priorities of all other departments.</p>
<p>At a fundamental level, this means moving away from maximising growth, and incorporating ecological principles into economics. The fact that we can currently exchange non-material wealth – in which growth, mainly driven by the services economy, is potentially limitless – for material wealth is placing unsustainable demands on limited natural resources. Meanwhile, the environmental costs of these resources are usually not accounted for, and natural resources with no commercial value are treated as essentially valueless. Only by addressing these flaws can we redress the imbalance between the short-term value of consuming and the long-term value of safeguarding our environment.</p>
<p>There is no free lunch when it comes to halting climate and environmental breakdown. It is simply not feasible for everybody on the planet to consume at the rate of the average European of North American, and we should not create the expectation that this is possible. Instead, established economic powers and their citizens must drastically reduce the amount they demand of the global economy. If not, our efforts to live in harmony with the natural world will join the waste heap too.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/imagine-newsletter-researchers-think-of-a-world-with-climate-action-113443?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=Imagineheader1122778">Click here to subscribe to our climate action newsletter. Climate change is inevitable. Our response to it isn’t.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122778/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Boyd has received funding from the UK Natural Environment Research Council; US Office of Naval Research; UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs; US National Marine Fisheries Service.
He is affiliated with the University of St Andrews (as an employee), UK National Oceanography Centre (as a Trustee), UK Research Integrity Office (as Chair and Trustee), Fera Science Limited (as a non-Executive Director, unremunerated).
Until September 2019, he was Chief Scientific Adviser at the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.</span></em></p>Putting all of our eggs in the net zero basket is merely kicking the can down the road.Ian Boyd, Professor of Biology, University of St AndrewsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1212462019-08-21T19:53:34Z2019-08-21T19:53:34ZAccess to land is a barrier to simpler, sustainable living. Public housing could offer a way forward<p>Many of us do not need to hear any more warnings from <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/2018/10/08/summary-for-policymakers-of-ipcc-special-report-on-global-warming-of-1-5c-approved-by-governments/">the IPCC</a>, <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2209126-david-attenborough-on-climate-change-we-cannot-be-radical-enough/">David Attenborough</a> or climate activists like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/11/greta-thunberg-schoolgirl-climate-change-warrior-some-people-can-let-things-go-i-cant">Greta Thunberg</a>. We have seen enough to be convinced that limitless <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/post-capitalism-life-within-environmental-limits">economic growth and the globalisation of high-consumption lifestyles</a> have <a href="https://www.breakthroughonline.org.au/whatliesbeneath">brought our planet’s life-support systems to the brink of collapse</a>.</p>
<p>In response to today’s urgent ecological and social problems, we often hear calls from sustainability advocates about the need to “<a href="https://www.sloww.co/downshifting-simple-living/">downshift</a>” away from consumer lifestyles, to practise <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-revolution-disguised-as-organic-gardening-in-memory-of-bill-mollison-66137">permaculture</a> and to embrace <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-simple-life-manifesto-and-how-it-could-save-us-33081">simpler ways</a> to live. When these <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-suburbs-are-the-spiritual-home-of-overconsumption-but-they-also-hold-the-key-to-a-better-future-108496">movements scale up</a>, the argument goes, we will “<a href="http://theconversation.com/life-in-a-degrowth-economy-and-why-you-might-actually-enjoy-it-32224">degrow</a>” our economies to a sustainable scale.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/life-in-a-degrowth-economy-and-why-you-might-actually-enjoy-it-32224">Life in a 'degrowth' economy, and why you might actually enjoy it</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>Important though these analyses and perspectives are, they almost always leave something critical out of the conversation. There is a very powerful reason we are currently unable to move toward a simpler and sustainable society: the costs of securing access to land for housing often mean only the relatively affluent can afford such “green lifestyles”.</p>
<p>In response to this problem, we offer some ideas to show how public land could be used for sustainable forms of community-led development.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288831/original/file-20190821-170914-1icx8ko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288831/original/file-20190821-170914-1icx8ko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288831/original/file-20190821-170914-1icx8ko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288831/original/file-20190821-170914-1icx8ko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288831/original/file-20190821-170914-1icx8ko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288831/original/file-20190821-170914-1icx8ko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288831/original/file-20190821-170914-1icx8ko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288831/original/file-20190821-170914-1icx8ko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Creating a place like Sustainable Fawkner’s ‘Dandelion Patch’ depends on access to suitable land. More creative public housing policies could lead the way in developing more community food gardens (for example, see www.ntwonline.weebly.com).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/takver/16183127878">Takver/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The property system makes simple living hard</h2>
<p>Recognition of the need for <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-strikes-greta-thunberg-calls-for-system-change-not-climate-change-heres-what-that-could-look-like-112891">system change</a> is growing. But those arguing for high-impact societies to downshift toward cultures of sustainable consumption need to acknowledge a fundamental problem more clearly: simply keeping a roof over our heads can demand an energy-intensive lifestyle and a dependence on market growth.</p>
<p>Why? Having to buy or rent a home in capitalist societies like Australia has huge implications for most of us. It affects what we do for work, how much we work, our need for a car, etc. And, if you can barely afford land or your own home, putting solar panels on the roof, working part-time or growing your own organic food all become very unlikely.</p>
<p>In short, securing the basic need for housing is putting people in <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/more-home-owners-falling-behind-on-mortgage-as-debt-climbs-20190617-p51yhg.html">more and more debt</a>. This often means any attempt at “dropping out” of market consumerism first involves a whole lot of “dropping in”. The consequences of this reality are anything but <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Affluenza-When-Much-Never-Enough/dp/1741146712">simple, local and sustainable</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-suburbs-are-the-spiritual-home-of-overconsumption-but-they-also-hold-the-key-to-a-better-future-108496">The suburbs are the spiritual home of overconsumption. But they also hold the key to a better future</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A different type of land and housing opportunity is needed for reasons of sustainability and equity. Central here is the recognition that access to land, just as with air and water, is not a market product. <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/LandAndHR/Pages/LandandHumanRightsIndex.aspx">It is a human right</a> and should be recognised as such. </p>
<p>Even discussing land reform in terms of “affordable housing” still frames land as a market commodity. These discussions often rely on notions of charity and welfare to increase access to land when it really should be available as a right.</p>
<p>But in a nation where simply <a href="https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2019/07/negative-gearing-reform-dead-buried-cremated/">abolishing negative gearing appears to be politically unpalatable</a>, it would be pragmatic, as a first step, to explore less controversial but still effective policy approaches.</p>
<h2>Pointers to rethinking how we govern land</h2>
<p>There are <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1941069">many conceptions</a> of property, which means we do not simply have to choose between free market capitalism and state socialism. In Singapore, for example, <a href="https://www.hdb.gov.sg/cs/infoweb/about-us/history">more than 80% of residents live in state-provided housing</a>. </p>
<p>Societies can govern access to land in an infinite variety of ways. Each way distributes or concentrates wealth and power in progressive or regressive ways.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-century-of-public-housing-lessons-from-singapore-where-housing-is-a-social-not-financial-asset-121141">A century of public housing: lessons from Singapore, where housing is a social, not financial, asset</a>
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<p>One policy deserving of attention involves attempting to transcend the “welfare” framing of existing uses of public housing. Already, secure access to public land has empowered some residents to participate <a href="https://www.facs.nsw.gov.au/housing/living/rights-responsibilities/get-involved/chapters/community-greening-program">in programs such as community food gardens, resources repair/share programs, housing management, maintenance</a> and, in the UK, even <a href="http://www.forevergreen.org.uk/Forever_Green_Ecological_Architects/hedgehog-self-build-housing-co-op.html">housing construction</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288838/original/file-20190821-170935-10tygd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288838/original/file-20190821-170935-10tygd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288838/original/file-20190821-170935-10tygd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288838/original/file-20190821-170935-10tygd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288838/original/file-20190821-170935-10tygd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288838/original/file-20190821-170935-10tygd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288838/original/file-20190821-170935-10tygd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/288838/original/file-20190821-170935-10tygd2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Public housing residents in Fitzroy, Melbourne, maintain this community garden.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.cultivatingcommunity.org.au/">BSL/Cultivating Community</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In New South Wales, <a href="https://www.facs.nsw.gov.au/housing/living/rights-responsibilities/get-involved/chapters/community-greening-program">50,000 public housing residents</a> have converted many hectares of land in social housing areas into gardens growing vegetables, fruit and flowers. In Victoria, <a href="http://www.cultivatingcommunity.org.au/community-gardens/our-services-2/">more than 20 public housing estates</a> have established community gardens. </p>
<p>If these self-selecting residents could be <a href="http://ntwonline.weebly.com/">better supported and validated</a>, their status in society (and how they might conceive of themselves) could move from being regarded as “social dependants” to “pioneers of a new economy”. By showing that access to public land can help with the emergence of local and sustainable <a href="https://thenextsystem.org/cultivating-community-economies">community economies</a>, such experiments could be the cultural driver of a broader policy rethink of how we govern land.</p>
