Interesting paper. It correctly identifies the source of our problems: behavioral patterns, culture and power structures glorifying consumption and pronatalism. Authors recognize that targeting only symptoms of #overshoot (like #ClimateChange) with incremental technological interventions is a losing strategy.
@jackofalltrades@pvonhellermannn pretty bad takes in this paper. for one, overpopulation isn't an issue anymore, population peak estimates keep getting revised downward.
1/2 😊 aside comment first: i think you joined a conversation yesterday, @jackofalltrades, about whether people should be held accountable for their “likes” and “boosts”, and whether those really reflect your opinions: my biggest downfall here is boosting and liking without reading things properly, whilst rushing round doing something else. In this instance:
2/4 I did quickly click on paper, thought, “hmm, behavioural science, not my thing, but who knows, maybe interesting” - but failed to see “pronatalism” even though it was in your toot! That is indeed a bit of bad take/red flag. Do still need to read, but in general, i find political economy the most important for explaining climate delay; for example W Davies’ LRB review of B Christopher’s “The Price is Wrong”. So important.
3/4 I am, by the way, a (sadly not very active) member of CSSN (climate social science network), all reearchers look at causes of #ClimateDelay or #climatedelayism - a lot of interesting stuff here. Again, mostly about political economy, power structures and climate politics
4/4 Having said this, I am also very interested in psychology work on climate delayism/denial, in particular on #disavowal suxh as Sally Weintrob - see great overview in this paper, written by Aaron (i did the part on the neoliberal university). And continue to be open to other takes (though not “pronotalism”. But must read).
[Apologies this has turned into a 4-part reply! My heart sometimes sinks when i see this yet i do it myself!]
The authors of the paper place pronatalism in the context of the political economy and power structures:
"Pronatalism is a set of social and institutional pressures placed on people to have children, often driven by forces such as patriarchy, religion, nationalism, militarism and capitalism."
That's why I thought this to be an interesting perspective on the topic.
@jackofalltrades@pvonhellermannn@fluffykittycat it might be but in the end it will go so that those in power get to decide who gets to have progeny thru nepotism / means testing / money / amount of pigment / religion
Yes! It is pretty telling that Musk himself has 10 children and other tech bros/billionaires also tend to have many (at least one other has 10 himself I think). With all their #Longtermism stuff, it is literally them breeding their own lovely white offspring for the future whilst everyone else can die off.
But will read the piece! Work on palm oil so aware of global food needs etc. Just that, for above reasons, super wary of any overpopulation talk.
They definitely take a broader view of human history:
"We are arguably in the late boom phase of a one-off boom-bust cycle (...) made possible not only by improving population health but, more importantly, through technologies that use fossil fuels."
As a solution they suggest behavioral manipulation on a mass scale through marketing and media.
The paper stops there though, leaving the political aspect of this suggestion unexplored. This begs the question who would do these things and why. Governments focused on ever growing their influence? Billionaires deriving their power from economic growth? The middle class caught up in the rat race?
This is where I feel texts like these always fumble.
Naomi Klein in "This Changes Everything" suggests abolishing capitalism. George Marshall in "Don't Even Think About It" wants us to take inspiration from organized religions.
I guess it would be a bummer to end a book with "so here's the problem, but I don't have any solutions, good luck 😎".
"They reap the benefits of capitalism, only to turn around and criticize it. Capitalism: The worst economic system, except for all the others." -Winston Churchill
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