Population, Health and Consumption

Traditional environmentalist views on population and consumption epitomise previous approaches to sustainability. They argue that our planet cannot sustain a population as large as ours and that we consume too much to the detriment of our environment. Such views sometimes go as far as to argue that our population size and consumption should be decreased, that we should make sacrifices if we wish to preserve the planet. Though high population growth and many of our consumption patterns have led to environment harm in the past, this chapter tries to demonstrate that transitioning towards more sustainable societies does not necessarily require radical and pervasive measures…