All of humanity could share a prosperous, equitable future but the space for development is rapidly shrinking under pressure from a wealthy minority of ultra-consumers, a new study has shown.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/sep/12/consumerism-and-the-climate-crisis-threaten-equitable-future-for-humanity-report-says
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>Growing environmental degradation and climate instability have pushed the Earth beyond a series of safe planetary boundaries, say the authors from the Earth Commission, but it still remains possible to carve out a “safe and just space” that would enable everyone to thrive.
Link: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(24)00042-1/fulltext
> That utopian outcome would depend on a radical transformation of global politics, economics and society to ensure a fairer distribution of resources, a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels and the widespread adoption of low-carbon, sustainable technologies and lifestyles, it said.
> This would probably mean that limits have to be placed on excess consumption and that taxes have to be used to address inequality and raise revenue for investment in technology and infrastructure.
> The scale of the required change will alarm many governments, acknowledged one of the lead authors. “It won’t be immediately welcomed. To some extent, it is frightening…Â
And this, friends, is why no one can take seriously any proposition with buzzwords such as “equitable”/”utopia” or one that’s pointing the finger too much at “ultra rich” or “ultra consumers”. They might as well have said “if we all hunkered down and lived in shacks, we would all have a pretty similar, equitable lifestyle”. Or maybe just “if we gave up everything we cared for and liked it, we would all like how we would live”.Â
“Utopian outcome”. Yeah, right. Continuing to use fossil fuels exactly as we are and a full blown global warming is better than whatever proposition this is supposed to be.Â