The social shortfall and ecological overshoot of nations

Summary

A sobering scorecard. Andrew Fanning, Daniel O’Neill, Jason Hickel and Nicolas Roux track over 140 countries from 1992 to 2015 against the ‘doughnut’ of social needs and planetary limits. Countries “tend to transgress biophysical boundaries faster than they achieve social thresholds”, and their projections are bleak: “Current trends will only deepen the ecological crisis while failing to eliminate social shortfalls.”

Rationale

It charts symptoms, not causes, though its drift – more overshoot alongside thinner social support – is what we think dispositions towards separation help hold in place.