Are carbon emissions being used to ‘purchase’ prosperity?

Opinion on sustainable building: Prof Dr Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker

Buildings, transport, industry and agriculture are the main factors exacerbating the climate crisis and the extinction of animals and plants.
New buildings are the major consumers of materials: stone, metal, wood and glass characterise the building. And waste, organic and inorganic, is mainly generated in urban areas.

Of course, people want homes, and factories need space to produce the goods that are at the heart of our prosperity.

The figure shows that countries with high per capita contributions to gross domestic product, especially through the construction of buildings (residential buildings and factories), are also countries with high per capita CO₂ emissions.
Eight analogue images (with eight other economic areas of prosperity) show that it is generally true that prosperity is ‘bought’ with CO₂ emissions.

At first glance, it looks as if prosperity is the real enemy of a stable climate and the preservation of a large and healthy biodiversity. However, as no one voluntarily gives up prosperity, our civilisation must learn to break the link between prosperity and climate damage.

One step that has already been taken is to replace fossil fuels with solar energy. Another is a systematic circular economy. A third is to stabilise the world's population and then reduce it. Ein vierter ist der Verzicht auf unnötigen Verbrauch von Energie und Stoffen.