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The “impossible equation” can be solved.
It is entirely possible to save the earth’s climate and eradicate poverty at the same time, British researchers claim.
And this without going back to the Middle Ages.
It can seem that the challenges facing the world are overwhelming. On the one hand, we must drastically reduce our energy use to avoid rampant climate change and ecological collapse.
On the other hand, the world population continues to grow. By 2050, we are expected to be 9.7 billion people on the planet, according to a UN report. At the same time, hundreds of millions of people are already waiting to escape extreme poverty.
The equation seems impossible to put together.
But maybe there is a solution.
A recent report by a group of researchers at the University of Leeds in the UK states that it is quite possible to reduce global energy use by 60 percent in 30 years, to levels that were prevalent in the 1960s, and still provide good living conditions for ten billion people.
Global environmental change.
Based on need
The researchers started from people’s fundamental needs, such as a reasonably warm home, nutritious food and clean water, as well as access to qualified education, health care and information technology. Based on that, they have calculated what resources are required.
– We clearly have the opportunity to provide a good life for everyone while defending the climate and our ecosystems, says co-author Professor Julia Steinberger in a press release.
Creating a world that is sustainable and decent without great sacrifices may seem like a utopian dream. If you dig a little deeper into the study, which was published in the journal Global Environmental Change, it becomes clear what far-reaching changes are required.
Photo: LEIF R JANSSON / TT
Researchers believe that poverty can be eradicated.
“The solutions exist”
First of all, we must stop using fossil fuels altogether. However, a drastic change, which the authors of the article expect, will be facilitated by a reduction in the total energy requirement at the same time.
“Technical solutions to reduce energy consumption to sustainable levels already exist,” lead author Dr. Joel Millward-Hopkins said in the statement.
Instead, it is assumed to be in the private consumption of the private world, or perhaps rather excessive consumption, as the change becomes more noticeable.
No “darker time”
The article’s authors believe their research contradicts the widespread perception that sustainable consumption requires huge sacrifices in terms of convenience and a return to a “darker age” and point out that we will still be able to use our laptops and watch television.
But, in addition, we learn to have to say goodbye to much of what we take for granted today.
Like unnecessary flights. Or your own car.
Photograph: Magnus Andersson / TT / TT NYHETSBYRÅN
Meat consumption should be reduced.
Reduced carnivore
The content of our dishes will also look different in 2050 if meat consumption is reduced to the 15 kilos per person per year proposed by the authors, an 85 percent reduction compared to the average consumption in the United States today. .
We will also have to live tighter, each of which will have to settle for between ten and twenty square meters.
Airy, for people who grew up in China’s megacities. But hardly for those who are used to the standards of the western world.
More free time
Julia Steinberger recognizes that the shift from overconsumption to sustainable consumption will likely change our basic vision. Business days are shortened when we no longer have to work to buy things.
– It can be more time for family and leisure, something that for many is what really matters, Steinberger tells the Earther news site.
The discussion about what the path to the new sustainable society should look like, and what political decisions will have to overcome it, she and the other authors of articles leave to other researchers and public debaters.
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