The rational response to existential crises is…to doughnut
Taylor Swift might get “down bad crying at the gym”, but uncomfortable feelings send others of us running to the pantry. I could’ve hit it hard after writing about planetary boundaries last time.
So this week my post comes with a comfort binge included—a big green doughnut for sweet relief.(1) Bonus: this doughnut’s good for you.
It’s good for everyone.
First, a short story about low hope and political will
As a child I heard, “The poor will always be with us. The Bible says so”. Decades of telethons, 40-Hour Famines, Live Aid, political doublespeak, and various governments later; I figured my Sunday School teachers must’ve been right.(2) Maybe poverty was too hard. Maybe we should focus on urgent environmental problems now—climate change, clean rivers—and social problems later.
But then I began studying sustainable practice, and in one of my first lessons I read seven little words that tipped my understanding upside down. “Poverty is a policy and political choice,” the Oxfam report stated matter-of-factly.(3) Then it described the kinds of policies that work. Suddenly, I saw pathways to a future to hope for.
“Yes, the poor will always be with us. But there needn’t be so many, nor should they suffer so much.” - Joseph Stiglitz, economist(4)
Government policies can reduce poverty; but governments must choose the right ones. And in a democracy the people (you and I) choose the Government.
But what have poverty and policy got to do with doughnuts?
The sweet spot of justice
In 2024, some people own billions of dollars of wealth while others sleep on streets. Even in New Zealand.
It’s not fair. It’s not justice. Everyone should have their human rights met. Everyone should have a chance to not just survive, but thrive.
And yet, and yet—the planetary boundaries graph I discussed last time shows human activity is already overwhelming Earth’s system. If we try to achieve social and economic justice, won’t that just create even more activity?
It could. Or, we could find the “sweet spot” for social, economic, and environmental justice:
where every person can live a good life with dignity
where hard work and innovation are rewarded
where Earth continues to support life in all its abundance
Where’s the doughnut already?!
The Planetary Boundaries concept I described in my last post shows the safe operating space for human activity (in green). See below.
The planetary boundaries 2023
In 2015 economist Kate Raworth decided to combine the planetary boundaries information with social justice. She renamed the original boundary line on the graph our “ecological ceiling”. Then she added a lower line she called our “social foundation”.
Voila!
The safe operating space for humanity became a big green doughnut:
The doughnut of social and planetary boundaries
Inside the doughnut hole people don’t have their basic needs met.(5)(6) So, justice demands we draw everyone out of the hole and onto the doughnut itself. We don’t go outside the doughnut, because that’s bad for the Earth (our life support system). The doughnut is where we live laugh love—all of us together.
Doughnut Economics is the sweet spot. Raworth describes it as “human prosperity in a flourishing web of life”.(7)
Government policies are a pathway onto the doughnut—and we know it
Doughnut Economics creates a deliciously vivid objective for a future we can hope for.(8) Government policies can help us get there.
We know what to do. In fact, Aotearoa has some “doughnut” policies already: e.g., the New Zealand Government subsidises home insulation and requires landlords to insulate rental properties(9):
Demand for insulation increases, which supports installers and suppliers, boosts the economy, and increases tax revenue for the Government.
Homes need less energy to heat and cool; this reduces environmental impact.
Residents spend less money on energy, so their incomes effectively increase. (Who doesn’t want more money in their pay packet each week?)
Homes are healthier and more comfortable; improved health and wellbeing lowers healthcare costs for residents and the Government. (Again, lower costs = effectively increased income.)
Insulation policy like this benefits society, the economy, and the environment; it’s exactly the kind of policy advocated for in Doughnut Economics.
What does the doughnut mean for hope?
Hope needs an objective, pathways to reach that objective, and feelings of empowerment to get there. If our objective is for humanity to live in the doughnut, one effective pathway is through Government policy. That means we’re empowered through…
Voting.
We hear lots of noise about various Government policies. It’s confusing! But if we run the noise through the filter of Doughnut Economics, we can vote with the big green doughnut in mind.
Sweet.
Hope science says hope demands regular feeding. Our willpower to move along the pathways towards our objectives runs out of oomph. We need to recharge. Sometimes, that’s literally calories!
I admit I was an ignorant young adult. A child of the 70s and pre-internet, I had a brain for fancy and fiction, not economics and politics.
In his book The Price of Inequality, Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz explains how inequality has become so extreme around the world, how bad it is for everybody, and why things don’t have to be this way. I learnt a lot about economics from this book.
The social foundation comes from internationally agreed minimum social standards.
Raworth says Earth has sufficient resources for every person to leave the doughnut hole. She explains in her fascinating Ted talk: A healthy economy should be designed to thrive not grow.
Raworth’s book Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist introduces the doughnut. I also learnt a lot about economics in general and why the mainstream objective of economic growth year after year after year is bonkers.
Chan Hellman, hope researcher, says picturing your objective in your mind—using your imagination—is important for hope.
NZ’s current Government recently cut funding to the Kiwi Warmer Homes programme I’ve described. With the economic, social, and environmental justice of the doughnut in mind, what do YOU think about their decision? Thank you to Emily Writes for the link and her important work on recent policy changes.
Comments