Environment: The green doughnut is the space that we all should be striving to live within

From Greta Thunberg to David Attenborough, from Extinction Rebellion to King Charles, right across the economic divide, people are desperate for their Governments to act boldly and diligently, to address this unfolding disaster.

The Scottish, Welsh and the Northern Ireland Assembly each declared a Climate Emergency over 2 years ago. Sheffield City Council (alongside dozens of other Councils) also made this declaration in 2019.

But sadly, too little has happened, either in our City, nationally or indeed internationally, that would befit the word ‘Emergency’.

On the contrary, our Government seems to be almost oblivious to the issue. Spending and legislative decisions that include £27 billion on road expansions, expanding airports, coal mines and granting over 100 licences for oil and gas exploration would suggest the opposite to taking the climate crisis seriously.

This is largely the result of donations and lobbying from the fossil fuel companies.

Moreover, the main endlessly repeated rhetoric that we are hearing from central Government is the mantra of economic growth. “Growth, growth, growth!” We are so ready to buy the story that the economy needs to always grow, that the idea of growth seems unchallengeable.

This obsession with growth and GDP started in the 1930s, becoming the goal of most countries. But this was a theory that was based on a very different world, theories and methods that simply can’t be applied today.

We can’t keep growing. This trajectory of unending growth is like an uncontrolled cancer that will eventually kill us, it is unsustainable and is rapidly destabilising the balance of ecosystems of the planet, upon which all of our lives depend.

And so we need to think again about what makes us thrive, finding different indicators of success, other than economic growth. This shift must happen, if humanity is going to survive the century.

Other indicators of thriving might include notions like ‘happiness’, ‘well-being’, ‘education’, a sense of community and many others.

Carbon is not the only cause of the climate crisis, it’s also about over consumption; we are living in the age of high mass consumption.

The resources that are being used to meet the demands of this consumption are finite. We are using far more than our fair share, in fact we are taking so much of the resources that we are leaving nothing for our children.

Consumer propaganda and lucrative retail therapy prevail; we have been convinced that we are better off every time we make a purchase.

More beautiful, more sexy; we get a hit very time we buy something. But this journey is taking us to a very dark place.

The Stockholm Resilience Centre came up with the idea of ‘planetary boundaries, within which we need to keep, so that humanity can continue to develop and thrive for generations to come.

Crossing these boundaries increases the risk of generating large-scale abrupt or irreversible environmental changes.

The planetary boundaries framework has generated enormous interest within science, policy, and practice. Four of nine planetary boundaries have now been crossed as a result of human activity, The four are: climate change, loss of biosphere integrity, land-system change, altered biogeochemical cycles (phosphorus and nitrogen).

So how can we proceed? Five years ago, well-known Oxford-graduate economist, Kate Raworth proposed her brilliant idea of Doughnut Economics.

This model combines social boundaries with planetary boundaries and looks at how economies can thrive.

The hole in the middle are the social boundaries, where people are not getting life essentials (food, health, housing, education, political voice) the things that people need for basic dignity.

The planetary ceilings are defined by the outer edge of the doughnut.We cannot overshoot that ceiling, where the life-supporting systems are, because that is how everything starts to go awry and upsets the delicate balance of things, and they start to collapse.

The ceiling includes factors such as the ozone layer, the acidification of the oceans, the management of land, the greenhouse gases.

We are falling short and overshooting at the same time. Billions of people fall short on the most basic of needs and we have already overshot at least 4 of the planetary boundaries, risking planet breakdown and ecosystem collapse.

The green doughnut is the space that all should be striving to live within, to meet the needs of all, within the bounds of the Planet.

This is the sweet spot. This is the measure of success, and it's going to take us all , with all our ingenuity, to get there.

This is how we build resilience. This is where we learn to live with Nature. This is where we learn to rebuild, refurbish and create.

This brilliant vision has already been taken up by about 40 places in the World. Costa Rica is at the forefront of living within this model.

Some cities such as Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Berlin and Cambridge are also embracing it. Come on Sheffield! How can we bring these ideas to our City? Let’s be creative and try this too!

Doughnuteconomics.org.