The Eco-destruction Hierarchy

The 2020 Emissions Gap Report

It was in 2019 when I first learned the I=PAT insights and became familiar with the data on ecological overshoot. It was clear that humanity would need to shrink both the global economy and population size before we could return within the biophysical limits of Earth. Since then, I have been on a journey to understand why the sustainability experts do not talk about this pre-requisite to sustainability.

The answer to this enigma lies in our education system, which teaches us obedience and subservience to the wealth and power hierarchy. We are taught to work hard to fit in and climb up this ecologically damaging hierarchy. Donald Trump and Elon Musk are two examples of the type of behaviour that is likely to arise as a consequence of an education system that admires financial wealth and power irrespective of the damage that is wrought on Nature to perpetuate that power.

The United Nations emissions data in the image above, reveals that the richest 1% of our global population generate about twice as much CO2 than that produced by the poorest 50% of the global population. We do not take any steps to rectify this injustice because our obedience to the wealth and power hierarchy is firmly instilled early on in our lives. This mindset limits our ability to imagine a civilisation that operates without relying on such an overwhelmingly powerful hierarchy. It is the mental conditioning from our education that has been preventing any realistic response to the escalating existential polycrisis to date.

Mental health issues in the wealth hierarchy

The energy transition exercise does not address this weakness in our education. Therefore we continue to increase the level of ecological damage that we inflict on Earth; and the level of mental stress that we inflict on our young who are presented with an increasingly challenging route to ‘success’.

Gary Stevenson describes the mentality prevalent amongst his pals in a struggling suburb in London as: ‘Get rich, or die trying’. This desperate aspiration, from such challenging beginnings, often leads to anti-social behaviour in those that cannot climb the ladder successfully. His friends often sank into depression and then into drug dealing or drug addiction or gambling.

Gary saw similar anti-social behaviour amongst the very wealthy people that he eventually joined on the trading floor when he started work with Citibank. This indicates that the growing wealth inequality in our global society is giving rise to mental-health issues at both the top and the bottom of the hierarchy. Those in the middle are the least affected, and they are often unaware of these problems. In patriarchal cultures, a man is expected to provide for and support his family. This is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve without bending the rules. The men in these cultures are increasingly under excessive pressure.

Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Experiments

I learned about Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiments in 2017; when I attended an evening class in psychology. It helped me to understand how the World War II atrocities were perpetrated by ordinary people. I could see myself applying a lethal electric shock to an unseen recipient. I could imagine myself thinking, ‘It must be alright, I am being told to continue. If it’s not alright, it’s their fault not mine’. I realised that if there was someone in authority encouraging me to do something, assuring me that it was necessary, then I might not put up much protest when being told to punish an unseen person with increasingly lethal electric shocks.

It was a sobering realisation. I told my friends what I had learned about myself and other humans in that evening class. I could suddenly see the parallel between genocide and ignoring climate change. That was before I realised that we are also taught to trust an ecocidal model of economics. At that point I was unaware of the I=PAT insights and data relating to ecological overshoot. Nowadays, I realise that these insights are deliberately played down in our education, because they conflict with pronatalism and growth economics.

It takes great courage to stand up to friends and family and those in authority and those in education and say ‘growth economics is ecocidal’. You will soon realise that you are going against the entire global narrative which teaches us to work hard and have children and grow the economy.

A similar obedience trap perpetuates the genocide in Israel. We have been taught that America and Israel are important allies; that Israel has the most moral army in the world; that Israel has a right to defend itself. We are persuaded to overlook the Nakba, the mainstream never informs us how badly Palestinians have been treated. We are taught to view Palestinians as terrorists.

Believing WEIRD countries have a superior culture

In the over-developed countries, like my home in the UK, we are taught to believe that our culture is superior to cultures that look very different to our own. These countries are sometimes described with the acronym WEIRD. The letters in this acronym stand for: Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich and Democratic.

In WEIRD countries we pride ourselves on being higher up the global wealth and power hierarchy than the less-developed countries.

In recent years my respect for those in authority has evaporated. I have seen politicians in the WEIRD world all failing to do anything to address climate and ecosystems collapse or the genocide in Gaza. They are all being obedient to the wealth and power hierarchy. Therefore, I suggest we rename this hierarchy to reflect the growing ecological damage that we do as we climb up the hierarchy.

We can begin our relearning exercise by choosing to rename the wealth hierarchy as ‘the eco-destruction hierarchy’. We are encouraged to work our way up this hierarchy. The higher we get, the more ‘successful’ we are considered to be by our peers. In this way our education encourages us to do as much ecological damage as we possibly can.

