One Planet Living

A lot of people want to know what they can do personally to address the many threats to our environment. I do, too. 

A lot is said about how we have mistreated our life support system, but not much in the way of what can be done to reverse the decline. 

Some think that the system that created the problems can be trusted to solve them. But isn't green capitalism an oxymoron? Capitalism only works with infinite growth, and planet destroying infinite growth is not green. 

Anyone calling for system change, though, is seen as a radical on the fringe and summarily denounced.

What is needed now is a broad perspective that allows us to address our entire system, especially population, lifestyle and consumption.

Sooner rather than later, we will have to discuss strategies for One Planet Living.  It is not a radical notion. Rather, it is the only way to live on one planet.

The following is from "Why We Must Talk About Population" by Erik Assadourian.

One-Planet Living 

In Is Sustainability Still Possible?, Jennie Moore and William Rees explored what a one-planet lifestyle would look like (in a world with 7 billion not 9.5 billion) and their analysis shows that if we lived within Earth’s limits, gone would be the days of driving personal vehicles, flying, eating meat, living in large homes, and essentially the entire consumer society that we know today. 

Frankly, that’s fine with me, considering the ecological, social and health costs of modern society—but most will not accept that. And considering that—and that policymakers and economists and even most environmentalists still believe further economic growth is possible and even beneficial—it’s increasingly hard to imagine any scenario other than a horrifying ecological collapse in our future.

System change, not climate change. 

While we are working that, it would be helpful to start living like we only had one planet to depend on. 

That is something we can all do now.