CULTURE AND BEHAVIOR: Dangerously Addictive: Why We Are Biologically Ill-Suited to the Riches of Modern America

September 24, 2011

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CULTURE AND BEHAVIOR: Dangerously Addictive: Why We Are Biologically Ill-Suited to the Riches of Modern Ame…

EXCERPT:

But living now in relative abundance, when the whole world is a shopping mall and our appetites are no longer constrained by limited resources, our craving for reward–be that for money, the fat and sugar of fast food, or for the novel gadgetry of modern technology–has become a liability and a hunger that has no bounds.  Our nature has no built-in braking system.  More is never enough.

 

About The Post Carbon Reader

Image RemovedHow do population, water, energy, food, and climate issues impact one another? What can we do to address one problem without making the others worse? The Post Carbon Reader features essays by some of the world’s most provocative thinkers on the key issues shaping our new century, from renewable energy and urban agriculture to social justice and community resilience. This insightful collection takes a hard-nosed look at the interconnected threats of our global sustainability quandary and presents some of the most promising responses.

Contributors to The Post Carbon Reader are some of the world’s leading sustainability thinkers, including Bill McKibben, Richard Heinberg, Stephanie Mills, David Orr, Wes Jackson, Erika Allen, Gloria Flora, and dozens more.

Peter Whybrow

Peter Whybrow is Director of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at the University of California in Los Angeles. He is also the Judson Braun Distinguished Professor and Executive Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine, CEO of the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA, and a Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute. Peter is an international authority on depression and manic-depressive disease and the effects of thyroid hormone on brain and human behavior. A founding member and Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American College of Psychiatrists, and the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. Whybrow has lectured widely across the United States and Europe, and is the recipient of many awards.

Dr. Whybrow is a frequent advisor to universities, foundations, and government agencies and is the author of numerous scientific papers and six books. His book, American Mania: When More Is Not Enough (WW Norton, 2006), is a provocative neurobiological analysis of the origins of the instinctual and social behaviors that balance a market economy, and explains how our reward-driven debt-fueled economy fostered the culture of greed and excess that triggered the world financial crisis of 2008.


Tags: Consumption & Demand, Culture & Behavior, Post Carbon Reader