<p>For example, more public land could be made available for <a href="http://www.forevergreen.org.uk/Forever_Green_Ecological_Architects/hedgehog-self-build-housing-co-op.html">housing construction collectives</a>, where people participate in building their own homes under the guidance of experts. Australia could seek inspiration from Senegal, where <a href="https://www.collective-evolution.com/2015/06/17/senegal-transforming-14000-villages-into-ecovillages/">14,000 ecovillages</a> are being developed.</p>
<p>In governing land we are limited only by our imaginations. Currently, a chronic lack of imagination is being shown. It is time to experiment with new frameworks that can increase access to land and thereby empower more people to explore lifestyles of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-suburbs-are-the-spiritual-home-of-overconsumption-but-they-also-hold-the-key-to-a-better-future-108496">reduced consumption and increased self-sufficiency</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/farming-the-suburbs-why-cant-we-grow-food-wherever-we-want-80330">Farming the suburbs – why can’t we grow food wherever we want?</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>The first step is recognising the obstacle</h2>
<p>We call on the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1469540512444019">simple living</a>, <a href="https://retrosuburbia.com/">permaculture</a> and <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9789811321306">degrowth</a> movements – and the sustainability movement more generally – to better recognise the obstacle that access to land presents to achieving their goals. More energy and activism should be dedicated to envisioning, campaigning for and experimenting with <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Housing-for-Degrowth-Principles-Models-Challenges-and-Opportunities/Nelson-Schneider/p/book/9781138558052">alternative property and housing arrangements</a>.</p>
<p>Our purpose is not to dismiss the importance of the various <a href="https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/post-capitalism-life-within-environmental-limits">downshifting movements</a>. We need as many people as possible pushing against the tide of consumerism and showing that low-impact living can be <a href="http://www.paecon.net/PAEReview/issue61/Alexander1_61.pdf">good living</a>.</p>
<p>These social movements will help create the culture of <a href="https://www.fishpond.com.au/Books/Sufficiency-Economy-Samuel-Alexander/9780994160614">sufficiency</a> that is needed to support a politics of sustainability. But any such politics must include more empowering and creative land policies.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121246/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Baumann is affiliated with the NTW project (<a href="http://www.ntwonline.weebly.com">www.ntwonline.weebly.com</a>). This project is working on a reframing of public housing policy settings – to provide an example of local collaborative development on public land. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Alexander does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The cost of land and, in turn, housing forces people to buy into the rules of market capitalism, making it very hard to ‘downshift’ from consumer lifestyles. But what if we rethink public housing?Alex Baumann, Casual Academic, School of Social Sciences & Psychology, Western Sydney UniversitySamuel Alexander, Research fellow, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1154372019-04-16T22:46:01Z2019-04-16T22:46:01ZAgnès Varda, a pioneering artist who saw the extraordinary in the ordinary<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269396/original/file-20190415-147514-1plh101.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C225%2C1694%2C1166&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Filmmaker Agnes Varda holds the Honorary Palme d'Or award at the 68th international film festival, Cannes, France. Varda, a central figure of the French New Wave who later won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, has died. She was 90. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP/Thibault Camus</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fans and friends began commemorating beloved French film director Agnès Varda <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/mar/29/agnes-varda-oscar-nominated-french-new-wave-director-dies-aged-90">immediately after her death</a>, at age 90, on March 29, 2019. Bouquets, notes and even vegetables arrived outside her small purple house at 86 rue Daguerre, the Paris home that she had lived in since the 1950s. </p>
<p>Varda was well-known on her pedestrian street reputed for its food shops in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. Its butcher, baker, hairdresser and other merchants <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071384/">were featured in her 1976 documentary film <em>Daguerréotypes</em></a>. I stopped by there to pay my respects a few days after she died. The florist from whom I bought a bouquet for Varda had pages of orders for the artist. “For her funeral tomorrow,” the florist had said. But it was not the piles of flowers that stood out the most outside her house: it was the potatoes.</p>
<p>Unique commemorative practices spring up around the figures buried in Parisian cemeteries. In the Père Lachaise cemetery, part of the standard tourist itinerary to Paris, Oscar Wilde’s grave is covered in thickly applied lipstick kisses; friendship bracelets are tied around Jim Morrison’s resting place and even the fin-de-siècle lesbian poet Renée Vivien, buried in the quieter Passy cemetery, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/1478731811Z.0000000009?journalCode=ydix20">attracts communities of mourners who leave violets or small ornaments at her grave</a>.</p>
<p>Admirers of Varda’s work offered potatoes, preferably heart-shaped, both outside her home and at her burial place in the Montparnasse cemetery, just steps away. She is buried next to her partner, director Jacques Démy, who died in 1990. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269172/original/file-20190414-76846-1426d2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/269172/original/file-20190414-76846-1426d2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269172/original/file-20190414-76846-1426d2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269172/original/file-20190414-76846-1426d2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269172/original/file-20190414-76846-1426d2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269172/original/file-20190414-76846-1426d2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/269172/original/file-20190414-76846-1426d2c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Potatoes and flowers outside Agnès Varda’s home on rue Daguerre on April 1, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Margot Irvine</span></span>
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<p>Potatoes figure prominently in her marvellous documentary film <em>Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse</em> (2000). The film takes a light-hearted tone as it documents “gleaners,” the men and women who make use of waste: misshapen foods left behind by large-scale producers, old furniture and objects which are given new life in creative constructions. Varda ennobles the gleaners by comparing them to their ancestors, evoked in a poem by renaissance poet Joachim Du Bellay or depicted in paintings such as those by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Francois-Millet-French-painter-1814-1875">Jean-François Millet</a> which figure prominently in the documentary. The environmental message of the film and its critique of overconsumption was ahead of its time. But Varda was always ahead of her time.</p>
<h2>A pioneer of the French New Wave</h2>
<p>Her 1954 film, <em>La Pointe Courte</em>, was considered, retrospectively, to be the first film of the French New Wave. <a href="https://books.openedition.org/pur/1732">According to cinema historian Bernard Bastide</a>, of the 77 feature-length films made in France that year only two were directed by women: Varda’s inaugural film, which traces the marital problems of a couple (played by Silvia Montfort and Philippe Noiret) against the backdrop of a poor fishing village in the south of France, and Jacqueline Audry’s <em>Huis-Clos</em>, based on the play by Jean-Paul Sartre.</p>
<p>Seven years later, when Varda’s best known film, <em>Cléo de 5 à 7</em> (1961), came out, the situation had not changed much. There were just a handful of female directors making films (Jacqueline Audry, Nicole Védrès, Yannick Bellon) and Varda was, and would continue to be, the only one who was associated with the New Wave.</p>
<p>From the perspective of feminist film theory, <em>Cléo de 5 à 7</em> was an extremely innovative and important film. Cinema studies professor, <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/to-desire-differently/9780231104975">Sandy Flitterman-Lewis</a> explains how Cleo goes from being the object of the gaze of others in the first part of the film to become the subject of the gaze in the film’s second half. </p>
<p>Varda eloquently explained in an <a href="https://books.google.fr/books?id=rblBAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=Varda+cin%C3%A9ma+75+%22Mireille+Amiel%22&source=bl&ots=9ItUMdU2Ty&sig=ACfU3U07iFrgCVmHj0qhpd1euW4XrvdeYA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwizgOr-t9ThAhWv1eAKHROMDqkQ6AEwAXoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=Varda%20cin%C3%A9ma%2075%20%22Mireille%20Amiel%22&f=false">interview published in <em>Cinéma 75</em> in 1975</a> that “Cleo started out basing her entire sense of self on others’ looks; she was their cliché (and consequently their thing). Cleo is a woman-cliché, tall, beautiful, curvaceous. So the entire dynamics of the film centres on the moment this woman refuses to be this cliché, on the moment when she no longer wants to be looked at, but wants instead to look at others.” </p>
<p><em>Cléo de 5 à 7</em> is also a film about time, which is another concept that is central to Varda’s work. Varda’s films look at how the passing of time affects couples, bodies as they age (including her own) and the evolution of communities.</p>
<p>In <em>Cléo de 5 à 7</em>, Varda marks the passage of objective mechanical time, by clocking the actual time between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. This is juxtaposed against the subjective passage of time as felt by the characters: Cleo’s lover José who is always in a hurry; Antoine, whom Cleo meets at the end of the film and who actually has very little time before the end of his leave from military service but who gives generously of it to Cleo; Cleo’s own impatience to learn the results of the medical tests she is waiting for, and then her acceptance of them.</p>
<h2>A constantly growing artist</h2>
<p>Potatoes are also perfect for studying the passage of time since they sprout, change their shape and colour. They mark time slowly, like the hands of a clock. You have to leave them alone, step away and then come back again to notice that they’ve changed.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A Toronto International Film Festival trailer for Agnès Varda’s collaboration with street artist JR — a wondrous travelogue, in which the duo travel through small villages in the French countryside and immortalize the faces of those they meet in immense public murals.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Varda felt an affinity for potatoes, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPDZA3WVATY">she explained in a 2011 interview</a>, because like them, she could grow in different directions and renew herself. She began calling herself a visual artist only late in her career when, in 2003, she was invited to show her photographic work at the 50th Venice Biennale of contemporary art. A second exhibition <em><a href="https://www.fondationcartier.com/en/exhibitions/agnes-varda-lile-et-elle">L’île et elle</a></em>, full of the autobiographical references that are also the focus of her films <em>Les Plages d’Agnès</em> (2008) and <em>Varda, par Agnès</em> (2019), was held at the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art in 2006. </p>
