In 2018, when I met Soumya Dutta, co-founder of India Climate Justice, he explained that the human population increased four-fold in the 20th century-- from 1.6 to 6.1 billion people. During the same time, global energy consumption increased between twelve and sixteen-fold. Whenever one unit of energy is produced and consumed, he continued, water, land and other bio-resources are also consumed; and hazardous waste is generated. In other words, because of cars, electricity, air conditioning, computers, the Internet and smartphones, the average person now uses over four times the amount of natural resources that our grandparents consumed.
Actually, Mr. Dutta clarified, referring here to "average" people is not correct. According to the World Bank, the average Indian consumes about 630 kilograms of oil equivalent (KGoe) per year. The average Bangladeshi consumes less than 300 KGoe. The average U.S. American annually consumes over 6000 KGoe.
To provide every global citizen with a decent opportunity for a healthy life-- starting with clean water and toilets-- Soumya Dutta said that poor countries with the lowest emissions might need to increase their per capita energy consumption. To reduce human-imposed burdens on natural ecosystems sufficiently, people who consume excessively would need to reduce their energy and water consumption by at least 70% and eliminate their greenhouse gas emissions entirely.
I came away from our meeting daunted by the challenge.
It occurred to me to start by reducing my consumption by three percent per month. My husband and I enlarged our vegetable garden. I quit using the dryer and hung laundry on outside lines. I walked to the grocery store-- aware that living near one is a privilege. My mechanic kept my 1996 car running.
I also got a new website and my email server said it could no longer work with my ten-year-old computer: my new site and computer upgrade canceled out my reductions. I also realized that individual acts don't really change anything. Reducing consumption significantly requires collective action.
WHAT IS ESSENTIAL? WHAT IS A LUXURY?
Today, with our human population at 8.3 billion, my grocery stores' shelves lie increasingly empty. While my husband and I search for an affordable house, the average long-term Santa Fe rental goes for $3200/month-- way more than we can afford. (The landlord renting a 900 s.f. house for-- still unaffordable-- $2700 requires monthly income of at least $9000".)
While Soumya Dutta's challenge to reduce consumption lingers, and I need to minimize my possessions in preparation for a move, I've started wondering what is essential, and what is a luxury?
Thinking of the late physicist and Nobel Prize winner Richard P. Feynman's saying, "I would rather have questions that can't be answered than answers that can't be questioned," I offer these questions to invite discussion:
Is living in a house with more than 400 square feet per person a luxury? What about owning a house? Owning two houses?
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