Culture, Consumption, and Global Warming
John HookerCarnegie 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
Source: Based on data reported by U.S. Energy Information Administration
Per capita energy consumption
0.0
50.0
100.0
150.0
200.0
250.0
300.0
350.0
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005
Year
Mil
lio
n B
TU
N America
Russia etc
Europe
Middle East
S America
Asia
Africa
Source: Based on data reported by U.S. Energy Information Administration
Total energy consumption
0.000
20.000
40.000
60.000
80.000
100.000
120.000
140.000
160.000
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005
Year
10^
15 B
TU
/yr
N America
Europe
Asia
Russia etc
S America
Africa
Middle East
Source: Based on data reported by U.S. Energy Information Administration
Per capita energy consumption
0.0
50.0
100.0
150.0
200.0
250.0
300.0
350.0
400.0
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005
Year
Mil
lio
n B
TU USA
Europe
China
India
Source: Based on data reported by U.S. Energy Information Administration
Total energy consumption
0.000
20.000
40.000
60.000
80.000
100.000
120.000
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005
Year
10^
15 B
TU
/yr
USA
Europe
China
India
Effect of world development outside N. America to European per capita energy consumption rate
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1,000
AsiaN. A
mer
ica
Europe
Russia
etc.S. A
merica
Midd
le Eas
t
Africa
World
Tota
l
10^
15 B
TU
Now
European scenario
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
Source: Based on data reported by U.S. Energy Information Administration
Effect of world development outside N. America to European and U.S. per capita energy consumption rate
0.000
200.000
400.000
600.000
800.000
1,000.000
1,200.000
1,400.000
1,600.000
1,800.000
2,000.000
AsiaN. A
mer
ica
Europe
Russia
etc.S. A
merica
Midd
le Eas
t
Africa
World
Tota
lNow
European scenario
U.S. scenario
Cultural Attitudes toward Consumption
• Tlingit, Kwakiutl
Longhouse, site of potlatchConspicuous consumption
Cultural Attitudes toward Consumption
• Some Chinese subcultures
How much is the rent?If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.
“To be rich is glorious”
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 technologybecause we rely on it more– Other cultures rely more on
relationships.
– Family, friends, groupsolidarity, 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, Delhi
Traffic, Bangkok
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.
