Planetary Health Index - a better way to measure progress

 "You get what you measure".  This old business aphorism is an essential truism.  Whether your goal is personal, organizational or national, that which you measure regularly will get your focus.  

Too often, we measure the wrong things.   People measure their weight, which is a poor indicator of health. Corporations are often focused on the quarterly results, which could be detrimental to the overall health of the company. 

 As societies, we obsess over gross domestic product (GDP), which is a largely arbitrary figure, consisting of the total goods and services produced in a country during a given time period.  When the media talks about the economy, they're talking about GDP.  If the economy is doing "well", GDP is growing.  If a country is in recession, GDP is shrinking.  Since the economy is a matter covered by general mainstream media and obsessed over by business media, it's foremost in everyone's mind.  It also means that if a government is judged to have managed the economy poorly, the chances of being elected are minimal.  A large GDP also provides a country with more geopolitical clout.  So, governments obsess over the GDP, elevating its importance over almost everything else.

What's wrong with that?  After all, GDP is a measure of how well off we are, right?  Well, it's not a very good one.  GDP is an aggregate measure, meaning that if some people are extremely wealthy, it says little about the experience of most people.  It counts bad things as well as good so if there's a plane crash and a lot of money is spent on cleanup, lawsuits and funerals, that's part of the GDP.  It only counts what you pay for.  If you pay for someone to cut your lawn, fix your car, look after your kids or paint your house, you're "helping" the economy by increasing the GDP.  Most worrying, though, is that GDP says nothing about the degradation of our planet, the ultimate resource on which we all rely for life itself.  When you remove plant life that was producing oxygen, when you kill microorganisms that are the basis of life, when you pollute the air and water, when you degrade the soil, when you destroy biodiversity that sustains the web of life, it takes a long time for that to be noticed in the form of GDP.  And by time it does, it's too late.  It's not exaggeration to say that our single minded pursuit of GDP is jeopardizing the ability of the planet to sustain life.

We need a new measure, one that reflects the ability of the planet to sustain life.  It needs to be an aggregate measure, including biodiversity, climate stability, air pollution, water pollution soil health and ocean health.  We could call it the planetary health index.  It needs to be top of mind for everyone, everywhere.  Free browsers should come with bookmarks to it.  News aggregators like Google need to include links to it.  Social media sites need to promote it.  Public broadcasters should host shows about it.

This needs to trump the GDP as the top priority of governments.

But you use oil too!

Regularly, I find myself on Twitter or online fora debating with people who, for a variety of reasons, are deeply protective of the oil industry, particularly that of the Alberta tar sands.  Almost invariably, they will start to attack my lifestyle, claiming that I use oil to drive my car or heat my house.  When I point out that I drive very little and cycle to work, they tell me my cycling clothing and helmet are made of oil.  One even called out the use of oil in my bicycle tires.

So, I'm here to come clean.  I do use oil.  Although I drive little (~5,000 kilometers annually for a family of 3), my minivan burns gas.  Although my house is heated with hydroelectricity, the water heater is natural gas; because that's what was there when we bought the house. There is certainly oil in the synthetic materials used in my bicycle clothing and my shoes.  Although I make an effort to buy locally, lots of things I use have been brought to my home by oil burning ships, trucks and trains. I've become aware they add plastics to t-shirts.  I understand that some corporate sociopath decided to add microplastics to the liquid soap we use but it has since mercifully been banned.  So, that's it.  A full confession.  I must be a raving hypocrite, right? 

Well, not exactly.  I try to live my life in a way that minimizes my usage of oil because I understand that scientists say that burning fossil fuels is the leading cause of climate change; and climate change will threaten civilization itself.  So, I choose to cycle when I'd rather drive.  And I take vacations close to home when airfare is so cheap it can literally be cheaper to fly across the planet. My next car will be smaller, possibly electric if I can afford it.  And when my water heater dies, it will be replaced by an electric model, perhaps tankless.  I would love to have solar panels, if I could afford them.  And a heat pump.

However, any amount of personal choice and sacrifice is insignificant in a world of rampant oil use.  That's why the most important choice I make has nothing to do with my lifestyle.  I vote for the Green Party, the only Canadian political party that would make any meaningful moves to correct climate change.  I  support carbon taxes and higher individual taxes, if that's what it takes to save the planet.   I even advocate online, debating with people who seem to be afraid of a world without oil. 

Transition will be difficult but it can be done if the right changes are made and everyone participates.  And it won't cost near as much as opponents fear.  It isn't necessary to eliminate all oil but it is necessary to stop burning hydrocarbons for fuel.