Towards a new view of sustainable development: human well-being and environmental stress

Understanding the relationship between human well-being and the stress economic activity places on the environment is a central challenge of sustainability research. Lamb et al  (2014 Environ. Res. Lett.   9 014011) provide two important results that will influence future analyses. First, they show...

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Main Authors: Thomas Dietz, Andrew K Jorgenson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2014-01-01
Series:Environmental Research Letters
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/3/031001
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author Thomas Dietz
Andrew K Jorgenson
author_facet Thomas Dietz
Andrew K Jorgenson
author_sort Thomas Dietz
collection DOAJ
description Understanding the relationship between human well-being and the stress economic activity places on the environment is a central challenge of sustainability research. Lamb et al  (2014 Environ. Res. Lett.   9 014011) provide two important results that will influence future analyses. First, they show that the drivers of consumption that induce anthropogenic carbon emissions are similar to but not the same as the drivers of place-based (i.e., production driven) carbon emissions. Second, they show that a diverse set of countries are able to achieve high levels of human well-being while placing relatively little stress on the environment. Since the desire of low emission countries to increase emissions in pursuit of development is a major blockage point in international climate negotiations, the finding that emissions are decoupled from increased well-being is not only of scientific interest, it could also inform policy discussions.
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spelling doaj.art-8a4b481de192438eb58ac1b76144907b2023-08-09T14:44:20ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262014-01-019303100110.1088/1748-9326/9/3/031001Towards a new view of sustainable development: human well-being and environmental stressThomas Dietz0Andrew K Jorgenson1Environmental Science and Policy Program and Department of Sociology, Michigan State University , USADepartment of Sociology, University of Utah , USAUnderstanding the relationship between human well-being and the stress economic activity places on the environment is a central challenge of sustainability research. Lamb et al  (2014 Environ. Res. Lett.   9 014011) provide two important results that will influence future analyses. First, they show that the drivers of consumption that induce anthropogenic carbon emissions are similar to but not the same as the drivers of place-based (i.e., production driven) carbon emissions. Second, they show that a diverse set of countries are able to achieve high levels of human well-being while placing relatively little stress on the environment. Since the desire of low emission countries to increase emissions in pursuit of development is a major blockage point in international climate negotiations, the finding that emissions are decoupled from increased well-being is not only of scientific interest, it could also inform policy discussions.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/3/031001
spellingShingle Thomas Dietz
Andrew K Jorgenson
Towards a new view of sustainable development: human well-being and environmental stress
Environmental Research Letters
title Towards a new view of sustainable development: human well-being and environmental stress
title_full Towards a new view of sustainable development: human well-being and environmental stress
title_fullStr Towards a new view of sustainable development: human well-being and environmental stress
title_full_unstemmed Towards a new view of sustainable development: human well-being and environmental stress
title_short Towards a new view of sustainable development: human well-being and environmental stress
title_sort towards a new view of sustainable development human well being and environmental stress
url https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/9/3/031001
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