SELFISH CITY

IMAGINE you are a modern explorer. But instead of discovering a country, you wish to journey into the inner lives of its inhabitants. What you wish to discover is how much that country is in thrall to consumer culture and to the virus of affluenza. How much do people measure their self-worth by what they own, how they look and where they live? Have they developed antidotes to the disease? How strong is their sense of self?
What would such an explorer make of modern Sydney?
Driving from Sydney Airport to the city, the 53-year-old British author and psychologist Oliver James noticed a few things. The first was "those biscuit box" warehouses lining the landscape: "Flat container warehouses all bursting full to the seams with consumer goods. Then I got the feeling of getting into a particularly confusing traffic system."
But on the streets of "this beautiful, spacious city" where the natives roamed, he started feeling more unsettled.
Oxford Street was like the "Tower of Babel, a confusing polyglot in its diversity". There were people from "all the ends of the Earth", creating a feeling of "identitylessness, so you feel like you could be anywhere".
Bondi "felt a bit more Australian". But there was also an aggressive vibe. "This kind of 'f--- you, we're rich' type thing." And then there was the beach culture of the body, which made James reflect that it must be hard to be a woman in Sydney.
But it was only when he was invited into homes that James got the full measure of the sickness. He found house-proud citizens who had million-dollar mortgages and renovated kitchens but an emptiness that ran to the marrow.
In a "pokey flat" in Paddington he interviewed "Sandra", 31, struggling to cope with her lack of status as a mother. She was mourning her 25-year-old self - and the perceived loss of her figure. She pulled out old photos and said: "In trendy areas like this one, the latest fashion involves really tight clothes; to wear them you have to lose weight."
James says: "The virus impedes them from enjoying motherhood in a number of ways." Getting stuck on the property ladder is one, as is "the feeling they have lost their physical allure to which they had become so addicted before marriage".
He met "Will", a psychiatrist-businessman who works 18 hours a day. Will, like many who have caught the affluenza virus, has commodified a range of values that used to exist outside the market place. As well as the home becoming a commodity, friendship is now increasingly being seen as "what's in it for me".
Will "mentioned no relationships in his life that are not in some sense professional … When asked what he hopes to achieve by working all his waking hours he seems to have no idea at all".
Perfect bodies and houses but a "lack of authenticity" characterised many of his Sydney subjects.
In almost all of James's case studies there is material wealth, but a terrible sadness at their core. This sadness, says James, is living in a society where you feel valued for your possessions, status, house and looks. The accumulation and maintenance of these things keeps you on a treadmill that leeches life of real meaning.
That meaning might involve reading a book, teaching a child how to thread a daisy chain or helping a friend move house. They are things that don't lead us to "achieve anything", and do not provide money or status.
James's book Affluenza, released in Australia this week, is a culmination of research, interviews and an eight-country "mind tour". The countries - the United States, Russia, New Zealand, Australia, Denmark, Singapore and China, as well as Britain - are all at various stages of contracting the affluenza virus. Some countries, such as China, have built up immunities to it - such as coming to capitalism late, having a strong family structure, and the teachings of Confucius which say "your best is good enough".
Likewise the Danes, with their progressive social policies and a relatively small gap between rich and poor, do not have a rapacious desire to keep up with their equivalent of the Joneses.
Cities struck by the virus, including New York and Sydney, have similar characteristics. Their residents are likely to feel insecure. "Constantly comparing your lot with others, especially those who have more than you, is not a prescription for feeling safe," Jones writes. This creates anxiety, "the proverbial bottomless pit" of never being quite happy enough with what you've got. "Modern capitalism then comes charging in on its white horse with a host of false panaceas: antidepressants, booze, drugs, plastic surgery and shopping."
Another symptom of the virus is alienation. A society, says James, that puts a low priority on connecting with family, friends and the community means that individuals will feel estranged from these bonds. Friendships become a matter of self-interest, while the high cost of child care sets up a pattern of "working to live" and places stress on relationships.
The virus has also warped how we love. "As people become more and more insecure and desperate for intimacy and someone they can trust, they place a higher value on intimacy. To that extent they invest heavily in the big relationship and of course relationships weren't built for that. We need to be less novelty-seeking and kicks-based on our perspective of partnerships. There's a big distinction between the illness of being in love - it's like drugs - and finding someone you're compatible with who you can make babies with and the very difficult task of raising children properly."

People susceptible to the virus also feel a lack of control over their lives - they are less likely to turn down work they hate if the money's good. They stay in relationships because they are uncomfortable being on their own, or they are serial monogamists, trading in partners in an elusive search for "the one".
They have mortgages they can't really afford because they don't want to be "left behind" in a property boom, and their voting patterns are also likely to reflect this "selfish capitalism". James sees a connection between John Howard's policies of border control and the Tampa issue, and elections swayed by questions of interest rates, as further symptoms of the virus run rampant.
The diagnosis for Sydney makes grim reading, with an increase in depression running parallel with an increase in prosperity. "Statistics suggest a shift in hopelessness and despair as a large part of the Australian population are trapped with mortgages [and] trapped with American values. It makes sitting on Bondi beach even harder," says James.
Yet still we sit on the beach, staring outward rather than inward, because escaping the virus requires "an exceptionally strong sense of self".
Get out of Sydney and the virus may not be as strong. James believes that people who gravitate towards capital cities and high-powered jobs are a "self-selecting group of people", many of whom "are made to feel worthless as children, who are now competing viciously with each other".
Of surprise to James on his "mind tour" was that "the people I met who had wellbeing had some kind of spiritual practice". For James, spiritual practice is yoga. Whatever your practice, having a sense of spirituality is better than having none, he says.
"Quite apart from the question of whether there's a God, if you pursue ethical practices - for example with Christianity - you're much less likely to sleep around or use drugs and come unstuck."
James says values instilled by parents in children also have a major effect on immunity to the affluenza virus.
But what of the bleak warning in W.B. Yeats's poem The Second Coming - "Turning and turning in the widening gyre/ The falcon cannot hear the falconer;/ Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold" - where a kind of atomisation is irreversible?
If we are now generations away from values of close kin and community, and religion, can such values be retrieved if they are not in our lived memory? Have parents instead passed the values of "selfish capitalism" on to the next generation?

James is optimistic: "I'm beginning to feel a bit spooky about it but if human beings are miserable for long enough, they will start casting around for something different; there will be a rediscovery. Trying to get back to basics; it's a very human thing."
Global warming may be the wake-up call that we need. "I have a conviction that we are going in the right direction because of climate change. This requires that even the most insane person has to rethink things," he says.
Selfish capitalism - the ethos that has has defined our age - could be something of a passing phase, akin to communism, says James. "Selfish capitalism gobbles everything in its way but it will lose like communism, where people felt 'we don't want this any more'."
He predicts that a decline of the United States' importance will lead to a decline of selfish capitalism. "The overthrow of the American empire is in sight because America is very vulnerable right now. China could fall apart and call in its debts."
With the end of America as the dominating world power, its cultural dominance too will wane, and that can only be a good thing for Australia, says James.
When we wake up from sleepwalking though these selfish times, he thinks we'll be angry - and we'll take our anger out on politicians.
"The great deception is that we are part of the prosperity. Australians may have more money but a lot of it is eaten up by property - all the increase in actual wealth has been by the very rich. How much longer can you go on pulling that stunt?
"There may be a point where the English-speaking middle classes and the working class wake up and realise they are not rich at all. The deception is the idea of meritocracy. It turns out it was a con - there is no trickle-down effect."
Look back in anger? That may not be a bad thing, says James, particularly if it's the glimpse of our reflections in the mirror that acts as a catalyst for change.

WAR AGAINST GLOBAL WARMING

he scientific and political arguments surrounding global warming can make the whole topic seem beyond the grasp of the individual. How fast is the climate changing? Exactly what effects do humans have? Is the White House telling the truth about the problem? And what's being done? Scientists have proposed some wacky solutions, from injecting sulfur into the air to shading Earth with a ring of satellites. But real, rational and large-scale near-term solutions can only come from new laws. Meanwhile, there are things you can do. How we treat Earth involves trillions of little decisions by billions of individuals that drive the industrial engines that ultimately spew the greenhouse gases into the air.
That in mind, LiveScience presents a range of ideas for saving energy and otherwise cutting down on your impact on the planet. Many of the ideas will also save you money.
See Also: Top 10 Surprising Results of Global Warming
Editor's Note: The list was compiled by the Earth Day Network organization and is republished here with permission.
Change light bulbs
A California lawmaker has proposed banning incandescent light bulbs, the kind in most homes, because they are inefficient. In the future, LED bulbs could become the norm, recent discoveries suggest.
Meanwhile, there are now highly efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) that last for years, use a quarter of the energy of regular bulbs and actually produce more light.
Look for the government's ENERGY STAR label, which means the bulb has been tested for quality and efficiency. While each ENERGY STAR qualified bulb will cost more initially—anywhere from $3 to $9 a piece—remember that there are two price tags: what you pay at the register and what you pay in energy costs to over the bulb's lifetime. So you may pay more up front, but you will actually save hundreds of dollars in your household budget over the long term because of their long life.
While CFLs were harder to find a few years ago, they're now widely available and much more affordable. You'll find them at major home improvement and hardware stores—even grocery and some convenience stores.
Here's the impact. If every household in the U.S. replaced a burned-out bulb with an energy-efficient, ENERGY STAR qualified compact fluorescent bulb, the cumulative effect is enormous. It would prevent more than 13 billion pounds of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere—which is like taking more than a million cars off the road for an entire year.
There are other, simple things with household lighting you can do to conserve: turn off unneeded lights, dim lights when you can and bring natural sunlight into your home when it is feasible.
But changing those old light bulbs and replacing them with ENERGY STAR qualified compact fluorescents that can last for a decade or more is by far the best thing you can do.
Drive differently, or drive a different vehicle
The sad truth is that your car emits as much carbon dioxide as your entire house. That's the bad news. The good news is that anything you can do to improve the fuel efficiency of your car will have an enormous impact on climate change. In fact, experts say that paying attention to fuel efficiency in your car may be the single biggest thing you can do to prevent global warming
Buying a fuel-efficient car (like a hybrid) is wonderful. In fact, replacing your gas-guzzling car with a fuel-efficient one is by far the best thing you can do, out of all your choices. But not all of us can do that—at least, not right now. Car makers haven't sold enough hybrids in the U.S. yet to make them as affordable as they should be. That will change, but not for a few years.
So, in the interim, there are things you can do with the car you drive now to conserve energy and be more fuel-efficient.
Drive less. Every year, Americans as a whole drive more miles than they did the year before. Stop this trend, and we drive a stake in that trend. Telecommuting and public transportation are great options—once a week saves a ton of carbon dioxide a year—but even piling multiple errands into one trip helps. If you can walk instead of drive, even better.
Get your car tuned up. Just a simple tune-up often improves fuel efficiency by half. If 100,000 of us went out and got a tune up, we save 124,000 tons of carbon dioxide.
Slow down, don't race your car's engine, and watch your idling. All of these save on gas (saving you money) and have a big impact on burning gasoline.
Horribly inefficient SUVs, minivans and pickup trucks now make up more than half of the cars on American roads. The real tragedy is that automakers could double the current average fuel efficiency of SUVs if they wanted to, which would save 70 tons of carbon dioxide per car. The technology exists. Unfortunately, consumer demand does not.
Control your temperature
The bad news is that half of your household energy costs go towards just two things—heating and cooling. And, ironically, air conditioners inject additional carbon into the air and exacerbate global warming.
The good news is that means you have lots of room for improvement, and even small changes make dramatic improvements in household fuel efficiency.
Older heating and cooling systems are a third less efficient than the new systems. So replacing the old with the new is a wonderful idea, but not very practical for most of us. Things you can do right now to make sure you're setting the right temperature in your house include:
Tune up your heating system. This one thing every couple of years can reduce your heating costs by 10 percent a year.
Clean vents, close unused vents, and change filters in the vents. Again, just these simple things will save you 10 percent.
Buy a programmable thermostat, which can regulate different temperatures at different times of the day. And if you have one, use it! Right now, three-quarters of people who have programmable thermostats don't use them at all.
Add two degrees to the AC thermostat in summer, and two degrees in winter. If everyone did this, the cumulative impact is significant.
Make sure windows and doors are sealed. Again, this will dramatically improve your household fuel efficiency.
Of course, if you can stand it, by far the best approach is to avoid air conditioners at all. Ceiling fans, instead of AC, can reduce your cooling costs by more than half.
Tame the refrigerator monster
Did you know that your friendly refrigerator has a voracious energy appetite? It is, by far, the single biggest consumer of electricity in the average household, responsible for 10-15 percent of the electricity you use each month.
Older refrigerators, as a rule, are far less efficient than the newest ones—as much as 50 percent more efficient in many cases. But buying a brand-new, energy-efficient refrigerator is almost certainly not in the cards for most of us. Fortunately, other things will help.
Don't set the thermostat too high. Even 1 degree will make a big difference.
If your refrigerator is near a heating vent, or always in the sun, then change the location, cover up the heat vent near it or drape the window.
