Eat the Rich, Save the Planet
By: Madison Hunter
Tags: Climate Change, Global Warming, Activism, Environment, Sustainability

How we will get there.

Economic policies, legal frameworks, monetary incentives, and advances in infrastructure are all mechanisms required to instill a full lifestyle change in the richest 1%. While these are all substantial methodologies to force a change, they’re only a part of the puzzle. The choice an individual makes operates within broader contexts that don’t only include economic and legal parameters. Physical environments, media and advertising, social conventions, interpersonal influence, habits and routines, consumer choices, and attitudes and awareness all play a part in the enablement or constraint of a decision — particularly where lifestyle changes are concerned.

Incentives, targeted information, and choice provision play three key roles that have been used in the past to try to “nudge” people in the direction of a more environmentally sustainable lifestyle. However, these tactics are rarely enough to elicit profound change. According to the UNEP report, attempted sustainable transitions in the past have not been driven by consumers voluntarily choosing to consume more responsibly. Instead, social norms and changing product availability have been the causes of substantial change.

The report goes on to discuss how changes to infrastructure and social conventions, social influence, citizen participation, and habit disruption, are all methods required to cause society-wide lifestyle changes.

In the developed world, the accessibility of cars to wealthy individuals has enabled urban planning to cater to a car-dominant society. Cities are becoming more spread out, highways are getting wider to support more cars on the road, and it’s not uncommon for a wealthy household to own more than two vehicles. To reduce transportation-caused lifestyle emissions, urban planning must emphasize self-powered travel by making cities more walkable or bikeable. Furthermore, infrastructure must be put in place to support a more sustainable lifestyle, including increased charging ports for electric vehicles or more efficient public transport. The daily conventions of life will also need to be altered, so people can work and live their lives closer to their homes.

Social influence is known to be a catalyst for lifestyle change through the spread of behaviors through peer influence and challenging societal norms. Social influence is the reason why more companies are adding solar panels to their buildings, why people are transitioning to a vegan diet, and why businesses are trying to offer environmentally-friendly products. Unfortunately, social influence is one of the reasons why the lifestyles of the rich and famous have become desirable and have encouraged society to avoid cooperation with green initiatives. However, if those individuals make lifestyle changes themselves, their millions of followers will quickly follow suit.

Finally, the disruption of habitual behavior is a requirement in the breakdown of the firewall leading to a lifestyle change. Habits are based on stable contexts, which makes them suitable for permanent repetition. However, by changing the context in which the habit stands. the behavior itself comes into question, and the overall lifestyle routine can be disrupted. Disrupting behaviors and habits opens an opportunity for a new lifestyle to take shape, one that promotes a more sustainable way of living that encourages walking to work or investing in energy-efficient appliances.

Through a rich combination of structural (legal frameworks, economic policies, infrastructure), social and contextual (media and advertising, social conventions, interpersonal influence), and personal (behavior changes, consumer choices, awareness, and attitudes) approaches, integrated policies can be formed to simultaneously force and encourage the richest individuals in society to undergo lifestyle changes to support a more eco-friendly way of life.

Ultimately, the transition to environmentally sustainable lifestyles by the global wealthiest 1% will require deep-rooted socioeconomic, cultural, political, and behavioral changes that will require the participation in equal parts of the rich and famous and the government. Doing so will cause dramatic cuts to greenhouse gas emissions and will ensure the world achieves the Paris Agreement objectives promptly for both the future of the planet and its citizens.