Culture, Consumption, and
Global Warming
John Hooker
Carnegie Mellon University
February 2009
The Situation
• When it comes to environment and climate change…
consumption is the driving force.
The Situation
• When it comes to environment and climate change…
consumption is the driving force.
• Per capita consumption is rising rapidly in the
developing world.
The Situation
• When it comes to environment and climate change…
consumption is the driving force.
• Per capita consumption is rising rapidly in the
developing world.
• This is where most people live.
The Situation
• When it comes to environment and climate change…
consumption is the driving force.
• Per capita consumption is rising rapidly in the
developing world.
• This is where most people live.
• Our consumption pattern is a second-order effect.
The Situation
• When it comes to environment and climate change…
consumption is the driving force.
• Per capita consumption is rising rapidly in the
developing world.
• This is where most people live.
• Our consumption pattern is a second-order effect.
• As their consumption habits approach ours… we don’t
even want to think about what happens.
The Situation
• When it comes to environment and climate change…
consumption is the driving force.
• Per capita consumption is rising rapidly in the
developing world.
• This is where most people live.
• Our consumption pattern is a second-order effect.
• As their consumption habits approach ours… we don’t
want to think about what happens.
• When it comes to consumption, culture is the driving
force
Per capita energy consumption
350.0
300.0
N America
Million BTU
250.0
Russia etc
Europe
200.0
Middle East
150.0
S America
Asia
100.0
Africa
50.0
0.0
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
Year
Source: Based on data reported by U.S. Energy Information Administration
Total energy consumption
160.000
140.000
N America
10^15 BTU/yr
120.000
Europe
100.000
Asia
80.000
Russia etc
S America
60.000
Africa
40.000
Middle East
20.000
0.000
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
Year
Source: Based on data reported by U.S. Energy Information Administration
Per capita energy consumption
400.0
350.0
Million BTU
300.0
250.0
USA
Europe
200.0
China
150.0
India
100.0
50.0
0.0
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
Year
Source: Based on data reported by U.S. Energy Information Administration
Total energy consumption
120.000
10^15 BTU/yr
100.000
80.000
USA
Europe
60.000
China
India
40.000
20.000
0.000
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
Year
Source: Based on data reported by U.S. Energy Information Administration
Effect of world development outside N. America to European
per capita energy consumption rate
1,000
900
800
10^15 BTU
700
600
Now
500
European scenario
400
300
200
100
To
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Source: Based on data reported by U.S. Energy Information Administration
Per capita energy consumption vs. per capita GDP
Source: International Energy Agency, Frank van Mierlo in Wikipedia
Effect of world development outside N. America to European and
U.S. per capita energy consumption rate
2,000.000
1,800.000
1,600.000
1,400.000
1,200.000
Now
1,000.000
European scenario
800.000
U.S. scenario
600.000
400.000
200.000
To
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0.000
Source: Based on data reported by U.S. Energy Information Administration
Cultural Attitudes toward Consumption
• Tlingit, Kwakiutl
Longhouse, site of potlatch
Conspicuous consumption
Cultural Attitudes toward Consumption
• Some Chinese subcultures
“To be rich is glorious”
How much is the rent?
If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.
Cultural Attitudes toward Consumption
• Bantu-speaking peoples
Shona gathering, Zimbabwe
Cultural Attitudes toward Consumption
• Ladakh
– See Helena Norberg-Hodge, Ancient futures : Learning from
Ladakh, 1991
Having a good time in Ladakh
Concepts of Development
• We Westerners equate development with technological
development. Why?
Concepts of Development
• We Westerners equate development with technological
development. Why?
• We rely fundamentally on technology.
• We universalize our approach to life.
– We believe development = being more like us
– So we judge others by the state of their technology.
Concepts of Development
• Cultural role of technology
– In the West, technology is
the primary coping
mechanism
– Western development =
technological development
Medical technology
Concepts of Development
• Cultural role of technology
– In the West, technology is
the primary coping
mechanism
– Western development =
technological development
• We are better at technology
because we rely on it more
– Other cultures rely more on
relationships.
– Family, friends, group
solidarity, etc.
Medical technology
Concepts of Development
• If cultures are so different, why do so many accept the
Western concept of development?
Buy-in to Western-style Development
• Cultures have always borrowed ideas
– Some obvious benefits of Western technology.
• But why so much focus on consumer goods?
Mobile phones, Japan
Buy-in to Western-style Development
• Role of imitation in cultural evolution.
– People are more imitative than apes.
– Particularly, imitation of successful or high-status individuals.
– Peter J. Richerson and Robert Boyd, Not by Genes Alone: How
Culture Transformed Human Evolution
Buy-in to Western-style Development
• Due Western economic hegemony, elites are likely to
have links to the West.
– Elites adopt elements of Western lifestyle, including consumer
goods.
– They are emulated.
Mercedes-Benz in
Port-au-Prince
What to Do?
• Lifestyle change in the West will have little direct effect.
– “Developing” countries dominate the picture.
• But rest of the world may emulate Western example.
What to Do?
• Consumption need not play a central role in U.S. culture.
– We criticize our own
consumerism and materialistic
lifestyle.
Sam Walton. Drove an old pickup,
never paid more than $5 for a haircut.
What to Do?
• As prosperity rises, happiness falls.
– “Very happy” scores fell about 5% in the last 30 years.
Source: D. G. Myers, The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty
What to Do?
• But advertisers vigorously promote Western consumer
goods to elites worldwide.
• Media and entertainment depict
successful and glamorous people
as consumers.
7-star hotel, Dubai
Corporate Responsibility
• Multinational corporations have most direct control
over design and marketing of consumer goods globally.
– Control of media, product development.
Corporate Responsibility
• Multinational corporations have most direct control
over design and marketing of consumer goods globally.
– Control of media, product development.
• MNCs will be islands of stability in a chaotic century.
– Destablizers: oil, water, climate change, financial/monetary
system, ethnic/religious conflict, aging populations, global
epidemics, decline of USA.
– Many complain about corporate power, but we will increasingly
rely on it.
Corporate Responsibility
• Multinational corporations have most direct control
over design and marketing of consumer goods globally.
– Control of media, product development.
• MNCs will be islands of stability in a chaotic century.
– Destablizers: oil, water, climate change, financial/monetary
system, ethnic/religious conflict, aging populations, global
epidemics, decline of USA.
– Many complain about corporate power, but we will increasingly
rely on it.
• MNCs will be directly responsible for maintaining
conditions necessary for their own existence.
– Some already understand this.
Visible Urgency
• Developing nations are
already dealing with
environmental crisis.
Garbage dump, Guiyu,
China
Air pollution in eastern
China, seen from
satellite
Visible Urgency
• Infrastructure is already overwhelmed.
Traffic, Bangkok
Traffic, Delhi
Alternative to Material Consumption
• Replace consumer goods
with lifelong learning.
– Predicted by anthropologist
Mary Catherine Bateson
– Learning is more satisfying
than consumption.
– Not resource intensive.
– Byproduct: knowledge.
More Cultural Support
• Abundance of choice is expensive.
• Too much choice can make us
unhappy.
– Barry Schwartz, The Costs of Living:
How Market Freedom Erodes the Best
Things in Life
– Barry Schwartz, The Paradox of
Choice: Why More Is Less.
• If culture determines more life
choices, we may be more content.