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The little phrase that has become many climate campaigners’ motto. We know that for modern society to become truly sustainable, some big shifts need to happen. Here, I’m taking a look at some of the systems and mindsets that may change in the near future.
Capitalism, in it’s current form, strives for constant, exponential growth. For a country to be seen as “successful” and “developed” its GDP must not only be increasing year on year but increasing at a faster rate. The only way to achieve this is increased production of material goods and virtual commodities, and increased provision of services.
Of course, this is initially beneficial to almost any society. Increased production and servicing gives more people access to provisions like food, healthcare, housing and education. But once we reach a certain stage, it becomes unsustainable. In terms of the environment, resources become over-extracted and their regeneration cannot keep up with the rate of use. In terms of equality, economic growth at the level of the most developed countries takes a serious toll on less developed countries, which are also desperately trying to grow their economies. Inequality doesn’t just occur between countries though, it’s rife within developed and developing countries alike. Many people in the UK, especially now, struggle to feed and clothe themselves, and billionaire families in the Global South live in some of the most expensive homes in the world (see Antilia and Ambani family).
So if we don’t like economic growth, what’s the other option?
The simple answer is: we stop. At least we stop forcing it once we reach a certain level. It makes more sense for a country’s success to be defined by its residents’ well-being, its sustainability, and its equality. This isn’t just something young radicals agree with, lots of economists do too! Not only would stopping forced growth reduce our usage of resources and turn our focus to individuals’ wellbeing, it would allow us to slow down, and address inequality within countries and localities without worrying about growth (remember, the absence of growth doesn’t mean shrinkage, just stasis). Then look to how we can help the international community.
If you’ve ever taken A-Level Geography, you’ll be familiar with the term “Global Village”. If you haven’t, it essentially refers to how transport and communications today have rendered the entire world accessible within a matter of hours or seconds. Even a few hundred years ago, this would have taken weeks if not months. In exploring the globe, our world expanded, and in developing technology, the globe has shrunk back to a village.
This has several benefits: from quicker healthcare to spontaneous family visits. But once again, in forgetting where we came from, we’ve taken a toll on the environment and those with less than us. A t-shirt from the US, a phone charger from China, and a Korean snack box can be at your house within days of ordering at such a charmingly low price that it’s so easy for many to order things like this on a weekly or monthly basis. Perhaps it would be better for our mental health if we didn’t have such easy access to these things. Perhaps we’d feel less pressure to buy the latest trends so often if we knew they’d take two months to arrive and potentially be out of fashion by then anyway. (Depending on your willpower) It could be better for our wallets if we didn’t have such quick delivery times luring us into each purchase. We’d likely even enjoy the products we do buy much more. They’d feel special to us for longer, and maybe we’d think about all the effort that went into getting it to us.
Now I’m not for one second saying that no deliveries should be fast. There is always value in fast medication delivery, aid response and many more things. But for the things that aren’t so immediately essential, maybe we could look within our narrower communities more. This is already becoming a trend through supporting local businesses. And for travel, maybe we could look for more local getaways. Again, this began to take off during the pandemic and remembering that our home is beautiful and special too seemed to benefit a lot of us.
Stay tuned for part 2, looking at how changing other global systems could help our fight against climate change…