Pareto principle - solution to the environmental crisis?

Dr Gary Robertshaw

The Pareto Principle is named after the economist Vilfredo Pareto. In its broadest sense it states that 80% of consequences come from 20% of the causes. It's also commonly known as the 80/20 rule. For example, in a business context, 80% of sales coming from 20% of a company's customers. The precise split may change and the 80/20 rule is not always exact, but in essence the principle makes the point that there is an unequal relationship between inputs and outputs. 'Not all customers are equal'.

Pareto also has wider applications in areas such as biology and problem solving. It's very often the case that small changes to one specific area can cause significant overall changes. In an environmental setting, take bees as an example. Whilst only one insect amongst the huge number of different insect species, if bees were to go extinct then it would have quite profound consequences for food production.

Likewise, it could be argued that a relatively small number of changes could have a significant impact on the planet. Two such changes are beef consumption and family planning.

1. Replacement of beef with viable plant-based substitutes

Beef production requires massive amounts of land, energy, and water, and is fuelling destruction of the rainforests – the lungs of the Earth. Globally, animal agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse gases than all the world’s transportation systems combined! As well as deforestation, it also takes 48 times as much water to produce beef compared to vegetables.

2. Greater education and empowerment of girls

The human population is growing unsustainably and putting huge pressure on natural resources, which are being consumed faster than being replaced. Where girls are better educated as children, and treated as equal to men in adulthood, with freedom of choice in marriage and access to freely available contraception then birth rates tend to decline. There are many good examples of this correlation.

Currently, there is a lack of political will and investment to address point 1, which is why we are rapidly losing the rainforests as they are cleared for rearing cattle. In tandem, there is religious resistance to point 2. Many patriarchal societies sadly prefer the status quo.

Taken in combination, these two changes alone would have a dramatic impact on the well-being of the planet. Of course, other positive actions also play a part such as eliminating plastics, tree planting, protecting endangered species, renewable energy and cutting carbon emissions, and many other laudable initiatives.

The point though, is to move away from the erroneous notion that saving the planet is too difficult and that many complex changes are needed. In fact, a few small changes in order of priority, following the Pareto Principle, would make a major difference.