Here are six key reasons why a focus on Fair Earth Living is powerful:
We can’t reach our goals without tackling consumption and the way we live.
- Consumption and how we live are at the root of many of our ecological and social ills.
- Tackling our ways of living is a necessary and significant part of addressing the climate and ecological crises.
- Lifestyles, consumption and behavioural changes are tied to 3/4 of emissions and help to shift demand, not just transform supply.
Individual actions add up! And people want to take action.
- Individual actions can directly reduce the size of footprints (e.g., plant-based diets, less food waste, smaller dwellings, renewable energy, bike lanes, working from home).
- Actions add up as more people adopt them and join with others to make them available, convenient, affordable and desirable.
- There is a hunger to contribute personally to the climate crisis.
Fair Earth Living becomes the norm.
- By funding Fair Earth Living practices and behaviours, we signal to others that these lives are the “new normal”.
- We can reinforce Fair Earth Living practices in others, as people are influenced by and influence each other.
We discover new or undervalued solutions.
- For example, consumption-based carbon inventories shed new light on “embodied” footprints in buildings and goods.
- Fair Earth Living also leads to solutions for different segments of the population.
- For example, youth are seeking alternative ways of living, while retirees are looking to downsize while maintaining quality of life.
It’s already happening!
- So much transformation is happening: e.g., share and repair shops, communities of intentional living, moms organizing to transform their communities, youth driving plant-based diets.
- Sustainable and equitable behaviours remain the norm in many traditional practices and cultures, such as repair cultures in India.
- Trends include a rapid rise in plant-based diets, and shifts from air to train travel through flight shaming movements.
People and life are at the centre.
- Ultimately, we’re asking: ‘How do we want to live’?
- This question leads us into foundational territory at the intersection of climate, nature, justice, sustainable economies, health and wellbeing.
- We’re called to engage with our heads, hearts and bodies – to heal ourselves and our relationship with all life on Earth.