<p>Since the early 2000s her photographs, installation and video work have been exhibited <a href="https://arts.uchicago.edu/logan-center/logan-center-exhibitions/archive/agn%C3%A8s-varda-photographs-get-moving-potatoes-and-shells">internationally</a>. In 2017, she was the <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2018/01/23/french-director-agnes-varda-89-becomes-oldest-ever-oscar-nominee/">oldest person to receive an Academy Award nomination</a> in a competitive category for her charming documentary film <em>Visages, villages</em>, a collaboration with photographer and street artist JR.</p>
<p>Agnès Varda was a remarkable artist who was able to bring us to see mundane objects, like the humble potato, as subjects of wonder and inquiry capable of leading us in unexpected directions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115437/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Margot Irvine has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p>Beloved film director Agnès Varda died at age 90, on March 29th. She was a pioneer of French New Wave cinema and admired for her ability to understand time and see beauty outside of mechanical norms.Margot Irvine, Associate Professor, School of Languages and Literatures, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1039212018-11-06T19:12:31Z2018-11-06T19:12:31ZChinese migrants follow and add to Australian city dwellers’ giant ecological footprints<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243140/original/file-20181031-76396-13b046x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Conspicuous consumption is one of the main ways that China-born migrants come to mirror Australian society.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/melbourne-australia-september-18-2015-box-317889113?src=_rxXoaIwCMPqZyNjiiS56A-1-5">Nils Versemann/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This is the third article in our series, <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/australian-cities-in-the-asian-century-61652">Australian Cities in the Asian Century</a>. These articles draw on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-5871.12311">research</a>, just published in a special issue of Geographical Research, into how Australian cities are being influenced by the rise of China and associated flows of people, ideas and capital between China and Australia.</em></p>
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<p>Political debate about a “big Australia” has re-emerged in response to <a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-is-australias-population-the-highest-growing-in-the-world-96523">high levels of immigration</a>, increasing congestion and high property prices in Sydney and Melbourne, where <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/90pc-of-migrants-settling-in-two-cities/news-story/8746797d36bf40f41587d267e8dcdbc4">90% of migrants settle</a>. In 2010, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1617/Quick_Guides/MigrationStatistics">China overtook the United Kingdom as Australia’s largest source of permanent migrants</a> (a position <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about/reports-publications/research-statistics/statistics/live-in-australia/migration-programme">now held by India</a>). Since then, China-born migrants have <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about/reports-publications/research-statistics/statistics/live-in-australia/migration-programme">averaged around 15% of the annual intake</a>. That’s a significant contributor to the “Asianisation” of Sydney and Melbourne that <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?redir_esc=y&id=Yw-QVvwebDsC&q=Peter+McDonald#v=onepage&q=Demographic%20Transitions&f=false">Peter McDonald pointed to a decade ago</a>. </p>
<p>In this context, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1745-5871.12316">our research</a> focused on the much-neglected dimension of the <a href="https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2018/08/professor-ian-lowe-mass-immigration-mass-environment-killer/">environmental impact on cities</a> of population and immigration. Australian cities are world-leading – in the worst sense – in terms of the size of their <a href="https://www.footprintnetwork.org/our-work/ecological-footprint/">ecological footprints</a>, a measure of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705817316685?via%3Dihub">their resource use and greenhouse gas emissions</a>. And we found China-born residents more than triple their average levels of consumption compared to when they lived in China, even surpassing Australia-born residents’ consumption. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/no-sustainable-population-without-sustainable-consumption-1774">No sustainable population without sustainable consumption</a>
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</em>
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<h2>What did the study find?</h2>
<p>We were interested in understanding the urban consumption behaviour of China-born 21st-century migrants (as measured by their ecological footprint) when they settled in Box Hill. This is a middle-class middle-ring suburb of Melbourne with the <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/this-map-shows-where-migrants-from-around-the-world-have-settled-in-melbourne-20170822-gy1dqh.html">greatest concentration of China-born residents</a>. We compared their consumption to their pre-migration footprint (when living in China) and to that of Australia-born residents in the same suburb. </p>
<p>Our findings are based on an extensive face-to-face survey of 61 China-born and 72 Australia-born residents. The main findings were as follows.</p>
<p>Within a decade of arrival in Melbourne, China-born urban consumption patterns were more than three times their consumption before their migration. They even surpassed the consumption levels of other residents of the suburb. Their housing consumption was 5.4 times higher than when in China, food consumption 4.7 times higher and carbon footprint 2.7 times bigger. </p>
<p>In part this is due to higher incomes, settling in a city with housing sizes and costs among the highest in the world and where the private car is the dominant form of transport. But cultural influences are also in play.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243129/original/file-20181031-76416-1yk5cwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243129/original/file-20181031-76416-1yk5cwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243129/original/file-20181031-76416-1yk5cwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243129/original/file-20181031-76416-1yk5cwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243129/original/file-20181031-76416-1yk5cwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243129/original/file-20181031-76416-1yk5cwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243129/original/file-20181031-76416-1yk5cwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243129/original/file-20181031-76416-1yk5cwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Figure 1. The gap in the CALD Index between residents born in China and in Australia suggests a strong cultural influence on consumption behaviours. (Click to enlarge.)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1745-5871.12316">Ting, Newton & Stone (2018)</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>It is apparent that consumer acculturation is the major process by which Chinese migrants have come to mirror the host society in Australia. Cultural integration is less evident – it lags consumer acculturation. This was clear from a comparison of scores on a Cultural and Linguistic Difference (CALD) Index.</p>
<p>The index incorporated measures of birthplace, English proficiency, religion, food preferences, participation in entertainment and festivals, avenues of social interaction and engagement with neighbourhood communities. The gap between the China-born and Australia-born groups’ scores on the CALD Index was significant (see Figure 1). This suggests a strong cultural influence on the China-born group’s urban consumption behaviours is likely.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243131/original/file-20181031-76408-6migwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243131/original/file-20181031-76408-6migwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243131/original/file-20181031-76408-6migwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243131/original/file-20181031-76408-6migwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243131/original/file-20181031-76408-6migwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243131/original/file-20181031-76408-6migwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243131/original/file-20181031-76408-6migwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/243131/original/file-20181031-76408-6migwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=962&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Figure 2. China-born residents in Melbourne tend to have much larger housing in all categories than they had in China. (Click to enlarge.)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1745-5871.12316">Ting, Newton & Stone (2018)</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>A comparison of the different components of the ecological footprints of China-born and Australia-born residents was also revealing. Housing footprints measuring the size and type of dwelling occupied by the China-born residents were 18% larger overall. </p>
<p>This may be due to the role housing plays in reflecting an attained status (<em>mien-tzu</em>, or “to save face”) within the host society. Consumption levels that outstrip those of Australia-born residents indicate the potential danger of housing consumption being used to indicate “successful” settlement in Australia. </p>
<p>Food footprints of the China-born were 16% larger than the Australia-born. This reflected higher consumption of meat and dairy products and lower consumption of home-grown vegetables. </p>
<p>Carbon footprints of the China-born were 37% bigger, mainly as a result of more frequent overseas travel.</p>
<h2>A rising burden on the planet</h2>
<p>The global implications of these findings are potentially huge. The <a href="https://www.michaelwest.com.au/ross-garnaut-the-future-of-chinese-economic-growth/">rise of incomes among China’s population into the range of those in developed countries</a> can be expected to unleash new levels of urban consumption as this population aspires to the urban liveability enjoyed by people in Australia and North America. In these countries, however, city liveability ratings are closely related to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705817316685">ecological footprints that are almost triple those of China</a>. </p>
<p>Based on the rate of growth of the mainland Chinese middle class and the increase in consumption by the China-born middle class now living in Australia, the ecological footprint of China’s population of 1.4 billion can be expected to more than double over the next 10 to 20 years. This has significant consequences for planetary ecosystems and geopolitics.</p>
