{"id":5241,"date":"2015-03-17T07:07:55","date_gmt":"2015-03-17T07:07:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jacopoperfetti.com\/?p=5241"},"modified":"2015-03-17T07:07:55","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T07:07:55","slug":"the-changes-subtraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jacopoperfetti.com\/archive\/blog\/2015\/03\/17\/the-changes-subtraction\/","title":{"rendered":"The change's subtraction"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my book, \u201cMake The Sky Bloom\u201d, I talk about the extraordinary moment of change we are experiencing \u2013 the opportunity to imagine a future crafted around us. Particularly, I focus on 6 reasons that make our times so unique and exciting, and allow for change to turn into a primary need, as opposed to being an accessory.
\nOne of these reasons is the impact of the increasing global population on the environment. According to some sources, there will be 10 billion people alive on Earth within 50 years from now. Many of us will become energy consumers, and that leads to 3 possible scenarios which all requires radical changes: 1) take steps back to change our lifestyle 2) develop new sustainable energy 3) look for new planets.
\nAlthough this might sound excessive or apocalyptic, it isn\u2019t. Just think of all the entrepreneurs who looked into bringing mankind to space. From Virgin\u2019s patron Richard Branson conceiving Virgin Galactic, to Paypal \/ Tesla Motor founder Elon Musk launching Space X and Jeff Bezoz (Amazon) launching Blue Origin. In much the same way, \u201cgreen economy\u201d and sustainable energy markets are rapidly growing. Of all 3 solutions, I particularly prefer the first one: taking a few steps back and change our lifestyle. First and foremost, it is the only solution that everyone can afford (not everyone can afford to launch an airspace company or invest millions on sustainable energy) and secondly, it is based on a subtractive mindset. It is important to conceive new sustainable energy infrastructures, as well as creating technology to travel through space, although these ideas are still based on a speculative capitalistic vision of addition: adding new needs and new products to the market, while the solution could be simple and more immediate. We grew up for many years under the driven of infinite growth without realizing that this model is incompatible with our planet, which is a finite entity.
\nQuoting Jonas Salk, \u00abIf all the insects were to disappear from the earth, within 50 years all life on earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from the earth, within 50 years all forms of life would flourish<\/em>\u00bb. On \u201cEverything counts\u201d, Depeche Mode sing that everything counts in large amounts, and we often forget that our habits have an exponential impact in the world because we are 7 billion people on a planet with limited resources. In this perspective, we can either look for extraterrestrial homes or trying to review our lifestyle. The real change should be focus on how to do less (better) rather than how to keep doing more and more. In order to reduce our environmental impact we should use our car less rather than buy a new (more-eco-friendly) car.
\nOur lifestyle is no longer sustainable. This is a fact that cannot be ignored. According to a WWF research, the average bio-reproductive space occupied by each individual in the world is about 2,2 hectares, which is way above the 1,8 hectares sustainability ceiling. This is alarming when realizing that the 2,2 is counterweighted by the majority of Africans, who only occupy 0,2 hectares per individual, in contrast with an American (9,6), a Canadian (9,6) or a European (4.5). It\u2019s even more alarming to realize that the world is not moving from the American standard to the African standard (meaning that people aren\u2019t consuming less), but on the other way around.
\nNew Economies have experienced growth by looking at the western model, and are now ready to afford \u201cprogress\u201d in the same way we (who often enjoyed our lifestyle at their own expanses) did. In this perspective, are we supposed to tell them that they can\u2019t enjoy their moment now?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oggi il cambiamento non \u00e8 pi\u00f9 un concetto accessorio, facoltativo, ma un bisogno primario. E uno dei cambiamenti pi\u00f9 importanti riguarda la sostenibilit\u00e0 del nostro stile di vita.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5936,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21,98,141,174,183,209,307,380,455,510],"class_list":["post-5241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","tag-amazon-en","tag-climate-change","tag-depeche-mode-en","tag-energie-rinnovabili-en","tag-environmental-impact","tag-future","tag-mars","tag-plotino-en","tag-sostainability","tag-virgin-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jacopoperfetti.com\/archive\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jacopoperfetti.com\/archive\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jacopoperfetti.com\/archive\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacopoperfetti.com\/archive\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacopoperfetti.com\/archive\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacopoperfetti.com\/archive\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacopoperfetti.com\/archive\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jacopoperfetti.com\/archive\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacopoperfetti.com\/archive\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacopoperfetti.com\/archive\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}