Today’s anxiety-ridden world is full of sweeping governmental policies meant to ease human suffering and protect the environment. A new study speaks to the value of the holistic look at people’s everyday lives to reveal unexpected potholes in the best-laid policy paths.
Such as, how a rural worker’s unhappiness when leaving for cities to provide for their families can unexpectedly offset the benefits to their finances and the health of the forests back home.
“Even as we race to find ways to make the world more sustainable and just we must pay attention to the details in how people relate to their environment,” said Jianguo “Jack” Liu, Michigan State University’s (MSU) Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability. “Until we assure that both people and the natural world can thrive, we will suffer setbacks to a more sustainable world.”
Read more at: Michigan State University
A farmer in the renowned Wolong Nature Reserve in southwestern China joins about 5,000 people who are neighbors with the protected giant pandas. Scientists are creating ways to understand how peoples' daily actions can help or hurt sustainability efforts. (Photo Credit: Hongbo Yang, Michigan State University)