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<p><em>You can find other articles in the series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/australian-cities-in-the-asian-century-61652">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103921/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christina Ting receives funding from Swinburne University of Technology and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) towards her PhD scholarships. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wendy Stone receives funding from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) and the Australian Research Council (ARC). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Newton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australian cities are world-leading – in the worst sense – for resource use and greenhouse emissions. China-born residents have embraced these consumption patterns, which is bad news for the planet.Peter Newton, Research Professor in Sustainable Urbanism, Centre for Urban Transitions, Swinburne University of TechnologyChristina Ting, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Swinburne Business School, Swinburne University of TechnologyWendy Stone, Associate Professor, Centre for Urban Transitions, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/892122018-09-04T10:35:21Z2018-09-04T10:35:21ZIt’s too soon to call 3D printing a green technology<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234549/original/file-20180902-195319-1bvkt5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prototype vehicle built with 3D printing – but is it green?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tim Gutowski</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past decade 3D printing has captured the imagination of the general public, engineers and environmental visionaries. It has been hailed as both <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-just-hype-3d-printing-is-the-bridge-to-the-future-43493">a revolution in manufacturing</a> and an opportunity for <a href="http://fortune.com/2018/07/23/3d-printing-global-warming/">dramatic environmental improvement</a>. </p>
<p>3D printing has two key attributes that lead enthusiasts to call it a “green” technology. First, many 3D printing systems generate very little waste, unlike conventional manufacturing techniques such as injection molding, casting, stamping and cutting. Second, 3D printers in homes, stores and community centers can use digital designs to make products onsite, reducing the need to transport products to end users.</p>
<p>However, there is limited quantitative analysis of the environmental performance of 3D printing. Much of it focuses only on energy used during production, rather than including impacts from raw materials production, use of the product itself, or waste management. To fill this gap, we organized a <a href="http://bit.ly/JIE-3D">special issue</a> of Yale University’s <a href="http://bit.ly/JIE-Home">Journal of Industrial Ecology</a>. We found that excitement around the possibilities for dramatic environmental improvements needs to be moderated with an understanding of the technology, how it would be implemented, and its current state of development. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/L1ttKK5MSFo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">How does 3D printing affect the environment and how can governments respond?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Mainly for industry</h2>
<p>Most consumers who have seen 3D printers know them as small, boxy machines similar to ink-jet printers. Those systems can make simple products such as <a href="https://all3dp.com/1/useful-cool-things-3d-print-ideas-3d-printer-projects-stuff/">doorstops, bottle openers and shopping bag handles</a>, typically from a single material. </p>
<p>In fact 3D printing is a family of technologies used mainly in industry, where it is called additive manufacturing. These systems produce objects, based on digital information, by adding successive layers of materials. These items are then further processed and assembled into products such as jet engine components, hearing aids, medical implants and numerous different types of complex parts for industrial equipment. Additive manufacturing thus is a complement to conventional manufacturing processes, not a substitute for them. </p>
<p>Industry has used additive manufacturing for several decades to create prototypes for use in product design and production planning. Now the technologies are becoming more sophisticated, and are being used to make <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/additive-manufacturing-a-long-term-game-changer-for-manufacturers">end-use parts and products</a>.</p>
<p>Additive manufacturing is especially useful for making custom parts and small batches of complex objects at less cost than conventional manufacturing, which often requires time-consuming and expensive preparation of production equipment.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233726/original/file-20180827-75975-19npfqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233726/original/file-20180827-75975-19npfqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233726/original/file-20180827-75975-19npfqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233726/original/file-20180827-75975-19npfqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233726/original/file-20180827-75975-19npfqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233726/original/file-20180827-75975-19npfqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233726/original/file-20180827-75975-19npfqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233726/original/file-20180827-75975-19npfqz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 3D printed mouthpiece customized for each patient, printed from titanium and coated with a medical grade plastic, prevents dangerous pauses in breath during sleep.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CSIRO_ScienceImage_2061_Hands_holding_a_3D_printed_mouthpiece_printed_from_titanium.jpg">CSIRO</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Junk on demand?</h2>
<p>Our review of emerging research indicates that additive manufacturing is not automatically good for the environment. Parts produced this way often require additional processing to give them the correct dimensions or appearance. This can consume resources or generate further environmental impacts. </p>
<p>Much of the research that we <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12629">reviewed</a> suggests that seemingly mundane considerations, such as how additive manufacturing equipment is configured, the operational setup, and choices about processing details – for example, the thickness of layers being added – have a big impact on overall environmental performance. Scientists also are starting to investigate <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12569">exposure to emissions</a> of tiny plastic particles and safety hazards during use of additive manufacturing machinery.</p>
<p>Importantly, additive manufacturing is not an inherently wasteless process. For example, some technologies require use of <a href="http://bit.ly/JIE-Lantada">temporary support structures</a> during production to prevent objects from warping or collapsing while they are being formed. These supports cannot always be reprocessed back into raw materials. It also is important to consider whether the plastics, metals or mixed materials used in parts made with additive manufacturing can be recycled. </p>
<p>Another concern is that on-demand production and endless customization could lead to dramatic increases in throw-away consumer products, or “<a href="http://www.changeist.com/changelog/2012/10/30/plastic-overdrive">crapjects</a>,” as some commentators refer to them. Producing shoes, costume jewelry or household goods in varied colors or designs on demand could take “<a href="https://theconversation.com/read-this-before-you-go-sales-shopping-the-environmental-costs-of-fast-fashion-88373">fast fashion</a>” to a whole new level.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"910083951032709120"}"></div></p>
<h2>Realizing environmental benefits</h2>
<p>At the same time, decentralized, customized production is an intriguing environmental opportunity. It arises from a vision of producing objects in local factories, or even at home, and making just the specific product that is desired, rather than making an entire batch in a distant location, then shipping and warehousing the items in bulk quantities. </p>
<p>Currently, however, most products that could be made this way must be simple enough to produce on entry-level 3D printers, usually from a single material. More importantly, processing raw materials for additive manufacturing can consume more energy than manufacturing with conventional manufacturing technology and shipping the final product to end users. </p>
<p>Making spare parts through additive manufacturing has real potential for prolonging the lifespan of products, although it also could <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12388">keep older, less energy efficient equipment in use longer</a>. To make this a common option, some parts will need to be specifically designed to be produced through additive manufacturing.</p>
<p>Here, though, intellectual property issues could pose major challenges. Users of 3D printers may not have the legal right to produce parts and products from designs created by the original producers. And those producers may not find it in their economic interest to allow use of the design. Users of 3D printers may want to make spare parts for, say, an older car, but the car manufacturer may not want to share designs for those parts.</p>
<p>Additive manufacturing has powerful capabilities to produce objects with very complicated shapes and internal spaces – for example, specialized parts for aircraft that can reduce weight, thereby lowering fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Many researchers think the capability to make such complicated parts, and resulting gains in energy efficiency, may offer the greatest environmental benefits from additive manufacturing.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233738/original/file-20180828-75984-yipdad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233738/original/file-20180828-75984-yipdad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233738/original/file-20180828-75984-yipdad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233738/original/file-20180828-75984-yipdad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233738/original/file-20180828-75984-yipdad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233738/original/file-20180828-75984-yipdad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233738/original/file-20180828-75984-yipdad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/233738/original/file-20180828-75984-yipdad.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">3D printed lightweight titanium cabin components for passenger aircraft made using selective laser melting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Centre for Additive Manufacturing, University of Nottingham, 2018</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Opportunities ahead</h2>
<p>Additive manufacturing is very effective for producing a small number of specialized parts or products. Its potential environmental advantages currently lie in making spare parts on demand, and especially in creating specialized parts that reduce energy consumption of products during use. Other gains may be realized as technologies continue to advance.</p>
<p>Despite claims made about the environmental benefits of this technology, it is important to realize that these systems have not been designed with environmental efficiency in mind. While some 3D printing applications may not be environmentally desirable, there are many opportunities for improvement that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12580">have not yet been pursued</a>. The first step is more research on the environmental impacts of producing materials used in 3D printing, how 3D products are used, and the wastes they generate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89212/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Reid Lifset received funding from the US Department of Energy, the Lounsbery Foundation and GE to support publication of a special issue of the Journal of Industrial Ecology on the Environmental Dimensions of Additive Manufacturing and 3D printing The funders played no role in the editorial content of the issue.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Baumers and Timothy Gutowski do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Is 3D printing better for the environment than conventional manufacturing? The jury is still out.Reid Lifset, Research Scholar, Resident Fellow in Industrial Ecology, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale UniversityMartin Baumers, Centre Research Coordinator, Faculty of Engineering, University of NottinghamTimothy Gutowski, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/959652018-05-23T20:45:59Z2018-05-23T20:45:59ZWhy we perceive ourselves as richer than we think we are<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/219721/original/file-20180521-14953-ted3ua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C48%2C1790%2C974&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A man browsing the shoe department in a shopping centre. Can he really afford new shoes, and does he really need them? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shoeshopping.jpg">Alex Buirds/Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every day billions of people make countless decisions that have economic implications. Buying new clothes, having dinner at a Japanese restaurant, renting a house: most of our decisions determine how much money we spend or save. Some of our decisions also increase the amount of debt we have accumulated, such as when we buy a book and pay by credit card or when we obtain a loan to buy a new car.</p>
