Overwork and climate change
Pope Francis recently released Laudato Si, his encyclical about political action to challenge climate change and growing inequality. He questioned the sanctity of economic growth as the goal of our economy and demanded that we recognize that unlimited growth threatens to destroy the planet.
If researchers in Sweden are right, there is a strong connection between the Pope’s concerns about leisure and climate change. Jorgen Larsson and his colleagues at the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg have conducted studies for the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency that looked at three key factors – working hours, life satisfaction and Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG), a key indicator of the climate-changing impacts of lifestyles.
They discovered that a reduction in working hours leads to a nearly identical commensurate reduction of GHG, so that workers with a 30-hour week produce some 25 percent less GHG than 40 hour workers and only about half as much as 50-hour workers. The reduction is caused by lower consumption of material goods, less reliance on high-speed transport. The shorter hours also lead to improved environmental behaviors, including more recycling, less use of convenience and packaged products, and more reliance on biking, walking or use of public transit.
This is perhaps not surprising, but what might be more so is that shorter working hours are a win not only for the environment, but for life satisfaction as well. Larsson found 30-hour workers to be as satisfied with their lives as 40-hour workers and more satisfied than 50-hour workers.
So maybe the Pope in onto something here.
Pope Francis will be speaking to the U.S. Congress on Sept. 24, after spending a week in Cuba. He will undoubtedly – and to the chagrin of the climate-change-denying GOP – call for strong action to curb GHG emissions. I hope he will also address America’s embarrassing overwork. His words could well inspire a new American revolution for more balanced and sustainable lives. I will certainly be listening.
John de Graaf is an author, documentary filmmaker and president of Take Back Your Time, an organization fighting overwork and time poverty in America.