Bulletin No. 1, 2016

What a University Can Do about Climate Change 21 The challenge is to take advantage of markets and global trade without being destroyed by excessive consumption. Why did you decide to explore the concept of ‘greed’ in relation to present-day consumer culture? Greed is an interesting concept b e c a u s e e v e r y r e l i g i o n o r t r a d i t i o n a l v a l u e s y s t e m recognizes greed as excessive grasping by some people. But by the logic of modern economics, there is no such thing as greed as everyone has the right to pursue their self-interest. And yet, in every culture of the world there are some behaviours that get labeled as ‘greedy’. So my research looks at what social and cultural no rms, value s and rules kept consumption i n c h e c k— e s p e c i a l l y t h e sumptuar y laws of Imperial China and during the Maoist era, when there was social and political pressure against conspicuous consumption. Do you think consumer culture can ever be re-shaped into a more environmentally friendly manner? I do, b e c au s e human s a r e moral animals, as well as homo economicus . I think we need to do more to promote the idea of a moral economy. The idea that the economy is a living organism which would wither upon the slightest tampering is a very dangerous one, because it leaves all human desires and pa s s i ons unche c ked . Mo s t religions preach moderation, and t he i dea t hat mate r ial possessions are transient and not the true source of happiness. It is relationship that matters. But our measures of the economy, l i ke GDP, do no t con s i d e r relationships and many other things that really affect human happ i ne s s and we l l - be i ng . The challenge for us is to take advantage of markets and global trade without being destroyed by e xce s s i ve consump t i on, inequality and pollution. What do you think about the argument that it is ‘unfair’ to impose strong emission restrictions on developing countries? Some people may think that it is unfair for developed countries to have polluted while developing countries are now prevented from doing so. At the same time, allowing the latter to pollute so they can ‘catch up’ with developed countries means the whole world will suffer, as climate change affects everyone. (In fact, it will hurt poor people in less-developed countries the most.) The key is to reduce carbon emissions worldwide, and to promote more environmentally sustainable d e v e l o pme n t e v e r y wh e r e . A c o m p r o m i s e b e t w e e n these two principles needs to be achieved. It has been argued that the root of climate change can be traced to human beings’ unchecked desires, as many modern ways of life continue to exploit and pollute the environment to feed our continuous demand for economic prosperity and material possessions. Prof. Joseph Bosco , Associate Professor of Anthropology, shared with us his research on t he his to r y of g reed in China and his opinions on the possibility of re-shaping modern consumer culture. Prof. Joseph Bosco