<p>Do people always weigh up pros and cons, use all the available information and commit to their long-term goals when making such decisions? Research in behavioural economics suggests this is not the case.</p>
<p>For example, even though many Americans argue that they should be saving more for retirement, they declare that they frequently <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/laibson/publications/hyperbolic-consumption-model-calibration-simulation-and-empirical-evaluation">do not commit to their saving decisions</a>.</p>
<p>In general, psychologists and behavioural scientists have long found that the gaps between people’s intentions and their actual behaviour are often due to cognitive biases – <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9780470939376.ch25">systematic errors in thinking</a> that affect individual decisions and judgements.</p>
<p>Cognitive biases explain why our economic decisions often appear to be flawed by self-control problems, myopic behaviour, changes in preferences over time and other behavioural inconsistencies.</p>
<p>For instance, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1540-6261.2009.01518.x">scholars</a> have found that people have a cognitive bias that often leads them to underestimate the true cost of debt, thus borrowing more than what they can afford.</p>
<p>As another example, research in economic psychology <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23547394_Unfixed_Resources_Perceived_Costs_Consumption_and_the_Accessible_Account_Effect">has shown</a> that the perceived cost of an item is lower than the actual cost if people compare it to greater, rather than smaller, financial resources.</p>
<p>For instance, even though a person knows that the objective cost of a T-shirt is 25 euros, that person is more likely to buy the T-shirt if she mentally compares the cost to the money in her bank account (for instance 23,000 euros) rather than the money in her wallet (let’s say 100 euros).</p>
<h2>The bias on wealth perception</h2>
<p>Following this line of research, at the Complexity Lab in Economics (CLE) of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, <a href="https://www.axa-research.org/en/projects/alberto-cardaci">I have recently started a new project</a>, “Cognitive biases, perceived wealth and macroeconomic instability”, with the help of a postdoctoral scholarship by the AXA Research Fund.</p>
<p>By combining findings from behavioural economics and social cognitive psychology with the techniques of experimental economics, the project essentially tests the hypothesis that some people tend to spend more than they “should” because they have the wrong perception of how wealthy they are.</p>
<p>In other words, our working assumption is that, depending on <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/leverage.asp">the value of leverage</a> (that is, the ratio between debt and net worth), people may feel wealthier even when their net worth has not changed, and that this makes them psychologically more prone to increase their spending, as well as their borrowing. We call this the “leverage bias hypothesis”.</p>
<p>At CLE we have run some preliminary laboratory experiments to test the presence of the leverage bias. Our first results (to be published) confirm that around 78% of the participants have a wrong perception of the amount of wealth owned and this perception changes based on <em>how</em> wealth is composed, even when the net value remains constant.</p>
<p>We postulate that this misperception of wealth may play a significant role at explaining individual consumption and borrowing decisions that do not appear rational based on canonical economics.</p>
<p>Indeed, the potential implications of a cognitive bias of this type are substantial. An individual with a distorted perception of wealth may feel financially better off, consume more, borrow a larger amount of loans and overestimate her ability to pay back her debt in the future.</p>
<p>This behaviour would have consequence not only for the borrower, but also for the lender: a borrower’s inability to meet the debt obligations would result in the accumulation of non-performing loans on the balance sheet of financial institutions in the credit market.</p>
<h2>Partial explanations for massive crash</h2>
<p>By extending this reasoning to a greater scale, it is also possible that macroeconomic fluctuations be (at least partially) explained by the excess spending and debt accumulation trigger by the leverage bias. This is the case when a large number of people perceive themselves as richer than they actually are: consumption can rise in the aggregate to the extent that such people possibly increase their debt being inaccurately confident that they will be able to pay it back.</p>
<p>Before the 2007 financial crisis the level of household debt skyrocketed, going <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/updates/usa-national-debt/">beyond 100% of GDP</a>. In those years, the American society easily and quickly moved from debt-led to debt burdened.</p>
<p>While almost certainly not all personal debt accumulated in society could be attributed to behavioural fallacies, it is worth investigating whether distorted perceptions of wealth may have tremendous costs not only at the individual level but also at the macroeconomic one.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=121&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=121&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=121&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=152&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=152&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/202296/original/file-20180117-53314-hzk3rx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=152&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em>Created in 2007, the Axa Research Fund supports more than 500 projects around the world conducted by researchers from 51 countries. To learn more about the work of Alberto Cardaci, visit his <a href="https://albertocardaci.wixsite.com/alcardaci">site</a> as well as the <a href="https://www.axa-research.org/en/projects/alberto-cardaci">Axa Research Fund dedicated page</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95965/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alberto Cardaci a reçu des financements du Axa Research Fund. </span></em></p>Under some circumstances, people may feel wealthier than they actually are and this makes them psychologically more prone to increase their spending, as well as their borrowing.Alberto Cardaci, Post-doctoral fellow, Complexity Lab in Economics (CLE), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore - Catholic University of MilanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/941272018-05-02T11:11:45Z2018-05-02T11:11:45ZHow a better understanding of the seven ages of appetite could help us stay healthy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216888/original/file-20180430-135806-1mmsjtg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What we eat, how much and how often changes over our lives.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/inscription-you-what-eat-on-wooden-369859274">milsamil/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Do you eat to live or live to eat? We have a complicated relationship with food, influenced by cost, availability, even peer pressure. But something we all share is appetite – our desire to eat. Increased appetite might have a physical or psychological dimension, but while hunger – our body’s way of making us desire food when it needs feeding – is a part of appetite, it is not the only factor. After all, we often eat when we’re not hungry, or may skip a meal despite pangs of hunger. Recent <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811918300144">research</a> has highlighted that the abundance of food cues – smells, sounds, advertising – in our environment is one of the main causes of overconsumption.</p>
<p>Our appetite is not fixed, it changes across our lifespan as we age. But as our choice of food will be an important factor to our health and well-being throughout our lives, it’s important that we get into the right habits. As Shakespeare might have put it, there are <a href="https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/310600.html">seven ages of appetite</a>, and a better understanding of these phases would help us to develop new ways of tackling under-eating and overconsumption, and particularly the health effects such as obesity that follow. </p>
<h2>First decade, 0-10</h2>
<p>In early childhood the body goes through rapid growth. Dietary behaviour built up in early life can extend to adulthood, leading a fat child to become a fat adult. Fussiness or fear of food can contribute to meal time struggles for parents of young children, but a strategy of repeated tasting and learning in a positive environment can help children learn about unfamiliar but important foods, such as vegetables. </p>
<p>Children should experience some control, particularly in relation to portion size. Being forced to “clear the plate” by parents can lead youngsters to lose their ability to follow their own appetite and hunger cues, promoting overeating in later years. There are growing calls for governments to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29164673">protect young children from targeted junk food advertising</a> – not just on television but in apps, social media and video blogs – since food advertising increases food consumption, contributing to becoming overweight. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216884/original/file-20180430-135803-ownmbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216884/original/file-20180430-135803-ownmbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216884/original/file-20180430-135803-ownmbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216884/original/file-20180430-135803-ownmbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216884/original/file-20180430-135803-ownmbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216884/original/file-20180430-135803-ownmbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216884/original/file-20180430-135803-ownmbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216884/original/file-20180430-135803-ownmbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s important to ensure children develop good eating habits early on.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/little-happy-cute-boy-eating-donut-632097335">Sharomka/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Second decade, 10-20</h2>
<p>In the teenage years, a growth in appetite and stature driven by hormones signals the arrival of puberty and the development from child into adult. How a teenager approaches food during this critical period will shape their lifestyle choices in later years. This means the dietary decisions adolescents make are intrinsically linked to the health of the future generations that they will be parents to. Unfortunately, without guidance teenagers may adopt eating behaviours and food preferences associated with unhealthy consequences. </p>
