John Sterman, Director of MIT’s System Dynamics Group, and one of four faculty co-leaders of the Sustainable Business Lab (S-Lab), has an insightful, provocative take on our society - which he describes as a “hedonic treadmill” (or rat race).
People are striving to get ahead, using up the world’s resources at an unsustainable rate, and making themselves miserable in the process.
The personal isn’t always part of the conversation, but I really do believe that we can’t have a sustainable society if people are constantly overworked, burned out, sleep deprived, and don’t have time for friendships or relationships or community, for participating in civil society. When everybody’s striving so hard to have more—more income, more consumption, more stuff—and then is so tired and has so little time that they can’t enjoy it, the pursuit of all of that stuff undermines the things that actually contribute to a fulfilling, meaningful, happy life. And then we feel this great dissatisfaction—and strive for even more.
He notes that “people really want the opportunity to work professionally in a way that is consistent with building a sustainable world instead of undermining it” — but we’re not anywhere near that paradigm.
Though this outlook may seem pessimistic, Sterman’s hopeful, even optimistic about the chance to change course and make improvements.
There are many, many studies that show that there’s billions of tons per year of greenhouse emissions that can be abated and gigawatts per year of power consumption that can be avoided by investing in efficiency that actually puts money in your pocket.
Sounds like a good step before we’re weened off the conventional, resource-depleting and crisis-inducing growth drug in the move towards “sustainable development.”