Research for the End of Your 'Normal' Everyday Existence

Issue No.5 Contents

Introduction: Introducing the science for the end of your 'normal' everyday existence

We are not in a situation of having ‘problems’ with ‘possible solutions’; we are in a ‘predicament’ with only a few, mostly unwelcome ‘outcomes’ to choose from.

History file: Bill Devall – ‘The Deep Ecology Movement’

Published in 1980, this tract was the first to outline the split between ‘eco-reformers’ & ‘deep ecologists’.

References:

• Journal of Natural Resources: ‘The Deep Ecology Movement’, Bill Devall, Spring 1980.

“It's the economy, stoooopid!”

Environmentalism uses tech. as a sticking plaster; research says it’s affluence driving destruction.

References:

• Nature Communications: ‘Scientists’ Warning On Affluence’, vol. 11 art. 3107, 19^th June 2020;
• Oxfam: ‘Extreme Carbon Inequality’, December 2015;
• PNAS: ‘Tracking the Ecological Overshoot of the Human Economy’, vol. 99 no. 14, 2002;
• Journal of Industrial Ecology: ‘Environmental Load from Dutch Private Consumption – How Much Damage Takes Place Abroad?’, vol. 9 no.1/2, 2005.

‘Are humans a virus?’

In these times of disruptive pandemic, it might be interesting to figure how all other life on Earth looks at us.

References:

• Ecological Economics: ‘Ecological economics for humanity’s plague phase’, vol. 169 art. 106519, March 2020;
• Ecological Economics: ‘Economics for the Future – Beyond the Super-organism’, vol. 169 art. 106520, March 2020;
• Energy Research & Social Science: ‘Energy transitions or additions? Why a transition from fossil fuels requires more than the growth of renewable energy’, vol. 41 pp.40-43, 2019.

“...a felt need for increased efficiency”

The fatal flaw at the heart of the mainstream debate over efficiency and ecological impact – the ‘rebound effect’.

References:

• PLOS One: ‘Is Decoupling GDP Growth from Environmental Impact Possible?’, vol. 11(10) art. e0164733, 14th October 2016;
• Nature Climate Change: ‘Pathways of human development and carbon emissions embodied in trade’, vol. 2 pp.81-85, February 2012;
• Frontiers Energy Research: ‘The Rebound Effect and the Jevons' Paradox – Beyond the Conventional Wisdom’, vol. 7 art. 90, 10th September 2019;
• Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews: ‘Energy efficiency and economy-wide rebound effects – A review of the evidence and its implications’, vol. 141 art. 110781, March 2021.

‘Consumption is a temporal illusion’

There is a religious zealotry amongst those who ‘worship’ technology; they will form a lobby resistant to change.

References:

• Global Environmental Change: ‘Providing decent living with minimum energy – A global scenario’, vol.65 art.102168, November 2020;
• Nature Energy: ‘Large inequality in international and in-tranational energy footprints between income groups and across consumption categories’, vol. 5 pp.231–239, March 2020;
• Global Sustainability: ‘Unequal distribution of household carbon footprints in Europe and its link to sustainability’, vol. 3 art. E18, 6th July 2020;
• Sustainable Development: ‘Creating Sustainable Identities – The Significance of the Financially Affluent Self’, vol. 18 pp. 123-134, March 2010.

‘The Party is Over... Time to Clean-up’

Study after study has mapped the coming crash of human consumption. It’s time for the willing to make lifeboats.

References:

• Global Environmental Change: ‘A comparison of The Limits to Growth with 30 years of reality’, vol. 18 no.3 pp. 397-411, August 2008;
• Journal of Industrial Ecology: ‘Update to limits to growth – Comparing the World3 model with empirical data’, vol. 25 no.3 pp. 614-626, June 2021;
• Frontiers in Conservation Science: ‘Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future’, vol. 1 art. 615419, January 2021;
• Energies: ‘Through the Eye of a Needle – An Eco-Heterodox Perspective on the Renewable Energy Transition’, vol. 14 art. 4508, July 2021.

‘The problem IS affluent society’

Ideas to solve the ecological crisis take industrial society as an ‘invariant factor’. It’s time to change that.

References:

• Nature Urban Sustainability: ‘Radical changes are needed for transformations to a good Anthropocene’, vol. 1 art. 5, February 2021;
• Nature Communications: ‘Renewable energy production will exacerbate mining threats to biodiversity’, vol. 11 art. 4174, 1st September 2020;
• Nature Sustainability: ‘The importance of resource security for poverty eradication’, vol.4 pp.731-738, April 2021;
• Nature: ‘A safe operating space for humanity’, vol.461 pp.472-475, 24th September 2009;
• Ecological Complexity: ‘Social complexity and sustainability’, vol.3 no.2 pp.91-103, June 2006;
• Globalisations: ‘What does de-growth mean? A few points of clarification’, 4th Sept. 2020.

‘We must embrace in a new relationship with the land’

The only certain way to reduce global impacts is to re-establish that relationship to the land and natural systems.

References:

• PNAS: ‘People have shaped most of terrestrial nature for at least 12,000 years’, vol. 118 no. 17 art. e2023483118, April 2021;
• Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry: ‘The Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water’, vol. 65 pp.6255-6262, June 2014;
• Journal of Cleaner Production: ‘Agriculture and degrowth – State of the art and assessment of organic and biotech-based agriculture from a degrowth perspective’, vol. 197 no. 2 pp. 1823-1839, 1^st October 2018;
• Journal of Peasant Studies: ‘Degrowth and critical agrarian studies’, vol. 47 no. 2 pp. 235-264, 2020.

Numerical Ramblings: ‘The zombie pro-nuclear lobby’

Why do the advocates of nuclear power refuse to die, or at least see statistical reason?