<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><p><br></p><p>New Scientist July 14, 2026</p><p><b><font size="4">Can everyone live a \u2018good life\u2019 without destroying the planet?</font></b></p><div class="article__excerpt"><b>Cutting back on our use of energy and materials so that we live within Earth\u2019s means can seem like an insurmountable challenge. But after a decade grappling with these problems, a historic Portuguese city is beginning to walk this tightrope</b></div><div class="article__excerpt"><br></div><div class="article__byline"><span class="article__byline--text">By <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/author/april-reese/" title="Posts by April Reese" class="author url fn" rel="author">April Reese</a><br></span></div><div class="article__byline"><a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2532951-can-everyone-live-a-good-life-without-destroying-the-planet/">https://www.newscientist.com/article/2532951-can-everyone-live-a-good-life-without-destroying-the-planet/</a><p class="wp-block-paragraph"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>1st 5 paragraphs</b></span></p><p class="wp-block-paragraph"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);">In the rolling hills of northern Portugal, where castles are almost as common as churches, the city of Guimarães is undertaking an ambitious experiment that could influence the world.</span> With a zeal reminiscent of the city\u2019s 12th-century battle for independence, when the city\u2019s Portuguese nobility fought off Spanish invaders to gain independence and establish the new nation\u2019s first capital, elected officials have joined forces with sustainability scientists to transform the region once again.</p><p class="wp-block-paragraph">At a time when many of us feel like helpless bystanders as environmental crises escalate around us, Guimarães\u2019s green transition is showing how it is possible to live within the planet\u2019s essential limits \u2013 while ensuring a comfortable quality of life for everyone. \u201cSocial justice and the principle of leaving no one behind are truly central to our approach,\u201d says biologist <a href="https://sciprofiles.com/profile/CarlosARibeiro">Carlos Ribeiro,</a> who heads the Landscape Laboratory, a research and education facility created to help drive these sweeping changes in the city.</p><span class="js-content-prompt-opportunity"></span><p class="wp-block-paragraph"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);">These might sound like utopian aspirations, but behind Guimarães\u2019s plans are solid calculations that, against common wisdom, suggest it is possible for the entire global population to tread the tightrope between our well-being and that of Earth \u2013 and that, in fact, the two are intertwined. But achieving that vision will require seismic shifts in economies and the way many people view</b><b style="background-color: rgb(0, 253, 255);"> luxuries versus necessities.</b><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 251, 0);"> Can this be achieved without limiting personal freedoms \u2013 and who ultimately gets to decide</b><b style="background-color: rgb(0, 253, 255);"> how much is enough to live well?</b></p><a class="read-more__standard--wrapper no-animation" href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2456335-extreme-heat-is-now-making-cities-unlivable-how-can-we-survive-it/"></a><a class="read-more__standard--wrapper no-animation" href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2456335-extreme-heat-is-now-making-cities-unlivable-how-can-we-survive-it/"><strong></strong></a></div><div class="article__byline"><p class="wp-block-paragraph">The idea that there is a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/461472a">safe operating space</a> that humanity must find a way to live within was first described in a landmark 2009 paper by Earth system scientist <a href="https://www.pik-potsdam.de/members/johanro/homepage">Johan Rockström</a>at the University of Potsdam in Germany and his colleagues. They identified <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/round-up/ocean-to-ozone-earths-nine-life-support-systems/">nine planetary boundaries</a> \u2013 limits on phenomena such as <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/topic/climate-change/">climate change</a>, <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2458149-ocean-acidification-is-reaching-deeper-waters/"><span class="reading_marker" data-threshold="300"></span>ocean acidification</a> and land-system change \u2013 that, if breached, will knock us out of the stable conditions that have allowed humanity to thrive for 12,000 years.</p><p class="wp-block-paragraph">Humanity has now crossed seven of these boundaries, largely because of what we consume and how quickly we consume it (see chart below). Total domestic water use, for instance, has <a href="https://www.wri.org/insights/domestic-water-use-grew-600-over-past-50-years">increased sixfold over the past 50 years</a> \u2013 a faster rate than in agriculture or industry. The overall extraction of natural resources and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-consumption">energy use have tripled over a similar period</a>.</p></div><div>
<meta charset="UTF-8"><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-thickness: auto; text-decoration-style: solid; overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: rgb(0, 0, 0); letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration: none; overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><br>~~~~~<br>"The big challenge is still to deliver emissions reductions at the pace and scale needed, especially in a world where economies are driven by consumption.\u201d<br><br>Sonja van Renssen.The inconvenient truth of failed climate policies. Nature Climate Change MAY 2018<br><br>Published online: 27 April 2018 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0155-4 <br><br>~~~~~<br><br>\u201cif Americans were asked point blank whether they would agree to reduce their energy consumption by one-half, many would probably recoil in apprehension and reject the idea. <br><br>"Yet energy consumption in 1960 was about half of what is now [ 1970 ]. Many of us remember 1960. Surely we had a civilized country then, with roads, electricity, entertainment, and so on. Yet we we were consuming half the energy.\u201d<br><br>Page 181 : The Conserver Society. Harper Colophon Books. Copyright 1979 by Kimon Valaskakas et al<br><br>*****<br><br> \u201cI just want it to be clear that the mainstream environmental movement has been asking very little of people for decades.\u201d<br><br>\u201cThere\u2019s no element of, \u2018We are in an emergency. We all need to do more than what we\u2019re doing.\u201d <br><br>Extinction Rebellion\u2019s radical philosophy<br>July 22 2019<br>https://thinkprogress.org/the-radical-philosophy-of-extinction-rebellion-5857d3955b57/<br><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><br></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><br><br><br><br></div></div></div></div></div>
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