Marina Fischer-Kowalski
Vienna Institute of Social Ecology, Alps-Adria UniversityClimate Change, Social Metabolism, and Human Well-beingWhat do we know: What does Sociology bring to the table for studying the human dimensions of global
climate change?
From the research tradition of “social metabolism” (Fischer-Kowalski 119-37), we understand the large role of
carbon in industrial metabolism. Carbon is contained in two major components of societal material input, namely
in biomass (used for human and animal nutrition, as fuel and for a large number of other purposes such as clothing
and construction) and in fossil fuels. The total material input is 17 metric tonnes per capita annually in the
European Union and 25 metric tonnes per capita in the USA. Biomass and fossil fuels amount to half of this input
(Domestic Material Consumption, DMC; for the methodology of Material and Energy Flow Accounting, MEFA,
see (Haberl et al. 199-213). As these carbon-containing materials are mainly used for combustion (biological or
technical), they are quickly transformed into CO 2 or sometimes methane, and emitted to the atmosphere. Thus,
among the wastes and emissions from industrial societies, CO 2 amounts to over 80% (Matthews et al. 2000).
Substantially reducing carbon emissions, as required by climate change mitigation, is therefore not just a technical
and economic issue, but implies a major change in social metabolism.
These are not “sociological” insights, but insights from an interdisciplinary socio-ecological approach
in which sociology plays a major part. The role of sociology, in particular, lies in understanding the interrelation
between societal structures and dynamics, and the scale and composition of social material and energetic
metabolism. Regarding this interrelation, quite substantial empirical knowledge has already been accumulated,
from comparisons across countries, across time and for subsystems within countries. The generation of such
knowledge was facilitated by the fact that – given an appropriate conceptual and methodological model - the
material and energetic metabolism of societies could be generated from data that are at least partly contained in
(or at the base of) economic national accounting, or that can be gained from various other internationally available
statistics. The statistical office of the European Union has agreed on shared methods, so there now exists a reliable
database for its member states across the past 30 years (Eurostat et al. in press). For many other countries of the
world, including the US, comparable data have also been compiled.
Among what we know is the following: We can identify a specific metabolic profile for highly developed
industrial societies that can be expressed in per capita amounts of annual consumption of materials (in tonnes)
and energy (in Joules). This yearly flow of materials replaces, maintains, or adds to existing infrastructure stocks,
while the energetic component is burned. Despite continuing economic growth, these amounts in the past decade
have shown a tendency to stagnate. Thus among OECD countries, the major driver of energy and materials use
is not so much economic growth, but demography: growing populations raise materials and energy consumption
on national levels. The second most important factor seems to be - in reminiscence to the very beginnings of
sociology – population density (Weisz et al. 676-98). The higher a country’s population density, the lower its
metabolic profile (This is, by the way, also true within countries: urban centres often have a lower metabolic
profile than equally affluent rural areas). This can clearly be explained: the same standard of living in densely
populated areas can be supplied with substantially less energy and materials needed for infrastructure (roads and
transport vehicles, other supply and disposal facilities) than in areas with a scattered population. Moreover, the
physically particularly intensive process of raw material extraction tends to happen in less populated areas. Under
a perspective of sustainability and climate change mitigation, these findings are somewhat comforting.