The climate crisis is a crisis of consumption. This (pace the perhaps too-frequent
interventions of one ardent neo-Malthusian) was one of the overriding themes
throughout the two days of ‘Global Health and Justice in a Changing
Environment’ (henceforth GHJCE – it’s
a mouthful), a conference looking at the intersection of environmental change,
health and social justice, organised by the UCL branch of Healthy Planet. The speakers at GHJCE highlighted how intensifying
patterns of unsustainable, resource-intensive consumption are driving
environmental change; however, they also demonstrated that fact that the crisis
is one of consumption does not, contra
dominant paradigms of behaviour change, make it a crisis of and for individual
consumers. Consumption is a function of densely-interwoven patterns of social,
political and economic norms, and the transition to a more sustainable society
demands collective action to restructure these norms.
This observation should be familiar to any health worker who
has looked at the evidence surrounding behaviour change in health promotion. In
many nations in the global North, individualism dominates in health promotion;
but individualistic interventions haven’t had the greatest of successes. Their
benefits are frequently modest and often short-lived, they exacerbate
already-severe health inequalities, and can serve to enhance stigmatisation of
already-marginalised groups. This approach is neatly satirised in the Townsend
Centre’s alternative to the UK Chief Medical Officer’s ‘Ten Tips for Better
Health’:
The
Chief Medical Officer’s Ten Tips for Better Health
|
Alternative
tips
|
1. Don’t smoke. If you can, stop.
If you can’t, cut down. |
Don’t be
poor. If you are poor, try not to be poor for too long.
|
2. Follow a balanced diet with plenty of fruit and
vegetables.
|
Don’t live
in a deprived area. If you do, move.
|
3. Keep physically active
|
Don’t be
disabled or have a disabled child.
|
4. Manage stress by, for example, talking things
through and making time to relax.
|
Don’t work
in a stressful low-paid manual job.
|
5. If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation.
|
Don’t live
in damp, low quality housing or be homeless.
|
6. Cover up in the sun, and protect children from
sunburn.
|
Be able to
afford to pay for social activities and annual holidays.
|
7. Practise safer sex.
|
Don’t be a
lone parent.
|
8. Take up cancer screening opportunities.
|
Claim all
benefits to which you are entitled.
|
9. Be safe on the roads: follow the Highway Code.
|
Be able to
afford to own a car.
|
10. Learn the First Aid ABC: airways, breathing and circulation.
|
Use
education as an opportunity to improve your socio-economic position.
|
The Townsend Centre’s Alternative Tips bring to the fore the absurdity of prescriptions for individual behaviour change that ignore the social context that shapes individuals’ capabilities to act upon such advice, and the direct influence that social environment has on their health. But despite these shortcomings, governments have embraced the CMO’s approach in looking at the changes required to combat climate change. DEFRA’s Pro-Environmental Behaviours Framework, for example, provides a set of 12 “headline behaviour goals”. Following the Townsend Centre’s example, the contributions of those present at GHJCE provide us with ample resources to revise this framework in a way that better understands the social context of behaviour change.
