Record heat, record emissions, record fossil fuel consumption. One month out from Cop28, the world is further than ever from reaching its collective climate goals. At the root of all these problems, according to recent research, is the human “behavioural crisis”, a term coined by an interdisciplinary team of scientists.
“We’ve socially engineered ourselves the way we geoengineered the planet,” says Joseph Merz, lead author of a new paper which proposes that climate breakdown is a symptom of ecological overshoot, which in turn is caused by the deliberate exploitation of human behaviour.
Any idea how it could be possible for humanity to consume less?
Perhaps we need public campaigns from influential figures advocating for minimalism and simplicity. Or some sort of deeply spiritual second Renaissance…
Eh, no. We need actions not more virtue signaling and telling others they should be the first to start. If you want public figures to be involved there’s only one thing they can do, lead by example.
There are historical examples of this happening for some resources (eg: forests in Japan)
First things first: make planned obsolescence illegal.
The vast majority of consumer products are designed to fail earlier than they have to, leading to a shitload of needless waste over which consumers have no real control.
Also, continue to limit single use plastics. Single use anything, but especially plastics.
And of course, phase out all uses of fossil fuel and derived products as viable alternative materials and processes become ready.