In the Era of Climate Change and Peak Oil, Why a Middle-class Lifestyle is a Fair Minimum for an Environmentalist

(This article makes more sense if you read the first part: Why don’t more of us conserve more? I’m looking at you…and myself.)

Given the challenges we face – climate change, peak oil, etc – why don’t I reduce my lifestyle further, even below that of ‘developed world middle class’? Why shouldn’t everyone who calls him or herself ‘environmentally aware?’

• I am not saying I am entitled to this lifestyle, only that I have it, it’s good, and it would be foolish to give it up unless forced;

BECAUSE

• It is possible to create a middle class lifestyle that is carbon-neutral, sustainable, doesn’t exploit people, and so on;

BUT

• We allowed corrupt people to take advantage of imperfect systems to make doing the right thing very difficult and expensive.

The best known way to get people to behave according to social norms is – peer pressure. I’m working hard to push us over the tipping point where it is normal to conserve, normal to live within your ecological means, and shameful to waste.

Whether I succeed or fail in creating this, some of my journey must on roads rather than rails. Solar houses are not commonly built, so I must build my own, and in the meantime I will endeavour to live in comfortable, but not excessive, surroundings. 

A New Definition of Middle Class

I should make clear that I define ‘middle class’ as a standard of living, not a collection of things, but to make it simple, middle class means to me:

• Owning your own home (or renting if preferred)
• A home that is largely passively solar heated, maximum size 200 square metres (~2,150 square feet), durable (built to last 1,000 years), beautiful, and comfortable
• No need for a car
• The ability to buy necessities like food, clothing, and furniture as needed
• Working an average of four days per week, 9 months per year

To me, middle class means freedom from fear of doing without the essentials of life like food, shelter, clothing, and so on. Note I include much more time off than we currently get, but not necessarily the ability to jet around the world on tropical vacations. Middle class means you can buy what you need, you have savings, you have security; to be poor is to lack all of these. (To be rich is to have much more than you need for security; to have excess.)

Note that my definition of middle class does not include a McMansion in the suburbs and SUVs for each driver. I also make no mention of electronic geegaws, although if you can afford furniture comfortably, then there’s no reason you wouldn’t be able to buy some of them.

Some will argue that houses should be considerably smaller, but I disagree. This is a lesson from Colombia, where my wife is from. Houses and apartments there commonly have three or four bedrooms, two-and-a-half bathrooms, and are decently spacious. Small houses work well for small families, but extended families need more space. Houses should have room for grandparents, visiting relatives, even boarders.

What Could Have Been

This level of middle class was readily achievable during the age of oil. It will be more difficult in a time of declining oil supplies and rising concerns about the damage we’ve done to the ecology, but it is still possible. There are houses that are close to sustainable and will last for hundreds of years. Had we been building these since, say, the 1970s when scientists sounded the first serious warnings about environmental damage and limited resources, most of our buildings would be now be good for another several hundred years. That relieves a huge burden – and means much less work in the building trades.

Eliminate our disposable society and we eliminate much waste – and many jobs. If few cars are required and houses last essentially forever, the four-day work week is well within reach.

We need to change how we live and I am willing to do so – I see the necessity, and I can see how the world could be better in many ways. I know the fault is as much with the crooks who have corrupted our system as with the meek remainder who let them, even willingly ignored inconvenient contradictory evidence because we gained some benefit ourselves.

It would be stupid for me to live as a peasant unless I have to. Which, if we don’t do something about peak oil, becomes a distinct possibility. And there’s the predicament. Due to circumstances beyond my control, my lifestyle and quite possibly life expectancy are about to be greatly curtailed. Therefore, I must learn to control circumstances.