May 16th

Lecture 13: Population, Consumption and Environment

Homework: Presentations start on Wednesday

Lecture 13

Population, Consumption, and the Environment

Consumption and Inequality

"Today’s consumption is undermining the environmental resource base. It is exacerbating inequalities. And the dynamics of the consumption-poverty-inequality-environment nexus are accelerating. If the trends continue without change — not redistributing from high-income to low-income consumers, not shifting from polluting to cleaner goods and production technologies, not promoting goods that empower poor producers, not shifting priority from consumption for conspicuous display to meeting basic needs — today’s problems of consumption and human development will worsen.“- Human Development Report, UNDP

Consumer Society in the Global North

Consumption Competition

Consumption Based

Economy

Consumer Culture

How many planets did you consume?

Adding More People to the Planet The world have 6.4 billion inhabitants today

Only 1.5 billion people a century ago Expected to add 3 billion more in the next 50 years

The total number of people on the planet is growing at a lightning pace and is expected to reach nine billion by 2050

Highest population growth is in Asia and Africa Lowest in North America and Europe

Growth Rates

Population Density

Too many people, too little food?

Malthus Theorem: population will always outpace food supply and produce human misery Negative checks: abortion, infanticide, prostitution Positive checks: war and famine

The solution: “moral restraint”

New Malthusians: fewer resources will lead to large scale misery and war over Water Land Oil

World Hunger Today

Food in an Unequal World

India (212 mill) and China (150 mill) have the highest # of undernourished people US: 38 million suffer from hunger, up 43% in the

last five years

Consistent World Hunger can be attributed to Inequitable ownership of resources Destruction of traditional food production Environmental decline Import/Export Imbalance

Hunger in the USA About 14% of people are food insecure in the USA

According the USDA, food security for a household means access by all members at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. Ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods,

and Assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially

acceptable ways, such as without resorting to emergency food supplies

Food stamps now feed 1 in 8 adults and 1 in 4 children In Santa Clara county food stamp use has increased 27%

since 2007 and today 4% of adults and 11% of children use food stamps

Hungry Planet

How we access and consume food is one of the best illustrations of the global inequality of consumption and the unequal impact on the earth’s resources

The book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by photographer Peter Menzel and writer Faith D'Aluisio gives us a glimpse into these inequalities The following slides show a week’s worth of food for three

families around the world

Questions to Consider:

What is different/similar about all three families’ weekly food consumption?

In addition to the food, what else is being consumed (think of the what it takes to produce this food, bring it to consumers, and to store it)?

What impact do you these think these diets have on the planet and use of resources?

Hungry in Chad

Hungry in Guatemala

Hungry in the USA

Questions to Consider:

What is different/similar about all three families’ weekly food consumption?

In addition to the food, what else is being consumed (think of the what it takes to produce this food, bring it to consumers, and to store it)?

What impact do you these think these diets have on the planet and use of resources?

Growing Consumption

With a growing population of new consumers in areas like China and India, there are growing demands on the environment with the increase desire for consumer goods of Western lifestyle and “consumer culture” With growing incomes around the world there has

been growth in the demand for meat consumption, processed food, and other aspects of a “Western Diet”

Western Diet The Standard American Diet (SAD) is

characterized by: Animal products Processed foods Eating out

Americans get 60% of their energy from two nutrients

Fat: generally from oil from soybeans Sugar: generally from high fructose corn syrup

American Meat

“Americans eat about the same amount of meat as we have for some time, about eight ounces a day, roughly twice the global average. At about 5 percent of the world’s population, we “process” (that is, grow and kill) nearly 10 billion animals a year, more than 15 percent of the world’s total.”

Effects of the Western Diet

The Western Diet requires a large number of resources: 36 % percent of the world's grain goes to feed

livestock 1 calorie of meat takes 11-17 calories of grain 8 oz of beef take 660 gallons of water 70% of antibiotics used worldwide are used for

livestock production 33% more fossil fuel is used to produce meat than

grain

Affects on the Environment?

We share the Earth's natural resources with nearly 1 billion pigs, 1.3 billion cows, 1.8 billion sheep and goats, and 13.5 billion chickens

In the United States, where the waste generated by livestock is 130 times that produced by humans

World's livestock herds account for roughly 25 percent of anthropogenic greenhouse gases - more than driving our cars

Where does the Waste Go?

Global Polarization of Nutritional Health Another consequence of the unequal distribution resources around

the world is the polarization of nutritional health

Diseases of over-consumption plague consumer societies Heart disease, diabetes, obesity One recent study shows that there are now more over-

weight than under-weight people in the world

Diseases of under-consumption plague societies with low levels of consumption Hunger lowers immunity as is closes related to many

diseases such malaria, diarrhea, loss of vision, etc.

Linking the Social and the Environmental When we look at consumption of the world’s

resources we see significant inequalities in consumption patterns around the world “The richest 20 percent of the world’s population accounts

for 86 percent of private consumption expenditures, whereas the poorest 20 percent account for only 1.3 percent.”

The environment is a sociological issue because environmental sustainability requires both social and technological changes. Consumption patterns around the world are closely linked

to environmental problems, and therefore, are linked to the solutions.