Money can’t buy happiness–a truism so familiar that not even a quick Google search reveals its origins. Nevertheless, investing in climate change mitigation can improve quality of life. Many of the world’s poorest countries also find themselves at risk from climate change without the necessary investment in weather-proof infrastructure needed to sustain life. Developing countries find this especially difficult, as many work to expand their economies within the global market.
Under a free-market capitalist system, the strength of a country’s economy is measured by its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). GDP measures the net value of a country’s production and thus its “worth” in the global market. It would stand, therefore, that the wealthier the country, the better the quality of life, right?
Often heralded as an international status symbol, GDP’s wealth measurement is inherently problematic. The free-market system worships economic growth with little concern for human or ecological consequences. A Gross Domestic Product measurement, therefore, doesn’t take into account most of the fundamental parts of human life–relationships, community, and quality of life. Therefore, some scientists suggest that rather than dubbing our age the Anthropocene, we adopt an alternative title that specifically targets capitalism’s impact on our environment: the Capitalocene.
Following the Great Recession, more countries became open to the idea of replacing GDP with a more comprehensive measurement of success. After witnessing massive bailouts of the fossil fuel industry, countries like France and Bhutan used the momentum to heighten public awareness of the fossil fuel industry’s massive impact on human-induced climate change. Their plan? Eliminate the social and environmental conditions that allowed bailouts and stunted socio-economic growth.
A study conducted by researchers from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa decided to examine how a country could create an actionable method for inspecting and changing its culture. Pulling data from a book by Lorenzo Fioramonti, the study argues that global economic growth has been static since the 1970s, if including the costs of environmental externalities.
Consider the case of Bhutan. This south Asian country pioneered a more holistic measurement of a country’s success. Adopted by the UN in 2011, the Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index considers the overall wellbeing of a nation’s residents by measuring satisfaction with education, health, and other living standards.
In Bhutan, the researchers inspected the Bhutanese Constitution to determine which values the people and government deem necessary to uphold. The document explicitly references the government’s purpose as a body that helps “enhance the unity, happiness and well-being of the people for all time.” Using these standards, they designed a survey to guide the government in responding to the results.
A survey conducted by the Bhutanese government asked citizens to rate their overall satisfaction within 9 different domains, such as Health and Education, and the 33 sub-categories, like living standards, psychological wellbeing, and ecological diversity/resilience. With a sample size of 9,000 people, the researchers and Bhutanese government surveyed approximately 1% of the country’s total population. Unlike GNH surveys in other countries, Bhutan trains its workers for 13 days, requiring that the survey conductors spend significant time with each person they interview. They must also conduct the survey in the region’s local language rather than English so as to reach a more diverse group of respondents.
Overall, only 10.4% of the population declare themselves unhappy. People are most satisfied with their safety, relationships to the environment, and feeling responsible for their environment. The areas with the most room for improvement include expanding education, work/life balance, and cultural participation. Most importantly, the results show that as material wellbeing increases, psychological wellbeing decreases significantly.
Bhutan, like many other nations globally, finds itself wanting to preserve its environment and culture, two elements that survey participants emphasize. Nevertheless, survey participants remark that because of the Bhutanese government’s acceptance of multinational corporations, many feel they and their families are at risk of losing their jobs and land to make way for economic development.
Ultimately, the Gross National Happiness indicates there must be change on local levels to bring about national (and then international) systemic change. The more that scientists and government officials communicate, the better policy can be informed by science. By examining and addressing the population’s concerns, governments can employ the results of a GNH throughout communities nationally to combat the climate crisis and socioeconomic inequality.
To attain a viable path to a sustainable future, the researchers emphasize examining the shortcomings of traditional political thinking. Adopting an ecosocial approach to the climate crisis requires small-scale alterations on the local level before a large-scale structural change can occur. The results of the Bhutanese study conclude that by developing platforms focused on social and environmental justice instead of capitalism alone, we can mend the developing ecological crisis.