Quality of Life & Climate Change

The effects of climate change are already affecting our quality of life every day. Fires, floods, extinction of species, are some of the consequences. We cannot be surprised by the dramatic rise in sea level, the destruction of agriculture, the disruption of transportation, the irregular flow of energy and the overflowing of sewage systems. Climate change is no longer an issue that concerns only scientists, it involves us all to the extent that our quality of life deteriorates.

The Mexican Society for Quality of Life Studies has echoed the international consensus of experts that we must stop the exclusive use of economic metrics to guide our societies, governments and economies. We need to stop relying on Gross Domestic Product as the measure of our national success. We have to stop chasing economic growth as the path to our quality of life, because it doesn't work.

The exclusive use of these metrics is not only damaging our quality of life, it is killing us humans, and it is killing many other species. 

Quality of life, as a multidimensional construction, must be the way forward to achieve a more equitable prosperity in the present and sustainable in the future for all.

We need to use broader measures of well-being that include our individual resilience, strengthening interpersonal ties, individual self-awareness, the health of our communities, and the sustainable flourishing of ecosystems.

It is not a chimera. Already in some countries well-being and quality of life are the main objective and the basis of the national budget: New Zealand , Bhutan and soon Canada . There is sufficient evidence to show that quality of life produces good results in economic, social, environmental, and even political-electoral terms.

Image: El País

The "World Happiness Report" and Gallup reports paint a somewhat rosy picture. They say that our quality of life has not dropped much, that we are resistant, that things are not so bad.

There are doubts for two reasons:

First: the problem with the scores is that, in general, we do not come from a strong place. The overall average for 2020 and 2021 is just above 50. What this means is that we are fairly neutral about our quality of life. So when the results of climate change hit us, and if our scores drop, which is likely, we go from neutral to unhappy. This is not OK.

Second: The data says that our quality of life in all domains of well-being is declining, except in the economy. In other words, going back to business as usual, with the pursuit of wealth as the means of quality of life, is not working.

Image: IDB Invest

IN PERSPECTIVE , our future is not without hope if we act to contribute to the construction of a forceful collective reaction on a global scale, in one sense, but the above is also valid on a personal scale.

Let's act now by raising awareness about a solution for a sustainable future. You can do little things like forward this article to your friends and family. The awareness of the need to change the orientation of our social system is imperative and urgent.

Little things become bigger, and as you take action to be part of the big solution, we will find ways that are uniquely satisfying and suitable for yourself.

Dear reader, would you like to be part of the solution?

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Published at Voces Mexico on September 9th, 2021.