<p>We need more studies to determine the most effective ways of tackling the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24102966">rising burden of over and under-nutrition</a>, particularly the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28384795">link with poverty and social inequality</a>. Young women in general are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29631269">more likely to suffer from nutritional deficiencies</a> than young men because of their reproductive biology. Teenage girls who become pregnant are also at greater risk since their body is supporting their own growth in competition with that of the growing foetus.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-why-is-it-so-hard-to-lose-weight-51510">Explainer: why is it so hard to lose weight?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Third decade, 20-30</h2>
<p>As young adults, lifestyle changes that can prompt weight gain include going to college, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-numbers-show-that-marriage-does-make-men-fatter-80113">getting married</a> or living with a partner, and parenthood. Once accumulated, body fat is often difficult to lose: the body sends strong appetite signals to eat when we consume less than our energy needs, but the signals to prevent overeating are weaker, which can lead to a circle of over-consumption. There are many physiological and psychological factors that make eating less difficult to maintain over time. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/afpTd5g0aoA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>An area of new research interest is to develop satiety, the sense of having eaten enough. This is helpful when trying to lose weight, since feeling hungry is one of the main limitations to managing to eat less than your body is telling you you need – running a “calorie deficit”. Different foods send different signals to the brain. It’s easy to eat a tub of ice cream, for example, because fat doesn’t trigger signals in the brain for us to stop eating. On the other hand, foods high in protein, water or fibre content are able to make us feel fuller for longer. Working with the food industry provides an opportunity <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26847622">to shape the future of meals and snacks</a> in beneficial ways.</p>
<h2>Fourth decade, 30-40</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216887/original/file-20180430-135817-1x5j1rt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216887/original/file-20180430-135817-1x5j1rt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216887/original/file-20180430-135817-1x5j1rt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216887/original/file-20180430-135817-1x5j1rt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216887/original/file-20180430-135817-1x5j1rt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216887/original/file-20180430-135817-1x5j1rt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216887/original/file-20180430-135817-1x5j1rt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Middle age spread.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/overweight-90784256?src=JUZg8Ip4qgL6w1hmDDLmKQ-1-1">Umit Urdem/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Adult working life brings other challenges: not just a rumbling stomach, but also the effects of stress, which has been shown to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22647308">prompt changes in appetite and eating habits in 80% of the population</a>, equally divided between those that gorge and those that lose their appetite. The different coping strategies are intriguing: the phenomena of “food addiction” – an irresistible urge to consume specific, often high-calorie foods – is not well understood. Many researchers even <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25205078">question its existence</a>. Other personality traits such as perfectionism and conscientiousness may also play a role in mediating stress and eating behaviour. </p>
<p>Structuring the work environment to reduce problematic eating patterns such as snacking or vending machines is a challenge. Employers should strive to subsidise and promote healthier eating for a productive and healthy workforce – particularly ways of managing stress and stressful situations.</p>
<h2>Fifth decade, 40-50</h2>
<p>We are creatures of habit, often unwilling to change our preferences even when we know it is good for us. The word diet comes from the Greek word <em>diaita</em> meaning “way of life, mode of living”, yet we want to eat what we want without changing our lifestyle, and still have a healthy body and mind. </p>
<p>There is much evidence to show that diet is a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14972057">major contributing factor to ill-health</a>. The World Health Organisation highlights smoking, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and problem drinking as the <a href="http://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/noncommunicable-diseases">main lifestyle impacts on health and mortality</a>. It is in these years that adults should change their behaviour as their health dictates, but symptoms of illness are often invisible – for example high blood pressure or cholesterol – and so many fail to act.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216886/original/file-20180430-135830-8oseyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/216886/original/file-20180430-135830-8oseyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216886/original/file-20180430-135830-8oseyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216886/original/file-20180430-135830-8oseyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216886/original/file-20180430-135830-8oseyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216886/original/file-20180430-135830-8oseyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/216886/original/file-20180430-135830-8oseyf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As we age it becomes more important to eat well and enough, but often the desire to do so fades.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/senior-woman-eating-her-lunch-home-183498014">Kristo-Gothard Hunor/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sixth decade, 50-60</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://academic.oup.com/advances/article/6/4/452/4568676">gradual loss of muscle mass</a>, at between 0.5–1% per year after the age of 50, begins and continues a steady course into old age. This is called <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4066461/">sarcopenia</a>, and lessened physical activity, consuming less than protein requirements, and menopause in women will accelerate the decline in muscle mass. A healthy, varied diet and physical activity are important to reduce the effects of ageing, and an ageing population’s need for palatable, cost-effective, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29547523">higher-protein foods</a> is not being met. Protein‐rich snack foods might represent an ideal opportunity to increase total protein intake in older adults, but there are currently few products designed to meet the requirements and preferences of older adults.</p>
<h2>Seventh decade, 60-70, and beyond</h2>
<p>A major challenge today in the face of increasing life expectancy is to maintain quality of life, or else we will become a society of very old and infirm or disabled people. Adequate nutrition is important, as old age brings poor appetite and lack of hunger, which leads to unintentional weight loss and greater frailty. Reduced appetite can also result from illness, for example the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28267864">Food is a social experience</a>, and changing factors such as poverty, loss of a partner or family and eating alone affect the sense of pleasure taken from eating. Other affects of old age, such as swallowing problems, dental issues, reduced taste and smell (“<a href="https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/310600.html">sans teeth … sans taste</a>”) also interferes with the desire to eat and the rewards from doing so. </p>
<p>We should remember that throughout life our food is not just fuel, but a social and cultural experience to be enjoyed. We are all experts in food – we do it every day. So we should strive to treat every opportunity to eat as an opportunity to enjoy our food and to enjoy the positive effects eating the right foods have on our health.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94127/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Johnstone receives funding from Medical Research Council, The University of Aberdeen, The Scottish Government, Biological Sciences Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, National Health Service Endowments award, Tennovus Charity, Chief Scientist Office and European Community. </span></em></p>Shakespeare wrote of the ‘seven ages of man’, and our appetite for food changes as we age too – with implications for our health.Alex Johnstone, Personal Chair in Nutrition, The Rowett Institute, University of AberdeenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/871502017-11-14T03:47:45Z2017-11-14T03:47:45ZBook review: Curing Affluenza takes aim at our all-consuming passions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194494/original/file-20171114-27616-6l72y6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">"That strange desire to spend money we don’t have to buy things we don’t need."</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Zoriana Zaitseva/Shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Denniss">Richard Denniss</a> doesn’t mind pissing people off. He’s good at it. His entertaining and punchy book <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/curing-affluenza">Curing Affluenza</a> will, with luck, kickstart a conversation about mindless consumerism and what we do about it. </p>
<p>Denniss needs little introduction to followers of the Australian policy scene – has been an strategy advisor to Bob Brown, chief of staff of Natasha Stott-Despoja, a former chief executive and now chief economist at <a href="http://www.tai.org.au/">The Australia Institute</a>. He’s been sticking his hand in hornets’ nests for a while, whether on climate policy, taxation, the <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2015/april/1427806800/richard-denniss/spreadsheets-power">(ab)uses of economic modelling</a> or <a href="http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/by/Richard-Denniss-hvf6q">pretty much anything</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/enoughs-enough-buying-more-stuff-isnt-always-the-answer-to-happiness-70703">Enough's enough: buying more stuff isn't always the answer to happiness</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Denniss co-authored an earlier book with <a href="http://clivehamilton.com/">Clive Hamilton</a> called <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Affluenza-When-much-Never-Enough/dp/1741146712">Affluenza</a>, which obviously covered some of the same territory. Affluenza, to cure your suspense, is “that strange desire we feel to spend money we don’t have to buy things we don’t need to impress people we don’t know”.</p>
<p>Ironically enough, there is already a towering pile of published books covering the <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spirit-Level-Equality-Better-Everyone/dp/0241954290">economic, environmental and psychological costs</a> of consumerism, as well as the <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pursuit-Loneliness-Americas-Discontent-Democratic/dp/0807042013">pursuit of loneliness</a>, the <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Culture-Narcissism-American-Diminishing-Expectations/dp/0393307387">culture of narcissism</a>, whether the path to happiness is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Have_or_to_Be%3F">to have or to be</a>, and the <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/collision-course">collision course</a> our species is on. (I could probably <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Spark-Joy-Illustrated-Organizing-Tidying/dp/1607749726">spark joy</a> by decluttering my own shelves of these and other volumes.) </p>
<p>Denniss’ book, which he has been <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/nightlife/nightlife/9105998">plugging</a> on the <a href="http://2ser.com/curing-affluenza-rampant-consumerism-bad-economics/">radio</a>,
