audio-thumbnail
V10i6 Jun The sustainability class
0:00
/565.928911

Narrated by Lushika Preethrajh

At this point, we all know that our rates of consuming Earth’s resources without replenishment and of emitting greenhouse gases are not sustainable. We risk depleting natural resources until we cannot sustain our population, and we risk losing the climate that our civilization is adapted to. 

If your life is secure and allows you to plan for the future, you have the capacity to care about the environment, and can make smart consumption choices. 

So why is it so difficult for many of us to change our behavior to support a sustainable and collective way of life? This is the question that the book The Sustainability Class: How to Take Back Our Future from Lifestyle Environmentalists by Vijay Kolinjivadi and Aaron Vansintjan attempts to answer, by investigating the risks and challenges involved in reducing individual impact on the environment.

First, it is difficult to determine which choices are most effective. Without a price on carbon or carbon footprint labelling requirements, there is no simple way to know the true cost of any product. Marketers take full advantage of this information vacuum, and use ambiguous and misleading labels such as ‘sustainable’, ‘eco’, and ‘green’ — ambiguous adjectives that are poorly understood by most consumers — to persuade consumers to purchase their products. These labels increase sales because consumers want to feel good about their choices without the need to spend time and energy on understanding the deeper issues at play.

Further, the notion of carbon offsets or carbon credits gives consumers permission to continue their profligate ways by paying someone else to do something virtuous. It’s like they are paying someone to be faithful to their partner to compensate for their own cheating. It’s an ineffective strategy, however, as the market drive to produce the cheapest carbon credits leads to actions that either would have happened anyway (protecting the habitat of an endangered species) or are not durable (planting trees that will die or burn).

Another risk is Jevon’s paradox, which states that energy and material efficiency improvements generally lead to much smaller reductions in energy and material use than expected, as the improved efficiency reduces costs. Consequently, consumers often drive further and build bigger because the improved efficiency allows it. 

Although The Sustainability Class mentions carbon taxes and the merit of returning the revenue to the people, it dismisses them based on the assumption that the wealthy will pay the tax without reducing their emissions. However, a carbon tax high enough to double the cost of fuel would surely force even the rich to take action to reduce their carbon costs and change how (and how often) they travel.

Sustainability and climate stability are different issues, with climate being one of multiple aspects of sustainability (i.e. soil erosion, land use, nitrogen and phosphorus use, ocean acidification, and climate). Focusing on one aspect, such as climate, while ignoring others can make the others worse (e.g. forest monocultures established to sequester carbon that are not resilient to disease and offer poor habitat). 

The authors urge holistic approaches to nurture healthy ecosystems that sequester carbon, build healthy soil, feed people, and provide the energy necessary for basic needs. They reject the notion that ecosystems are healthiest in the absence of human activity — humans can enhance ecosystem health by hunting overpopulated species or burning forest understory before the hot season burns everything, for example. 

The ‘sustainability class’ is identified in the book as those people who signal their virtuous  concern for the environment without recognising the privilege their wealth affords them — the ability to choose alternatives to the cheapest housing and basic life necessities — or the environmental impact of their choices. In fact, the carbon footprint of most of those who identify as environmentalists is higher than those who do not. Many environmentalists are unaware of the economic displacement, carbon emissions, and resource extraction caused by their consumption choices. While people focus on their emissions from transportation and heating systems, one study found that the production and use of household goods and services was responsible for 60 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The Sustainability Class is not merely an exposé, but also an appeal to environmentalists to be more effective in living lightly on Earth and to work with their communities to increase access to green technology for all. More people could justify the cost of an electric vehicle if charging facilities were available in apartment complexes, for example. The authors also advocate for trusts, cooperatives, community gardens, and community events as effective ways to build community. They call for universal basic services such as public transportation, cafeterias, tool libraries, public pools, parks, and cooperative housing to remove many economic and social barriers and make it easier for more people to engage in conscious consumerism.

Overall, The Sustainability Class outlines effectively how individuals can work to reduce their impacts. However, the book fails to address the importance of addressing systemic emissions, particularly emissions from public transportation and the production of electricity. Individuals have little direct influence on those emissions, so they must work with others for policies, such as a price on carbon, that will drive down systemic emissions.

The book challenged me to consider my own role in this fight for life on Earth. I’m not a Lifestyle Environmentalist (one, according to the authors, who focuses on virtue signaling through my own consumption choices). I’m not a Green Modernist, either (one who concentrates on technological solutions like electrification, carbon capture and storage, nuclear energy, and climate-smart agriculture — though I think technology has an important role to play). 

I most closely identify as a Green Administrator — an expert on climate science and policies such as carbon pricing. But I maintain awareness that these approaches in isolation tend to sideline the environmental concerns of the poor. I have argued that returning the revenue from a carbon tax to everyone in equal shares means more to the poor, and the resulting emissions reduction will benefit the poor most; but many low-income people have other, more immediate environmental concerns — such as polluted water, lack of control over how their home is heated, and lack of access to nature — that a price on carbon cannot solve.

Will The Sustainability Class challenge you? Check it out from the Richland Public Library.

Steve Ghan leads the Tri-Cities Chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby.

Sources: