打印

作者

Reza Ramyar

来源

CITIES,Vol.109,Issue1,Article 103030

语言

英文

关键字

Spirituality;Sustainability;Self-awareness;Consumerism

作者单位

SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, United States of America;SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, United States of America

摘要

It is often said that human population and urban growth are the main concerns in environmental degradation. Growing human populations require more food and development, but does it interfere with the sustainability of Earth's ecosystem, or is human population growth detrimental to human welfare, due to limited resources on our planet? Human welfare encompasses a wide variety of factors, and cannot truly be improved by an increase in consumption. Consumerism produces a cycle, in which people work more to earn more to consume more. In a world where happiness is determined by wealth and property (what is purchasable), fundamental changes in the perspective of the individual are necessary in order to decrease the consumption of the limited resources and preserve the natural environment. These changes need not be radical or weird, rather, they could be introduced gradually and address the root of our current destructive manner. First, we must understand the cause of our current human predicament. Why are we now more alone, more selfish, consumer-oriented, destructive, and irresponsible? Then, to control this selfish human instinct to exploit, we need to find fundamental solutions, one of which is proposed in this paper.