is a bit lighter (in both positive and negative ways) than some of these weighty tomes, striking a tone more akin to the 2007 documentary <a href="http://storyofstuff.org/movies/story-of-stuff/">Story of Stuff</a>.</p>
<p>The book has nine punchy chapters, plus eight additional contributions by thinkers and doers including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumi_Naidoo">Kumi Naidoo</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Waring">Marilyn Waring</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/leanneminshull?lang=en">Leanne Minshull</a>, and <a href="http://www.billmckibben.com/">Bill McKibben</a>. </p>
<p>Denniss writes with passion and wit, peppering his argument with memorable metaphors and acerbic questions. The book seeks to show that affluenza is “economically inefficient, the root cause of environmental destruction and that it worsens global inequality”, and to “broaden the menu from which choices can be made – by individuals, communities and countries”.</p>
<p>Denniss distinguishes between consumerism – a love of buying things – and materialism – the love of things themselves. The latter may be beneficial, as long as you care for your things, make sure that they can be repaired, and ensure they are made to last.</p>
<p>He deals well with the “the market won’t stand for it” argument, explaining that “what that really means is ‘rich people who own a lot of shares would react angrily’”. He also perceptively observes that “the process of making things people don’t need and then recycling them into other things they don’t need is now called ‘wealth creation’ or ‘job creation’. More accurate descriptions would be ‘resource destruction’ and ‘waste creation’.”</p>
<p>He’s also good on the relationship between technology and culture, arguing that it’s not that “technology will fix everything, but that technology and culture can and will change everything. The pace and direction of that change, like rope in a tug-of-war, will be determined by the relative strength of forces pulling on it.” But he could have written more on the fact that <a href="https://marianamazzucato.com/entrepreneurial-state/">states are now crucial actors in the innovation game</a>.</p>
<p>And this touches on the book’s biggest weakness: it identifies the problem and asks what is to be done, but largely fails to consider who should do it. Chapters 7 and 8 do contain a series of policy proposals around “banning some or all forms of advertising, banning corporate donations to politicians, preventing former politicians from working as lobbyists”, as well as proposing a ban on new coal mines. But Dennis, curiously, does not propose a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income">universal basic income</a>, which might have some rather interesting effects in getting consumers off the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill">hedonic treadmill</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-simple-life-manifesto-and-how-it-could-save-us-33081">The 'simple life' manifesto and how it could save us</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It’s not always clear who Denniss thinks will get this done, and how they are not going to be fobbed off, demonised, co-opted or demoralised. For my money (actually, I was sent a review copy) I think Denniss underestimates how hard it is for people to take the “voluntary simplicity” route (social status is a powerful driver of consumption), and he could have done more to name and shame companies that are trying to foster psychological insecurity to create consumers for life (<a href="http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/disease-prevention/nutrition/publications/2016/tackling-food-marketing-to-children-in-a-digital-world-trans-disciplinary-perspectives.-childrens-rights,-evidence-of-impact,-methodological-challenges,-regulatory-options-and-policy-implications-for-the-who-european-region-2016">covert marketing at children? I mean, seriously</a>?)</p>
<p>Denniss could also have introduced a few more economic concepts (such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positional_good">positional goods</a>, which decline in value as more people obtain them) and some more case studies, such as the classic example of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Model_T">Ford Model T</a>, which won the usefulness/cheapness/reliability battle but <a href="http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Design/Gartman/D_Casestudy/D_Casestudy3.htm">was defeated by competing car companies that made annual minor cosmetic changes</a>.</p>
<h2>Who won’t like this book?</h2>
<p>You can’t please everyone. The book will doubtless get a kicking from the following groups: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>So-called conservatives such as the Minerals Council of Australia, which cops several serves for its lobbying and modelling</p></li>
<li><p>Hardcore anti-capitalists (the word capitalism doesn’t appear until page 192, and Denniss somewhat sidesteps the discussion) and economic degrowthers, who think the scale of the problem goes beyond voluntary simplicity </p></li>
<li><p>Marxists who will ask who is this “we” in sentences like “we have built a culture where buying things is increasingly unrelated to using things” and wince at the assumption that readers will have “five cashed-up friends” </p></li>
<li><p>Social movement strategists who worry that the <a href="https://theconversation.com/creative-self-destruction-the-climate-crisis-and-the-myth-of-green-capitalism-47479">light green rhetoric</a> will pull focus from more <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/the-trouble-with-ethical-consumption">fundamental problems</a>.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>But Denniss, I am pretty sure, has not written this book for any of those groups of baked-in enemies, malcontents and despairers. I think he’s written it for Joe and Jane Public, who worry about their kids’ future. And there are enough good metaphors, clear thinking and provocation here to get a good conversation going. So in that sense, mission accomplished.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87150/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<h4 class="border">Disclosure</h4><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marc Hudson considers Richard Denniss a friend. They re-tweet each other a lot too.</span></em></p>A new book about what we consume and what it is doing to us raises lots of good points, but lacks a little on the ‘what is to be done’ question.Marc Hudson, PhD Candidate, Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of ManchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/723162017-03-03T12:22:59Z2017-03-03T12:22:59ZHow too much information can stop people from being sustainable consumers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159272/original/image-20170303-16344-bgm7oi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Information overload?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mjfrig/7049316855/in/photolist-bJVAiM-9FaHPV-wonZf-6kwijQ-4HmyjA-gspo9o-7CUHNe-2oJKtT-Eyu4A-fzSH1f-cnL4ju-9hJfzP-4vuyjn-5PsqKT-5Avoou-8tc6bg-EjPwu-3dXFUc-4QzPTU-a61stE-9suqKt-9V9MHQ-o6rqAc-34R6sX-62Gzs7-5fCWVK-rAfWP-4iXgSq-4zaGQn-91J212-4FiqNN-6Hi7Dr-dRst2P-61ktCa-5kUDJL-6Szn59-4cxS5e-RwNNNg-ScT8hy-ndfar3-qMGury-dMYJAB-qJusLK-7MwH4T-aPQkGk-AJFdR-f6HnMc-J9y6t-8hk4Yi-5XTDea">mjfrig/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most people would agree that living more sustainably is something to strive for. With £13bn worth of food being wasted each year in the UK and global temperature records being broken every three years, being green is more important than ever. But it’s a lot easier said than done.</p>
<p>For the vast majority, trying to live a more sustainable lifestyle is restricted to the weekly recycling of bottles, paper, plastics and food waste. And consuming less also represents a tricky issue for governments when consuming more this year than last year drives economic growth.</p>
<p>An enduring issue remains: what actually is “sustainability” and what does “consuming sustainably” mean in the first place? As David Harvey has pointed out, it can mean almost anything <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWfFdV9Otq0">people want it to mean</a>. </p>
<p>In its simplest form, though, sustainable consumption asks that people consider the impact their choices (when it comes to buying things or using energy) will have on future generations’ ability to make their choices. Sadly, the likelihood of the majority acting in this way is small. Most of their everyday consumption choices are made habitually or emotionally and not rationally. As Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman noted, people are prone to think fast, driven by our habits and intuitions – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/dec/13/thinking-fast-slow-daniel-kahneman">and not slowly or thoughtfully</a>. </p>
<h2>Information overload</h2>
<p>So: how can governments, NGOs – even <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-patagonias-business-model-is-a-paragon-of-virtue-should-more-companies-follow-suit-66188">businesses</a> themselves – encourage people to consume in a more sustainable manner? Currently, the dominant logic is to provide people with more information so they can make more informed decisions about what they spend their money on. </p>
<p>While this may succeed for a minority, in this view information is assumed to be a precursor to changing people’s attitudes and – in due course – their behaviour. The problem is that there is little evidence that information provision does this at all.</p>
<p>It’s also problematic, as people suffer from information overload. Too much information can cause confusion and, if it’s not relevant to them, people will simply ignore it.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159273/original/image-20170303-16378-1uyk5yu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159273/original/image-20170303-16378-1uyk5yu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159273/original/image-20170303-16378-1uyk5yu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159273/original/image-20170303-16378-1uyk5yu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159273/original/image-20170303-16378-1uyk5yu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159273/original/image-20170303-16378-1uyk5yu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159273/original/image-20170303-16378-1uyk5yu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s not easy being green.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, even people who’ve taken on board the sustainability message find difficulty in practising it. This finding emerged from data collected by one of our former PhD students Cristina Longo (now a researcher at the University of Lille’s business school). To understand the trials and tribulations of trying to live more sustainably, Longo conducted an ethnographic study and embedded herself in the local <a href="https://transitionnetwork.org">Transition Network community</a>, a movement that promotes sustainable living. </p>
<p>She spent two years hanging out with people already highly knowledgeable and committed to living a sustainable lifestyle. She attended talks and meetings, and participated in <a href="http://www.guerrillagardening.org/">guerrilla gardening</a>, taking care of neglected public spaces, before interviewing members of the community.</p>
<p>Our <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-016-3422-1">analysis</a> of these interviews highlighted some major problems when it comes to living out sustainable values – even when you’ve got the best intentions. The paradox of sustainable consumption appears to be that the more you are aware of the issues at stake, the harder you find it to actually live out your values. </p>
<h2>Dilemma, tension, paralysis</h2>
