Worldwatch: Solving the Climate Crisis Will Take a Cultural Transformation

Our actions on issues like climate change will not be enough to "rescue humanity from unacceptably hazardous environmental and climate risks" without a cultural transformation, the Worldwatch Institute says in its 2010 State of the World report.

In its report, the research organization tries to chart a path away from the consumerist culture that has arisen in the past 50 years and has been a major factor in the planet’s environmental and social problems.

Worldwatch President Christopher Flavin describes it as a "consumer culture that has taken hold, probably first in the U.S. and now in country after country over the past century, so that we can now talk about a global consumerist culture that has become a powerful force around the world."

In this culture, people find meaning and contentment in what they consume. It's an orientation that has had huge implications for society and the planet. The average American consumes more, in terms of mass, than he weighs, Worldwatch says. If everyone lived like this, the Earth could only sustain 1.4 billion people — about the population of China.

Flavin acknowledges that consumerism is not the only factor driving environmental degradation, but it is a root cause on which other factors build, and, as a cultural framework, it is expanding.

"In India and China, for instance, the consumer culture of the U.S. and Western Europe is not only being replicated but being replicated on a much vaster scale," Flavin says. He notes that China is already the world leader in carbon dioxide emissions.

Climate change is a symptoms of that excessive consumption.

Consumption has risen sixfold since 1960, according to World Bank statistics. Even taking the rising global population into account, this amounts to a tripling of consumption expenditures per person over this time. It has led to a parallel increase in the amount of resources used — a sixfold increase in metals extracted from the Earth, eightfold in oil consumption and 14-fold in natural gas consumption.

"In total, 60 billion tons of resources are now extracted annually — about 50 percent more than just 30 years ago," the report says.

As levels of consumption rise, so do levels of greenhouse gas emissions. The 500 million richest people in the world are responsible for half the world's carbon dioxide emissions, the report notes, while the poorest 3 billion are responsible for just 6 percent.

Citing several studies from the past year, the authors conclude that even if countries reach their "most ambitious" emissions-reducing proposals, temperatures would still go up 3.5 degrees Celsius by 2100, well beyond the 2-degree rise that scientists and even politicians recognize as reaching a danger zone.

"In other words, policy alone will not be enough. A dramatic shift in the very design of human societies will be essential," Worldwatch says.

Prospects for a Cultural Shift

The good news, Worldwatch project director Erik Assadourian says, is that a shift toward a more sustainable culture is entirely possible — and "it is already beginning to happen."

The 244-page report, "State of the World 2010 — Transforming Cultures: From Consumerism to Sustainability", cites a wide variety of examples of changes under way, such as the enshrining of the rights of nature into Ecuador's constitution and schools encouraging children to think more sustainably by giving them healthy, locally-grown lunches and encouraging them to walk or bike to class.

Everything from childbearing to burial traditions can be done in a more sustainable way, and should be, Worldwatch says.