“Once a species becomes powerful enough to take over a planet, then is it also intelligent enough to understand the limits to its own power?” This is a question posed in the new book, Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival.
Posts Tagged ‘over-consumption’
Free Webinar to Settle Controversy on Overshoot
One of the three podcasts I host is called The Overpopulation Podcast, a project of World Population Balance. One episode this year featured a conversation with author Laura Carroll about making the choice to be childfree. One listener emailed this comment:
“Dear Dave, It’s not population as population is leveling off. It’s consumption, consumption, consumption.”
I’m writing about this today because this is a fairly common occurrence. That’s one of the reasons I’m hosting a free webinar this week:
Solving Overshoot: End Overpopulation or Stop Overconsumption?
I suspect most people think they know the answer to that question. I think I do. So I doubt many will attend hoping to actually find out the answer. I think most who attend will be there to make sure someone doesn’t offer the WRONG answer. Interestingly, there are differing opinions on what the correct answer is.
If you’re familiar with my film,
Making Fewer Babies Eclipses Replacing Light Bulbs
I am not alone. That’s the message I got from the results of our recent Green Living Survey. I didn’t expect to have so much company on a number of fronts. Let’s go through the highlights:
1. How are we currently leaving the Earth each year?
A whopping 92% of respondents understand that we’re currently injuring Earth’s ecosystems, each year leaving the planet a little less capable of supporting our massive global population and economy.
3% feel we leave the planet in better shape each year. I imagine they are CEOs of asphalt or concrete companies.
2. Which is causing the most injury to ecosystems?
There was no right or wrong answer to this question. It will be debated till we’ve run human civilization off a cliff. An impressive 72% chose BOTH overpopulation and over-consumption, avoiding the debate.
The famous Ehrlich/Holdren IPAT formula tells us that population and consumption multiply one another. Global Footprint Network estimates we are so far into overshoot that every year, by August, we’ve burned through resources the Earth needs a year to replenish. With our overshoot being that significant, we need to be contracting both our consumption and population.
6. Do you make a conscious effort to “green” up your life and reduce your impact on the Earth?
A full 96% indicated they are making an effort here, but we all have different ideas about how much effort is warranted, as well as how much is “a lot.” So, I came up with this headlining question:
7. How often, on average, do you consider the environmental impact of your behavior?
As I confessed when I launched the survey, I consider my impact many times a day – every time I enter a building and hunt down the stairs so I can avoid the elevator, every time I skip the paper towels and grab a cloth rag to wipe up a spill. The list goes on. I really figured I was an outlier on this. But look at the results! 7% evaluate the impact of their behavior maybe once a week. 18% do this once a day. But a whopping 71% self-evaluated as thinking about this several times throughout the day. That really surprised me, in a very pleasant way.
I’m glad to report this great news. Full disclosure, however: this survey was not scientific. We did not do a random sampling. We invited and attracted people with genuine concerns about environment and sustainability. Still, I am thrilled to have company. There’s probably a blue pill to treat this kind of obsessive-compulsive behavior, but the planet, and human civilization, need this kind of compass guiding the way we all behave.
8. Please rank these green behaviors from greatest impact (1) to least impact (12) on a person’s footprint.
More respondents correctly identified “conceiving one fewer child” as making the most difference. An Oregon State University “carbon legacy” study determined that, in the United States, the carbon legacy and greenhouse gas impact of an extra child is almost 20 times more important than some of the other environmentally sensitive practices people might employ their entire lives. Other behaviors ranked high in our survey for reducing impact included replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy, and eliminating meat from the diet. Interestingly, replacing light bulbs with LEDs and adjusting your thermostat were ranked lowest.
Check out the full survey results here. If you want to be invited the next time we do a survey, you can sign up here to be on our survey list.
MAJOR NEWS: We’re experimenting with a new webinar series, and I invite you to join us, free, for the first one: Overpopulation: The New Conversation. Register now to reserve your place.
Would you like to see us do more surveys and/or webinars? This non-profit project is fueled by people like you. Please join other sustainability advocates and set up a modest automatic monthly donation. Thank you.
Dave Gardner
Producer/Director
GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth