Want to save the planet? Stop going to work.
That's the conclusion of a report from Washington think-tank the Center for Economic and Policy Research this week. The report makes the claim that even a 0.5% annual reduction in the length of the average workweek could be enough to cut between 8-22% of every degree of global warming that's expected between now and 2100.
The CEPR is a left-leaning think-tank based in Washington, D.C. Although scientific opinion on the topic is divided, the CEPR makes a baseline assumption that the average temperature on earth is set to increase by somewhere between 0.75 and 34 degrees Celsius over the next century, a process that they attribute at least in part to human activity.
The group says between 40% and 60%of global warming's potential impact is effectively locked-in already, so put another way, the CEPR is saying as much as half the rest of the impact could be cut simply by reducing work hours.
The group advocates a global move toward a European model of shorter work weeks and more vacations. Europe had about the same hours worked per person as the U.S. in the early 1970s, but by 2005 they were about 50% less, the CEPR notes.
Between now and the year 2100, the CEPR estimates that the average worker's income is going to increase by 1.3% and 2.7%, per year. A reduction in the number of hours need not eat into that growth, as the CEPR says productivity increases should be enough to keep incomes growing while reducing the world's carbon footprint.
