Sustainable living as a response to climate change
Written by Kasia Krzyzanowski
Research taken from The Future of Earth: Investing in solutions for a more sustainable planet, published by UBS in April 2021.
The sustainable living movement has been growing noticeably larger and more mainstream every day, with the word ‘sustainable’ now found on every sort of product advertisement imaginable and concepts like zero-waste gaining widespread acceptance. Values, habits and practices that were once considered the reserve of small groups of individuals choosing to live differently are now being adopted at scale – every- thing from buying organic to making DIY cleaning products to following a vegan diet. Consumers on the whole are becoming more sensitive to the questions of how and where the products they choose to purchase are produced, leading to brands across every indus- try introducing more sustainable products into their offering. Beyond a simple consumer trend, sustainable living is part of a societal shift in mindset taking place as a reaction to the very real fears and anxieties caused by global environmental degradation and climate change.
Floods in York - Photography by Milena Milani/Stocksy
A WORLD FACING ACCELERATING CLIMATE CHANGE
While climate change has been in the news for decades, attempts at mitigation have not yet gone far enough, leading to increasingly dire figures and prospects regularly dominating the headlines. Extreme weather events such as storms, flooding, wildfires, and droughts are increasing in frequency and leading to environmental migration – the large-scale displacement of populations in areas affected by these events. As noted in The Future of Earth by UBS, the largest truly global wealth manager which has a long standing tradition and track record in Luxembourg dating back to 1973, “...22.5 million lost their homes due to ‘unforeseen’ weather events in 2018, with the World Bank estimating this will rise to 143 million more by 2050.”
These apocalyptic scenes may seem a world away, but they are inextricably linked to our modern lifestyle, with its over-reliance on cheap fossil fuels and mass consumption. As further explained by UBS, over two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions relate to energy use. Land use comes in second place, with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimating that 21-37% of total emissions can be attributed to the food system, through high emissions-releasing activities such as land clearing and intensive farming. Compounding this problem is ongoing environmental destruction and transformation, with the United Nations estimating that “75% of the Earth’s surface has been severely altered by human actions.”
“WE, THE YOUNG, ARE DEEPLY CONCERNED ABOUT OUR FUTURE.”
Youth climate strike in 2020 - Photography by Matt Watson/Stocksy
Eco-anxiety is now recognized as a rational response to the real threat of climate change and, unsurprisingly, it has become particularly widespread among the younger generation. A recent 10-country survey of 10,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 25 revealed that over half felt ‘extremely worried’ about climate change, feeling emotions including sadness, anxiety, anger and a sense of powerlessness, helplessness and guilt. The authors of the survey found a strong connection between eco-anxiety and a perceived lack of government response, as well as a feeling of being ignored, with the highest levels of anxiety found in the youth of countries hard-hit by climate change, including Brazil and the Philippines.
With the need to take global action becoming more urgent each day, there has been a groundswell of activism among young people, sparked in 2018 by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, then in ninth grade. By 2019, Youth Strikes for Climate had spread around the world, with the 2019 Global Week of Future gathering millions of participants to 4,500 strikes in over 150 countries. The movement has continued to gather steam and can be credited with drawing greater media attention to the climate cause as well as greater public demand for political action from governments worldwide.
INDIVIDUAL ACTION THROUGH SUSTAINABLE LIVING
While eco-anxiety can have many manifestations and impacts, another avenue of response is a shift towards sustainable living, with individuals counteracting their sense of powerlessness by making deliberate choices in their everyday lives. Sustainable living can be defined most simply as a lifestyle that can be maintained over time within the limits of our planet. The Sustainabilitist Framework takes the view that far from simply maintaining the status quo, living sustainably starts from “the awareness that the current state is unsustainable,” and involves seeking out and developing alternatives that are minimalist, efficient, durable, resilient, holistic, and self-sufficient.
Though 71% of global pollution can be traced to just 100 corporations, as reported in the Carbon Majors Database (CDP, The Carbon Majors Database, July 2017), individual actions can have a collective impact through greater demand for sustainable products as well as government action, evidenced, for example, by the recent bans on plastic straws around the world. More than just a trend, ‘responsible consumption’ also falls under Goal 12 of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, a framework that aims to guide global transformation towards a more positive future.
AGRICULTURE – AN INDUSTRY UNDER TRANSFORMATION
Industrial soybean farming - Photography by James Baltz/Unsplash
A key area where individuals are beginning to make more sustainable choices is around their consumption of food. As pointed out in the report by UBS, the agricultural industry is not only responsible for up to a third of global emissions, but 80% of biodiversity loss results from natural areas being transformed for intensive agriculture and commercial forestry. Beyond the massive environmental impact of land use, intensive agriculture also raises many concerns around animal welfare, potential negative impacts on human health, and environmental degradation from the use of pesticides and fertilizers. As summed up in the Future of Earth, “...everything is related – the health of the planet determines its ability to sustain life. Land degradation and biodiversity loss imperil agriculture and food production.”
Consumer demand for more sustainable products is already leading to change across supply chains, with companies beginning to change their practices to comply with new organic standards and certifications. Individuals are changing their diets and shopping habits, seeking out locally grown produce and choosing to eat less meat. The global farming industry too is undergoing change, on the one hand through the adoption of innovative technologies that enable better sustainability, and on the other, through the rise of small-scale farming, often incorporating such concepts as permaculture and community-supported agriculture. UBS predicts ongoing growth in the popularity of diets and foods with a lower carbon footprint, from vegetarianism to the consumption of plant-based proteins. These trends have been further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the rise in awareness around sustainability that has resulted.
Weekly veg box subscriptions from local farms are growing in popularity - Photography by Dierdre Malfatto/Stocksy
EMBRACING THE TRANSITION
With all of the noise and continued debates around addressing climate change, it is still unclear what mix of technologies and alternatives will become main- stream, but in the Future of Earth, UBS emphasizes that a transition away from fossil fuels and towards decarbonization is both inevitable and, indeed, already underway. Sustainable living looks set to continue to develop and become the norm, especially as consumer demand and government policy work to gradually move unsustainable options off the table. With our collective attention now focused on meeting climate targets, a clear way forward is to embrace sustainable living and integrate it into our communities at all levels, from changing our individual habits to supporting local producers and projects already putting in place sustainable solutions with a positive impact. ⌂
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