Learning, Social Transition A rational management approach to saving our biosphere

To save our biosphere we need to learn to curb upstream consumption, not just downstream emissions. So says scientist and policy analyst Vaclav Smil in his book, “Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made”.

From a hundred or so years ago up to the 1970s, we were worried there would be too many of us. Now, Vaclav Smil says the issue isn't the number of people on the planet, it's their level of consumption. "Imagine," he says "if you had only two billion people on the planet, but they all consumed at the average American level. God forbid." But he is hopeful. "Our greatest hope is to finally realize how wasteful we are. We simply need to do what I call “rational management.” And according to him, the science, technology and know-how we need to practice this new skill is already there.  I like his positioning of doing more with less as rational management. I like it a lot more than the concept of "degrowth," which is bad messaging as likely to garner more fear and scorn than understanding. Who doesn't want to be rational? Who doesn't want to manage well? Who doesn't want a higher quality of life, a more energy efficient house and a car that will last 35 years? And I like that his doing more with less strategy can be accomplished in small, discrete and measurable steps. As he says "In 1997, nations agreed to limit the use of chlorofluorocarbons to repair the hole in the ozone layer. Today, we don’t worry much about that hole." Author Interview: Want Not, Waste Not