Consumption, Happiness, And Climate Change

摘要

The climate problem is daunting. More than a decade after the Kyoto Protocol, the science is far more certain, but U.S. and global emissions are far higher. It should come as no surprise that environmental lawyers and policymakers have struggled to apply measures developed over the past 30 years to the climate problem. In a world whose principal energy supply is fossil fuel, GHG emissions are closely linked with the consumption of goods and services. Yet the aggregate amounts and patterns of consumption are so fundamental to the social and economic fabric that they may not appear to be the proper subject matter for lawyers and law. The emerging understanding of the economics of happiness suggests room for optimism. The literature suggests a wide range of ways in which consumption and its resulting carbon emissions can be reduced or shifted with measures that generate favorable impacts on the public's quality of life. We have explored several of these measures in this Article and look forward to the additional insights that the literature on the economics of happiness will contribute to the climate change and consumption debate in the coming years.