more comment (re: convincing people)
Yes, getting people to voluntarily give up having more stuff will always be tough ... sure, we could all have more stuff if we violate sustainability, but then we are literally stealing from our children or grandchildren. As they say in the US, "there's no such thing as a free lunch". Meaning, there's always a catch -- if somebody is offering to pay for your lunch, you're gonna have to pay them back somehow.
I was talking with K about this, and we seemed to agree that most people won't sign on for enforceable "shrink and share" until some sort of globally shocking ecological catastrophe happens. Some sort of environmental 9/11 or Pearl Harbor, such as a massive ice shelf collapse that increases global sea level by one foot overnight, or a massive heat wave in a developed region of North America or Europe that overwhelms electricity utilities and kills a million people over a two-week period.
The current slow-boil approach of global warming isn't scary enough yet. And people don't give any sort of damn about mass species extinctions. Oh, there was some abstract concern about the honeybee apocalypse, there's plenty of abstract concern about this or that. But no panic. We need a climate panic of sufficient size to create a Global War on Emissions.
I was talking with K about this, and we seemed to agree that most people won't sign on for enforceable "shrink and share" until some sort of globally shocking ecological catastrophe happens. Some sort of environmental 9/11 or Pearl Harbor, such as a massive ice shelf collapse that increases global sea level by one foot overnight, or a massive heat wave in a developed region of North America or Europe that overwhelms electricity utilities and kills a million people over a two-week period.
The current slow-boil approach of global warming isn't scary enough yet. And people don't give any sort of damn about mass species extinctions. Oh, there was some abstract concern about the honeybee apocalypse, there's plenty of abstract concern about this or that. But no panic. We need a climate panic of sufficient size to create a Global War on Emissions.