Conspicuous conservation is the theme of our latest podcast, called “Hey Baby, Is That a Prius You’re Driving?” It centers around a paper by Alison and Steve Sexton, a pair of Ph.D. economics candidates (who happen to be twins, and who happen to have economist parents), called “Conspicuous Conservation: The Prius Effect and Willingness to Pay for Environmental Bona Fides.”
Includes an appearance by Tim Harford.
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Chandran Nair argues that the Western model of consumption-led economic growth cannot be replicated in Asia. This statement is not new, but Chandran Nair offers a new perspective from the Asian point of view.
If the global community is serious about lessening the impact of global capitalism on the world’s resources, then the role of the region with the largest populations on Earth must take centre stage.
In his new book, Consumptionomics: Asia’s role in reshaping capitalism and saving the planet, Chandran Nair argues that economic policy must change. The alternative is a catastrophic outcome arising from relentless promotion of a consumption-led growth model in the world’s most populous regions, at a time where resource constraints are a major issue.
Join Chandran Nair at the RSA as he calls for bans in key areas of consumption, the repricing of resources, and argues that the state must play a major role in achieving this.
Chair: Sir Crispin Tickell, director of the policy foresight programme, James Martin Institute, University of Oxford and former chair of The British Government Panel on Sustainable Development.
http://www.thersa.org/events/audio-and-past-events/2011/constraining-consumption
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Physician Kevin Patterson has treated patients in the Arctic, in Kandahar and on remote Pacific Islands. He says that Western ideas and the effects of urbanization are making people everywhere in the world both fatter and sicker.
http://www.npr.org/2011/03/24/132745785/how-western-diets-are-making-the-world-sick
Almost everything in modern life is designed to waste energy. The whole system evolved on a false premise that petroleum is cheap and plentiful and will be that way forever. The awesome Lisa Margonelli, author of Oil on The Brain and a fellow at the New America Foundation, talks us through the design of a world that completely disregards the perils of oil consumption and how new designs are meant to make us all more content with the mess we’ve made.
From http://invisible99.podbean.com/2010/11/24/99-invisible-11-99-undesigned/
With cities contributing upwards of 75 per cent of global carbon emissions, urban design is increasingly important when planning for climate change. This discussion examines the creative urban design solutions coming out of the world’s cities. Saskia Sassen is Robert S Lynd Professor of Sociology at Columbia University. Richard Sennett is professor of sociology at LSE and NYU. Jonathon Porritti s the chair of the sustainable development commission and founder and director of Forum for the Future.