Our chosen leaders reflect the sickness in our society. We have taught our African colonies to make the same mistakes that we have made. Thus nowadays, most of the world operates in obedience to its local oligarchs.

Paradigm Shift

Right now, the energy transition is helping to accelerate the global ecosystems collapse. To become genuinely sustainable requires minimal birth rates and minimal consumption per capita. We need less cars, less people, less money, and the essential goods and services that will enable us to achieve wellbeing whilst relying on a minimal level of technology. Technology is hugely important in the shift away from economic growth. It provides us with a means to speed up the global awareness and relearning process, and coordinate the logistics of equitable economic downsizing.

Installing renewable energy brings huge ecological costs, and maintaining the new energy supply comes with ecological overheads. We must focus globally on minimising our energy needs per capita, and discouraging pronatalist cultures.

In the UK, wealth inequality has been growing ever since the 1980’s when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sold off the valuable assets that delivered public services. This was combined with an increasing reluctance to address the rising wealth inequality by taxing the very rich. Gary Stevenson’s work suggesting that we need ‘to tax wealth not work’ is an important aspect of the emerging paradigm shift towards equitable economic downscaling. I shall conclude with another piece of evidence of the paradigm shift away from the wealth supremacy mindset.

Research into Human Impact on Biodiversity

On LinkedIn, I follow an inspiring leader in environmental issues called Kasper Benjamin Reimer Bjørkskov. A recent post introduced me to a research paper published in March 2025: The global human impact on biodiversity | Nature

Below I have shared the text of his post summarising the paper. This is evidence of the paradigm shift that I am seeing escalating on LinkedIn.

Our Way of Life Is Killing All Other Life

What if our children could still hear birdsong in the morning? What if forests weren’t memories — but part of everyday life? What if we could live in harmony with the wild again?

That’s the dream.

But today, we are engineering extinction — quietly, everywhere, all at once.

A new global study just synthesized 2,000+ studies across 100,000 sites. The conclusion? No ecosystem is untouched. No species group is safe. From the deepest ocean to your local stream — human activity is reshaping life on Earth.

https://lnkd.in/dmXEWZYi

We’re not just losing species — we’re erasing the uniqueness of life itself. Local frogs, mountain flowers, deep-sea microbes — replaced by generalists that survive our pollution, pesticides, and concrete. It’s called “homogenization” — and it’s the silent killer of resilience, beauty, and balance.

This isn’t just about animals or forests. This is about us. Without pollinators, no food. Without microbes, no soil. Without biodiversity, no future.

So let’s talk values — yours and mine. A good life isn’t built on endless consumption. It’s built on balance, wonder, and care — for each other and for the only planet we’ll ever call home.

Across the world, farmers, educators, artists, policymakers, and everyday people are shifting the story. They’re restoring wetlands, rewilding cities, growing food without poison, protecting species, building futures where human thriving doesn’t cost the Earth.

Because now we know: Biodiversity loss isn’t an unfortunate side effect. It’s a design flaw in our economy, our systems, and our story of what progress means. But the story can change — if we rewrite it together.

Let’s stop managing symptoms and start transforming causes. Let’s build a world where life — in all its wild forms — is finally safe again.

We’re not just losing species — we’re erasing the uniqueness of life itself. Local frogs, mountain flowers, deep-sea microbes — replaced by generalists that survive our pollution, pesticides, and concrete. It’s called “homogenization” — and it’s the silent killer of resilience, beauty, and balance.

This isn’t just about animals or forests. This is about us. Without pollinators, no food. Without microbes, no soil. Without biodiversity, no future.

So let’s talk values — yours and mine. A good life isn’t built on endless consumption. It’s built on balance, wonder, and care — for each other and for the only planet we’ll ever call home.

Across the world, farmers, educators, artists, policymakers, and everyday people are shifting the story. They’re restoring wetlands, rewilding cities, growing food without poison, protecting species, building futures where human thriving doesn’t cost the Earth.

Because now we know: Biodiversity loss isn’t an unfortunate side effect. It’s a design flaw in our economy, our systems, and our story of what progress means. But the story can change — if we rewrite it together.

Let’s stop managing symptoms and start transforming causes. Let’s build a world where life — in all its wild forms — is finally safe again.

Moving forward more wisely

My earlier newsletter articles might help to provide ideas for a wiser path forwards. Universal Basic Provision, Demystifying Degrowth, Envisioning Eco-equity.