New book endorses working fewer hours

Twenty actions for sustainability listed in a new book from the Melbourne Institute for Sustainability support the concept of working fewer hours.

The Melbourne Sustainable Society
 Institute's new book will be
 released June 14.

The three points listed under “What individuals can do” are: engage personally; own less; and reduce waste.

All those points are critical, but it is the final pair –own less and reduce waste – which are best achieved by fundamentally reducing our purchasing power and that will evolve over a relatively short time by making each of us, from the corporations though to the ordinary work, somewhat poorer.

Through have less dispensable income we will subsequently own less and because of that waste less.

The outcome of working a Four-Hour Work Day, no overtime or double shifts, will slow, dramatically, all consumption, both in terms of energy and the seemingly endless array of consumer goods created using finite resources,

That almost dictatorial reduction of the use of energy and goods might appear brutal, but beyond reducing human numbers to a sustainable level of about two billion (that’s a cut of about five billion) it is, without doubt, the most reasonable and humane way to adapt to our changing climate.

The new book, coming soon from the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute is, “2020 Vision for a Sustainable Society”, will be launched on 14 June, and will be available online shortly afterwards through the institute’s website.

A compilation of 26 chapters, the book is written by experts; among whom are distinguished professors, established non-fiction authors and even a Nobel Prize winner.

Each chapter identifies something that needs to change and selects one key action that is necessary in the next decade.

These actions are mostly set within the context of Australia and the Asia-Pacific, although they do have global relevance.

They are aimed at communities and government rather than individuals / households and the final chapter compiles these priority actions into a ‘to do’ list: key actions to be taken before 2020 to create a sustainable society.