Ex-pectations

We will do more with less, and also less with less

They say that having high expectations is a recipe for disaster. The reality of a situation is unlikely to live up to your dreams. But you have to start somewhere. You must have a goal or vision, even if it seems out of reach right now. That’s the whole point of dreaming, to turn it one day into reality, or at least to get somewhere worth going.

We of the industrialised world have many expectations: nice houses, cars and holidays; new clothes and devices whenever suits, and of course, having nice dinners out and cocktails regularly. All of these things are made possible by our reasonably stable economies and societies. But we are seeing that this foundation can no longer be taken for granted.

The fundamental capitalist paradigm of unlimited resources and constant growth is no longer viable. Most people now recognise that we are living in a Resource Constrained Economy. This is most obvious to us these days in the forms of energy prices and habitat destruction, and to people in developing countries by food shortages and water stress.

The latter is arguably the most difficult problem to solve, as there are few alternatives to using water for personal, agricultural and industrial requirements. However, there is increased pressure on all forms of natural capital, which leads to pressure on social capital. One cause of the recent ‘Arab Spring’ revolutions were higher food prices in the region, making stable diets unaffordable to many; there is constant tension between African and Asian states competing for water, sometimes leading to wars.

We must all learn to make do with less. That doesn’t necessarily mean a lower quality of life, but it does mean a different approach of life. To some extent, we will be able to do more with less by focussing on energy efficiency. But there is also a need for doing less with less, by using fewer resources and smaller spaces and devices.

There’s a need for energy reduction, both directly, via consumption, and indirectly, via embedded energy. It is important to understand the full environmental and social costs of things. Such as a pair of jeans, whose main cost will not be from production, transport or retailing, but during the wearing phase, via their many hot washes. You can reduce this environmental cost by washing them less frequently or on cooler cycles. However, a holistic response also requires reduction of the water requirements of growing cotton and denim production.

As well as doing cooler, or fuller, washes, we can do much more, especially those of us in the Global North who consume on average 6x our fair share of resources. We can recognize that more, or bigger, is not always better. That our convenience, in terms of size and place, is the driver of so many ills, and we are the creators of environmental inequity that requires just transitions to resolve.

So let’s forego huge houses, luxury cars, frequent long-haul flights, annual device upgrades, single-use containers, and sitting under heaters in outdoor cafes. These should no longer be our expectations, but our ex-pectations, which like our other exes- should be removed (or at least demoted) from our lives.