People crowd texture background. Bird eye view. Toned.
For the first time in history, there are now eight billion humans on planet Earth, according to United Nations estimates as of Tuesday.
That’s more than a billion people added to the world since my daughter was born and she can’t even drive yet.
Much of the growth is coming from booming places in developing parts of the globe like Africa, but pundits have been quick to point out that climate change and humanity’s other woes can be traced more directly to rich countries that consume more than our fair share.
“We do have a population problem and we do have a population issue,” Vanessa Perez-Cicera, director of the Global Economics Center at the World Resources Institute told the AP. “But I think most importantly, we have an overconsumption issue.”
There are quotes like this all over coverage of the historic milestone today. Our problem is not overpopulation but overconsumption is the mantra. It’s obviously true, particularly with regards to environmental degradation, but it’s also shallow analysis.
First of all, some throat-clearing of my own: Yes, we should reduce waste, strive to consume less and increase efficiency wherever we can. But it’s not enough, it’s not ever going to be enough and it’s the wrong thing to focus on.
Cleaner Consumption Sooner
Reducing consumption as a primary strategy for addressing climate change and the ongoing environmental crisis is the biggest Hail Mary of all time. It took a global pandemic to show us how it might be done, and even then the reductions were a ripple in the ocean and short-lived. And because most of us participate in and depend upon a global market-based system, reducing consumption at the scale needed to make a big dent in climate change might be a boon for the non-human world, but would cause significant socio-economic disruption and other kinds of human suffering.
The reality is that nothing is enough to fully stop climate change and environmental degradation in its tracks, because together they are a freight train in motion. The top priority (note: not the only priority) must be to help the people and ecosystems directly in the path of the locomotive to get out of the way, adapt or survive the best they can.
And for all the hand-waving about blaming rich countries for consumption, it doesn’t exactly feel equitable to clamp down on consumption just as developing nations are beginning to come up and have the opportunity to share in society’s desserts for the first time.
Please put that newfound disposable income back where you got it, thank you.
Reducing consumption in a sufficient way on a planet with 8 billion individuals set to become 9 billion around 2037 is a pipe dream, but reducing emissions through cleaner consumption can get us to a better world without having to tear everything up and start over in the process.
But getting cleaner quicker is going to require innovation, which for now is fueled by consumption, no matter if it comes from the public or private sector. Either way, productivity in the form of profits or tax dollars are the fuel. Beyond the need for cleaner consumption, which is all about reducing emissions and future impacts, adaptation to climate change and environmental degradation happening right now is needed this year and next. This, again, requires continued consumption to support innovation.
The Right Message
Yes, consumption is driven by often unpleasant things like greed, desire for comfort and the pursuit of status, among others. The same base parts of human nature also drive innovation.
Fortunately, there are a few other things that can fuel innovation – compassion, empathy and the pursuit of meaning and understanding.
Promoting a scarcity mindset and reducing consumption may seem ethically right, but it doesn’t compute with what drives us. A better, smarter approach is to appeal to the brighter angels of our nature and focus on directing more resources and innovation towards ways to adapt and build a better tomorrow filled with cleaner consumption, regenerative systems with compassion written into the code.
Solar panels on a roof with flowers in the foreground
My hope is that by the time we hit 9 billion the public appeals won’t be for less, but for more because we’ll have figured out less extractive and more equitable ways to achieve abundance.
But to get there we’re going to need a more inspiring rallying cry. There’s a reason that many of us will gather next week to celebrate abundance rather than scarcity.
Happy Thanksgiving to all eight billion of you.
