In this final chapter of Supermorning, we’ll study the art of sustainable living. More importantly, we’ll see how sustainable living also means happy, healthy, wealthy, and productive living. 

But before we get to that, it’s useful to remind ourselves about why we should be living more sustainable lives in the first place. 

Environmental problems

Climate change is not the only environmental issue out there. As shown below, there are some other areas on which we are doing quite a lot worse.

The “biogeochemical flows” element is related to nitrogen and phosphorous used in fertilizers for food production.

Without these elements, the world would never have been able to feed nearly 8 billion humans. However, their use is causing a range of serious issues, including water pollution, ocean dead zones, and further global warming.  

“Biosphere integrity” refers to biodiversity loss as human activities now threaten about 1 million species with extinction. 

Aside from the obvious ethical issues with driving other species to extinction, there is also a possibility of ecosystem collapse that could have drastic consequences. 

This is related to the issue of “land-system change,” mainly referring to the huge areas of land claimed from nature for human activities, mainly food production. 

And of course, then there is climate change, arguably the most complex and important issue of our time. A great summary of climate change impacts is provided in the figure below. For perspective, something truly drastic will have to happen for us to limit global warming below 2 degrees. 

Why it matters to us

These issues directly impact our lives because of something called ecosystem services. These are valuable services nature gives us for free. Examples are too numerous to mention here, but the value of all these services is estimated to be about double the value of all human activities. 

Obviously, if nature suddenly decides to stop rendering all these free services, we’d be well and truly screwed. 

This, in a nutshell, is why you should care about the environment. If the environment stops working, your quality of life will plummet. 

What can we do?

The one thing that everyone can do to help is to simply reduce material consumption.

As a simple estimate of how much you can contribute, take this quick test to calculate your environmental footprint. It will clearly show you how many planets we would need if everyone lived like you. 

The problem of course is that we like our material consumption very much. Consumerist society has thoroughly conditioned us that consumption is the path to happiness.

If that was really true, we’d have a serious problem on our hands. But luckily it’s not. Over the coming days, we’ll be discussing how less consumption can greatly increase health, wealth, and productivity.