Turn on your "energy saver" switch near the thermostat.
Clean the condenser coil. This one, very simple thing can improve the efficiency of your refrigerator by a third!
Get rid of your second refrigerator. If you don't need it, don't waste the energy.
Make sure the doors seal properly, and keep the cool in.
Twist some knobs
The other big users of energy in your household are your hot water heater, your washer and dryer, and your dishwasher. Each, in its own way, can be inefficient. Here are some things to try:
Either turn the hot water heater down a couple of degrees, or turn on the "energy conservation" setting.
Buy insulation for your hot water heater at a local store and insulate the pipes as well.
Install a timer on your water heater to turn off at night and just before you wake up in the morning.
When possible, wash a few dishes by hand. Over time, that will save a few loads in the dishwasher, conserving energy.
Don't pre-rinse dishes. Today's detergents are powerful enough to do the job.
Wait until you have a full load to run the dishwasher.
Wash clothes in warm water, not hot. The clothes will be just as clean, and you'll cut energy use by 50 percent.
Don't over-dry your clothes. That will save 15 percent.
Plant smartly
While it is true that planting more trees will help in the short term because they essentially soak up carbon, they also release carbon dioxide when they die. So it just postpones the problem. But there are other reasons to plant trees—as wind breaks to save energy, and as shade to lower cooling costs. And even the short-term help while we get our act together is a good thing.
As for plants, do everything you can in your yard and garden to create ways in which plants use less water. Choose hardier plants, plant things in groups that need more water and put in mulch to help keep moisture in. When you mow your grass, make sure you do it smartly—with sharp blades, and only when the grass needs cutting. Finally, make sure you water your lawn sparingly. All of these will conserve energy.
Invest in green energy
Imagine if we ran out of fossil fuels tomorrow, what would we do? Well, we'd get our electricity from renewable sources—solar panels, geothermal and wind power sources. Many utilities now give consumers the option to buy "green power."
Learn the truth about nuclear power and natural gas as viable "green" options. They aren't. Radioactive waste will be a problem for tens of thousands of years into the future, and natural gas kicks out almost as much carbon dioxide as coal and oil. Natural gas can help us make a transition, but it isn't the solution.
Finally, if you invest, invest in green stocks and renewable energy companies through socially responsible funds. They perform just as well (if not better) than all of the unfiltered funds.
Go organic
Even with our vast reservoir of scientific knowledge about farming, most American farmers still spray a billion pounds of pesticides to protect crops each year.
Now here's the kicker: when chemical pesticides are used to kill pests, they also kill off microorganisms that keep carbon contained in the soil. When the microorganisms are gone, the carbon is released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. And when those organisms are gone, the soil is no longer naturally fertile and chemical fertilizers become a necessity, not a luxury.
But besides going organic—thereby saving the carbon release from soil—there are other simple things you can do with food that will also make a difference:
Eat locally grown food. If the food doesn't have to travel far, there's less carbon dioxide from the trucks that ship it [Related Story].
Eat fruits and vegetables in season. Again, that saves the enormous transportation costs.
Plant your own vegetable garden. It's not as hard as you might think.
Buy recycled
This may sound simple, but it takes less energy to manufacture a recycled product than a brand new one. So if you and every other consumer buy recycled, you'll help create a market, and conserve energy along the way.
Because many manufacturers don't go out of their way to tout their recycled products, you should know that aluminum and tin cans, glass containers, and pulp cardboard have a fair amount of recycled content. So buy away!
Recycled is often considerably cheaper than non-recycled, so it's cost-effective as well as conservation-minded. For instance, recycled paper can be as much as a third cheaper than non-recycled paper.
Finally, before you buy, check to see if the product or its packaging can be recycled. The recyclable logo (three arrows forming a triangle) is fairly common now.
Be a minimalist
We know it's difficult, but in today's consumer economy, an easy way to conserve energy is to simply use—and buy—less. Every time you buy something, energy has gone into getting that product to you. So the less you buy, the more you save energy-wise. It's a simple equation.
This last item on our Top Ten list may, in fact, be the single biggest way to make a dent in the global warming problem. Again, we know it sounds obvious, but buying less things—some of which you just don't need—changes the energy equation across the board, on every single consumer product. If everyone used less, the impact would be large indeed.
So how about some specific things? Here are a few:
Buy in bulk. In short, bulk items use less packaging, which translates into less energy.
Buy one of something, not 21 of something. You don't need 21 pairs of shoes, if one pair works just as well.
Go through your closet. Donate or recycle what you really don't need, then make a pledge not to replace everything you just got rid of.
Buy quality products that will last longer. Over time, you'll obviously buy fewer products that way.
Be creative in what you use for work, play and leisure. You don't always have to buy new products for activities. Re-use in creative ways.

Global Warming

An authoritative report on global warming will say it is "very likely" — or 90 per cent certain — climate change is caused by humans burning fossil fuels, and warns of rising temperatures, sea levels and extreme weather in the coming century, according to leaked drafts of the report.
Scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change representing 100 nations are working on the final wording of the report expected to be released Friday in Paris.
The fourth such report since 1990, it is widely expected to include the strongest wording yet on the impact burning fossil fuels has on climate change and to say significant changes could start to appear in the next ten years.
According to drafts, the report will forecast a temperature increase of two to four degrees Celsius by the year 2100, which would lead to a rise in sea levels and in extreme weather, such as drought and heat waves.
Hurricanes are also for the first time considered "more likely than not" linked to climate change, with the report predicting fewer but more powerful versions of the tropical storms.
The report is expected Friday, although participants are said to be behind schedule in agreeing on the wording of the 12 to 15 page summary.