Rebecca Laycock Pedersen
Postdoctoral researcher
Second comment on 'The climate mitigation gap : Education and government recommendations miss the most effective individual actions'
Author
Summary, in English
Wynes and Nicholas (2017a Environ. Res. Lett. 12 1-9) recently published an article that reviewed academic and grey literature to identify the most impactful individual actions for reducing carbon emissions in developed countries, identifying having 'one fewer child' as by far the most impactful action. This action was recommended with little context considering its controversial nature. We argue that there are three issue-areas that Wynes and Nicholas should have engaged with to improve the clarity of their recommendations and reduced the potential for misunderstanding, which are (1) the extent to which individual actions in one's private life can address climate change in relation to collective actions and actions in the professional sphere (2) the role of overconsumption in driving climate change and (3) the extent to which family planning is a human right. We also suggest that engagement with these issue-areas are a step towards a better practice in academic writing on population as an environmental issue.
Publishing year
2018-06
Language
English
Publication/Series
Environmental Research Letters
Volume
13
Issue
6
Document type
Journal article review
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Topic
- Other Social Sciences
Keywords
- behaviour change
- birth control
- climate change
- collective action
- consumption
- family planning
- sustainability
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1748-9318