<p>The more knowledgeable people become with regard to the myriad issues surrounding sustainability, the more this knowledge becomes a source of dilemma. For example, Tessa, a member of the Transition Network with a longstanding interest and understanding of sustainability issues, told us of her “green beans from Kenya dilemma”. For her, green beans from Kenya were definitely a no-no, because of the food miles incurred in flying the beans over. However, she found the clarity she had on this position was undermined when she learned of the social and economic benefits of growing green beans for the local Kenyan farmers.</p>
<p>Also, for those already committed to sustainability ideals, not being able to live up to them becomes a source of considerable tension. Veronica, for example, recounted a story about a talk she’d given on reducing carbon footprints. Afterwards, she drove past a family who’d been at the meeting, who were cycling. Being confronted with not practising what she was preaching was very disconcerting for her. Irene, too, wants to eat locally sourced organic food whenever possible, but on her limited budget finds it expensive to do so. This existential tension that both Veronica and Irene experience is in large part self-inflicted.</p>
<p>We’ve found that the more knowledgeable people become, the more it can result in paralysis or the inability to act on one’s sustainability ideals or goals. One informant Kate described a knowledge tipping point. As she accumulated more and more knowledge that she attempted to put into practice, she also experienced an awareness that her efforts would ultimately be unsustainable. Judith experienced something similar too but saw her failure – in her case to not buy anything shipped over from China – as part of an overall learning process.</p>
<p>Clearly, being a sustainable consumer is problematic and embedding sustainable ideals into everyday life is fraught with difficulties. Until society’s <a href="http://clivehamilton.com/books/growth-fetish/">obsession with growth</a> is addressed at a much wider level, sustainable consumption remains a fantasy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72316/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Information is assumed to be key to changing people’s attitudes and behaviour. Sadly this isn’t the case.Peter Nuttall, Associate Dean and Senior Lecturer in Marketing, University of BathAvi Shankar, Professor of Consumer Research, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/707032017-01-03T20:14:01Z2017-01-03T20:14:01ZEnough’s enough: buying more stuff isn’t always the answer to happiness<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151430/original/image-20161222-17285-1i701lt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Greg Foyster</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The average German household contains 10,000 items. That’s according to a study cited by Frank Trentmann in his sweeping history of consumption, <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25242168-empire-of-things">Empire of Things</a>. We’re “bursting”, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/themoney/empire-of-things/8030096">he says</a>, with the amount of stuff that we have - while all of this consumption is <a href="https://penguin.com.au/books/a-banquet-of-consequences-9780670079056">steeping us in debt</a> and <a href="http://www.overshootday.org">dangerously depleting the planet’s resources and systems</a>. </p>
<p>So after Christmas, and the Boxing Day sales, it seems like a good time to ask: what is the purpose of all this consumption? </p>
<h2>The consumption cake</h2>
<p>If consumption is about facilitating quality of life, then quantities of money, materials, energy and so on are merely ingredients. They’re not the end product. </p>
<p>If I was baking a cake, would it make sense to use as many ingredients as possible? Of course not.</p>
<p>Yet “more is better” remains the narrative of modern society, and therefore of the economic system we use to make it happen. This makes sense while there is a sustainable correlation between quality of life and material resources consumed. </p>
<p>But this correlation is weakening. There is <a href="http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/State%20of%20the%20World%202008.pdf">growing evidence</a> that we are on a trajectory of diminishing returns on quality of life. A growing spate of titles such as <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/academic-professional/sociology/Affluenza-Clive-Hamilton-and-Richard-Denniss-9781741146714">Affluenza</a>, <a href="http://stuffocation.org">Stuffocation</a> and <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13147796-how-much-is-enough">How Much is Enough?</a> speak to the phenomenon. </p>
<p>Yet in the midst of unprecedented wealth, and unprecedented threats (from climate change and mass extinction, to inequality and social fragmentation), is the opportunity to move on to better things – to move beyond the consumer machine, and gear the future economy towards what we are really after in life. </p>
<p>So what are we baking? And what are the optimal amounts of ingredients we need? </p>
<h2>Optimising consumption to maximise quality of life</h2>
<p>What is the optimal level of income, for example, and of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a country? What about energy use per person? We scarcely even ask these questions. </p>
<p>Take energy, for example. Around a decade ago, the <a href="http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage/environment-energy/sustainable_energy/world_energy_assessmentoverview2004update.html">UN noted</a> that beyond a certain point, increasing energy use does not lead to increases in the <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-index-hdi">Human Development Index</a> (HDI). </p>
<p>Indeed, Canadian scientist <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/321776.Energy_at_the_Crossroads">Vaclav Smil had shown</a> that the highest HDI rates were found to occur with a minimum annual energy use of 110 gigajoules (GJ) per person. This was roughly Italy’s rate at the time, the lowest among industrialised nations and around a third of the US figure. He noted no additional gains past that point, with diminishing returns past the threshold of only 40-70GJ per person. </p>
<p>Tim Jackson reported a similar pattern in his 2009 book <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6489716-prosperity-without-growth">Prosperity Without Growth</a>. In a <a href="https://www.wzb.eu/www2000/alt/iw/pdf/genecult.pdf">study from the year 2000</a>, life satisfaction measures were found to barely respond to increases in GDP per person beyond around $15,000 (in international $), “even to quite large increases in GDP”. He noted that countries such as Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand and Ireland recorded as high or higher levels of life satisfaction than the United States, for example, with significantly lower income levels. </p>
<p>By way of <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/5980">comparison</a>, at the time of that study, GDP per person in the United States was $26,980. Denmark’s was $21,230, Sweden’s $18,540, New Zealand’s $16,360, and Ireland’s $15,680. Australia’s was $18,940, also with a comparable life satisfaction measure to the United States.</p>
<p>It has long been recognised that GDP is not only <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-shape-economic-policy-when-we-move-beyond-gdp-30236">a poor proxy for measuring a society’s wellbeing</a>, but that from its inception we have been <a href="http://www.tai.org.au/documents/downloads/DP35.pdf">warned against doing this</a>. As <a href="http://www.rossgittins.com/2016/11/maybe-end-of-economic-growth-draws-near.html?m=1">Ross Gittins put it recently</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It defines prosperity almost wholly in material terms. Any preference for greater leisure over greater production is assumed to be retrograde. Weekends are there to be commercialised. Family ties are great, so long as they don’t stop you being shifted to Perth.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On a related note, in the context of self-reported perceptions of subjective wellbeing in Australia, Melissa Weinberg of the <a href="http://www.acqol.com.au">Australian Centre on Quality of Life</a> at Deakin University reported in a presentation earlier this year that once incomes rise above A$100,000 per year, there is little discernible gain in subjective wellbeing.</p>
<h2>How can we move beyond the consumer machine?</h2>
<p>There is no inherent or fixed notion of optimal wealth or consumption. It is for us to create ways of deciding together what is most important to us at any given time and place. Indeed, there are growing efforts around the world to do just that, as part of developing better measures of quality of life. </p>
<p>These include national projects in countries such as <a href="https://uwaterloo.ca/canadian-index-wellbeing/">Canada</a>, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/6189582/Nicolas-Sarkozy-wants-well-being-measure-to-replace-GDP.html">France</a>, the <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/articles/measuringnationalwellbeing/2016">UK</a> and of course Bhutan with its <a href="http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com">Gross National Happiness</a>. There are also broader projects such as those undertaken by the <a href="http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org">OECD</a>, the <a href="http://happyplanetindex.org/about-nef/">New Economics Foundation</a> and the <a href="http://rprogress.org/sustainability_indicators/genuine_progress_indicator.htm">Genuine Progress Indicator</a>. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/comment/treasury-secretary-john-fraser-ditches-wellbeing-as-the-rest-of-the-world-catches-on-20161021-gs7qbx.html?deviceType=text">Australia recently did away with its official effort</a>, although the proposed <a href="http://www.andi.org.au">Australian National Development Index (or ANDI)</a> seeks to further the agenda locally, ultimately aiming to become our primary set of national accounts.</p>
<p>Why is this important? Well, given that we’re finding our optimal levels of resource use and income appear far lower than commonly assumed, it is clear that a “good life” does not depend on the continual expansion of these things. Reducing the negative consequences associated with excessive consumption comes with the genuine prospect of improving our lives. </p>
<p>However, in scaling back consumption growth, the good life may also serve to reduce GDP; that is, it may be an inherently recessionary pressure. And that scares us. </p>
<p>But what if we find our broader aspirations for a sustainable quality of life are tracking well, while GDP slows or even contracts? The new measures we decide upon can help anchor our confidence in the necessary changes to how we deal with money, work and consumption. After all, there would be little point in preserving GDP growth at the expense of our actual goal.</p>
<h2>What does this mean for the holiday season?</h2>
<p>It doesn’t necessarily mean you should buy nothing. This isn’t about avoiding or demonising consumption. It’s about asking what would happen if we looked to optimise it and to maximise what is most important in life. </p>
<p>We could focus more on giving the gifts of quality time, good health, less debt, less stress and a flourishing planet to each other. Perhaps even create the space to give more to those less fortunate. </p>
<p>And what if, in 2017, we resolved to explore and home in on our optimal levels of income, work hours, energy use, GDP and so on? Perhaps even support the development of those new measures mentioned here.</p>
<p>Above all, it is clear that we no longer need to feel compelled by outdated narratives of excessive consumption being good for us, or for the economy generally. There is more to being human, and now more than ever it is time to organise ourselves to that end. After all, the cake that we are baking is a better life for each other. That would be something worth celebrating.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70703/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony James does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After Christmas, and the Boxing Day sales, it seems like a good time to ask: what is the purpose of all this consumption?Anthony James, Lecturer, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.