Social dimensions of fertility behavior and consumption patterns in the Anthropocene
Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: We consider two aspects of the human enterprise that profoundly affect the global environment: population and consumption. We show that fertility and consumption behavior harbor a class of externalities that have not been much noted in the literature. Both are driven in part by attitudes and preferences that are not egoistic but socially embedded; that is, each household’s decisions are influenced by the decisions made by others. In a famous paper, Garrett Hardin [G. Hardin, Science 162, 1243–1248 (1968)] drew attention to overpopulation and concluded that the solution lay in people “abandoning the freedom to breed.” That human attitudes and practices are socially embedded suggests that it is possible for people to reduce their fertility rates and consumption demands without experiencing a loss in wellbeing. We focus on fertility in sub-Saharan Africa and consumption in the rich world and argue that bottom-up social mechanisms rather than top-down government interventions are better placed to bring about those ecologically desirable changes.
Authors: Scott Barrett, Aisha Dasgupta, Partha Dasgupta, W. Neil Adger, John Anderies, Jeroen van den Bergh, Caroline Bledsoe, John Bongaarts, Stephen Carpenter, F. Stuart Chapin, Anne-Sophie Crépin, Gretchen Daily, Paul Ehrlich, Carl Folke, Nils Kautsky, Eric F. Lambin, Simon A. Levin, Karl-Göran Mäler, Rosamond Naylor, Karine Nyborg, Stephen Polasky, Marten Scheffer, Jason Shogren, Peter Søgaard Jørgensen, Brian Walker, James Wilen
Institutions: Columbia University, United Nations, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, University of Cambridge, University of Exeter, Arizona State University, Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Northwestern University, Population Council, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stanford University, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, UCLouvain, Princeton University, University of Oslo, University of Minnesota, Wageningen University & Research, University of Wyoming, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, CSIRO Land and Water, University of California, Davis
Language: English
Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W3011863518