Climate Solutions Tackle Symptoms Rather Than Root Cause Of Environmental Crisis, Experts Claim

A new study suggests that the world is further away from meeting its collective climate goals than ever before.

The foundation of all these difficulties is the human "behavioral crisis," a term coined by an interdisciplinary team of academics.

Behavioral Crisis

environment — (Photo : Getty Images/NICOLAS TUCAT)

According to Joseph Merz, the main author of a new paper, climatic breakdown is a sign of ecological overreach, which is driven by the deliberate exploitation of human behavior.

Merz and his colleagues argued that most proposed climate "solutions" address symptoms rather than the fundamental cause of the situation. This leads to an increase in the three "levers" of overshoot: consumption, waste, and population.

They said that until demand for resources is lowered, many other advances will be ineffective.

The term "overshoot" refers to how many Earths human society consumes in order to sustain or grow itself. Humanity would currently require 1.7 Earths to maintain resource use at a level that the planet's biocapacity could renew.

Whereas most discussions of climate change focus on carbon emissions, an emphasis on overshoot emphasizes material consumption, waste generation, and human population expansion, all of which have an impact on the Earth's biosphere.

"Essentially, overshoot is a crisis of human behaviour. For decades we've been telling people to change their behaviour without saying: 'Change your behaviour.' We've been saying 'be more green' or 'fly less', but meanwhile all of the things that drive behaviour have been pushing the other way," Merz added.

Behavioural Influencers

The research investigates how neuropsychology, social signaling, and norms have been used to promote human behaviors that boost the economy, from purchasing commodities to raising big children.

According to the researchers, ancient desires to belong to a tribe, announce one's status, or entice a mate have been co-opted by marketing methods to produce behaviors that are incompatible with a sustainable planet.

Only one-quarter of the world's population accounts for approximately three-quarters of all emissions.

The authors believe that using the instruments of the marketing, media, and entertainment industries in a campaign to reframe our material-intensive, socially accepted norms is the best way to combat overshoot.

The Merz Institute has an overshoot behavior lab, where they concentrate on overshoot therapies.

One of them identifies "behavioral influencers" such as screenwriters, web developers, and algorithm engineers, all of whom are advocating specific social norms and may be attempting to rewire society reasonably fast and without harm by encouraging a new set of behaviors.

More interdisciplinary research into what they call the "human behavioral crisis," as well as concentrated efforts to reframe our social norms and wants that drive overconsumption, are called for by the team.

When asked about the ethics of such a campaign, the researchers point out that firms compete for the attention of their customers every second of every day.

"Creativity and innovation are driving overconsumption. The system is driving us to suicide. It's conquest, entitlement, misogyny, arrogance and it comes in a fetid package driving us to the abyss," says the evolutionary behavioural ecologist and study co-author Phoebe Barnard.