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Inequality can double the energy required to secure universal decent living.

ABSTRACT: Ecological breakdown and economic inequality are among the largest contemporary global challenges, and the issues are thoroughly entangled - as they have been throughout the history of civilisations. Yet, the global economy continues toward ecological crises, and inequalities remain far higher than citizens believe to be fair. Here, we explore the role of inequality, alongside traditional drivers of ecological impacts, in determining global energy requirements for providing universal decent living. We consider scenarios from fair inequality - where inequalities mirror public ideals - through a fairly unequal world, to one with a super-rich global elite. The energy-costs of inequality appear far more significant than population: even fair levels increase the energy required to provide universal decent living by 40%, and a super-rich global 1% could consume as much energy as would providing decent living to 1.7 billion. We finish by arguing that total population remains important nonetheless, but for reasons beyond ecological impacts.

SUBMITTER: Millward-Hopkins J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9418152 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Inequality can double the energy required to secure universal decent living.

Millward-Hopkins Joel J

Nature communications 20220826 1

Ecological breakdown and economic inequality are among the largest contemporary global challenges, and the issues are thoroughly entangled - as they have been throughout the history of civilisations. Yet, the global economy continues toward ecological crises, and inequalities remain far higher than citizens believe to be fair. Here, we explore the role of inequality, alongside traditional drivers of ecological impacts, in determining global energy requirements for providing universal decent livi ...[more]

PMID: 36028504

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Project description:Metabolic energy consumption has long been thought to play a major role in the aging process (Pearl, The rate of living. University of London Press, London, 1928). Across species, a gram of tissue expends approximately the same amount of energy during the lifespan on average (Speakman, J Exp Biol 208:1717-1730, 2005). Energy restriction has also been shown to increase the maximum lifespan (McCay et al. J Nutr 10:63-79, 1935) and to retard age-associated changes (Weindruch and Walford, The retardation of aging and disease by dietary restriction. CC Thomas, Springfield, 1988). However, there are significant exceptions to universal energy consumption during the lifespan, mainly found by interclass comparison (Ramsey et al. Free Rad Biol Med 29:946-968, 2000; Atanasov, Trakia J Sci 10(3):1-14, 2012). Here, we present a universal relation that relates lifespan energy consumption to several physiological variables, such as body mass, temperature and the ratio of heart rate to respiratory rate, which have been shown to be valid for [Formula: see text] species representing different classes of living organisms, from unicellular organisms to the largest mammals. This relation has an average scattered pattern restricted to factors of 2, with 95% ([Formula: see text]) of the organisms having departures of less than a factor of [Formula: see text] from the relation, despite the difference of [Formula: see text] orders of magnitude in body mass, reducing any possible interclass variation in the relation to only a geometrical factor. This result can be interpreted as supporting evidence for the existence of an approximately constant total number [Formula: see text] of respiration cycles per lifetime for all organisms studied, effectively predetermining the extension of life through the basic energetics of respiration (quantified by [Formula: see text]); this is an incentive to conduct future studies on the relation of such a constant number [Formula: see text] of cycles per lifetime due to the production rates of free radicals and oxidants or alternative mechanisms, which may yield definite constraints on the origin of aging.

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Inequality can double the energy required to secure universal decent living.

Publications

Inequality can double the energy required to secure universal decent living.

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