Sustainable welfare: how do Universal Basic Income and Universal Basic Services compare?

The newly emerging concept of sustainable welfare refers to welfare systems which aim to satisfy everyone's needs within planetary boundaries and to decouple the welfare-growth nexus. Both Universal Basic Income (UBI) and Universal Basic Services (UBS) have been discussed as suitable, but potentially competing, approaches that could support sustainable welfare. This paper contributes to this debate by asking how UBI and UBS compare in relation to four sustainable welfare criteria: a) planetary boundaries, b) needs satisfaction, c) fair distribution, and d) democratic governance. The paper argues that UBI and UBS are not so much conflicting but complementary approaches for supporting sustainable welfare. UBI focuses on the consumption side of the economy while UBS addresses the production side more directly, both of which would be relevant in any sustainable welfare system. Sustainable welfare outcomes of UBI and UBS would be shaped by the institutional contexts within which they operate, especially by the governance of markets, collective provisioning systems and decision-making at all levels. More attention needs to be paid to these institutional contexts when discussing potential sustainable welfare outcomes of UBI and UBS

Evidence from accreted seamounts for a depleted component in the early Galapagos plume

The existence of an intrinsic depleted component in mantle plumes has previously been proposed for several hotspots in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. However, formation of these depleted basalts is often associated with unusual tectonomagmatic processes such as plume-ridge interaction or multistage melting at plume initiation, where depleted basalts could reflect entrainment and melting of depleted upper mantle. Late Cretaceous to middle Eocene seamounts that accreted in Costa Rica and are part of the early Galapagos hotspot track provide new insights into the occurrence and nature of intrinsic depleted components. The Paleocene (ca. 62 Ma) seamounts include unusually depleted basalts that erupted on the Farallon plate far from a mid-ocean ridge. These basalts closely resemble Gorgona komatiites in terms of trace element and radiogenic isotope composition, suggesting formation from a similar, refractory mantle source. We suggest that this source may be common to plumes, but is only rarely sampled due to excessive extents of melting required to extract melts from the most refractory parts of a heterogeneous mantle plume

Trends in air travel inequality in the UK: from the few to the many?

Aviation is responsible for at least 3.5% of global warming, and demand is predicted to rise rapidly over the next few decades. To reverse this trend, air travel demand will need to be managed. An important question is: ‘who would be affected by air travel demand reduction policies’? The answer to that question largely depends on who is participating in air travel, and how unequally it is distributed. Existing analysis suggests that participation in air travel in the UK is highly unequal and driven by richer, highly educated and urban households. However, so far little is known about how these patterns of inequality have changed over time – has air travel participation increased among low income households, e.g. due to the rise of low-cost carriers and ‘normalisation’ of air travel as a social practice? Would these groups therefore now be more affected by flight taxes or frequent flyer levies? To address these questions, this paper examines trends in air travel inequality between 2001 and 2018 in the UK based on two representative surveys, providing the first micro-level analysis of air travel inequality over time for this country. We find that while disadvantaged groups have contributed to the expansion of air travel over the past two decades, they remain far less likely to be affected by air travel demand management policies because air travel inequality is still at a very high level. These findings challenge common discourses that present air travel as a widespread norm, and demand management policies as socially unfair

Non-Hawaiian lithostratigraphy of Louisville seamounts and the formation of high-latitude oceanic islands and guyots

Guyots are large seamounts with a flat summit that is generally believed to form due to constructional biogenic and/or erosional processes during the formation of volcanic islands. However, despite their large abundance in the oceans, there are still very few direct constraints on the nature and formation of guyots, in particular those formed at high latitude that lack a thick cap of shallow-marine carbonate rocks. It is largely accepted based on geophysical constraints and surficial observations/sampling that the summit platform of these guyots is shaped by wave abrasion during post-volcanic subsidence of volcanic islands. Here we provide novel constraints on this hypothesis and the summit geology of guyots with a lithostratigraphic analysis of cores from three Louisville seamounts (South Pacific) collected during Expedition 330 of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). Thirteen lithofacies of sedimentary and volcanic deposits are described, which include facies not previously recognized on the top of guyots, and offer a new insight into the formation of high-latitude oceanic islands on a fast-moving plate. Our results reveal that the lithostratigraphy of Louisville seamounts preserves a very consistent record of the formation and drowning of volcanic islands, with from bottom to top: (i) volcaniclastic sequences with abundant lava-fed delta deposits, (ii) submarine to subaerial shield lava flows, (iii) post-volcanic shallow to deeper marine sedimentary rocks lacking thick reef deposits, (iv) post-erosional rejuvenated volcanic rocks, and (v) pelagic sediments. Recognition of erosional boundaries between subaerial lava flows and shallow-marine sedimentary rocks provides novel support for post-volcanic wave planation of guyots. However, the summit geology of Louisville seamounts is dissimilar to that of high-latitude Hawaiian-Emperor guyots that have emplaced in a similar tectonic and environmental setting and that include thicker lava stacks with apparently little lava-fed delta deposits. To explain observed lithostratigraphic discrepancy we propose that Louisville seamounts represent a distinct type of intraplate ocean volcano characterized by formation of a smaller island, with a central shield volcano surrounded by extended shallow-marine shelves formed by lava-fed deltas. In this interpretation the summit platform of Louisville-type guyots results from early (syn-volcanic) subaerial to shallow-marine constructional volcanic processes and marine erosion, enhanced by later (post-volcanic) wave planation. This contrasts with larger Hawaiian edifices that are capped by thicker shield volcanoes, and that develop an extended wave planation surface during post-volcanic subsidence (in the absence of efficient coral growth). The difference between Hawaiian- and Louisville-type volcanic islands and guyots can be explained by contrasted dynamic disequilibrium between magmatic growth, erosion, and subsidence during the island-building stage. Unlike Hawaiian-type volcanoes, Louisville seamounts are characterized by alkaline magmatism that extends from the late seamount to island stages. This supports more limited magmatic growth during the formation of Louisville islands, and we hypothesize that this promotes the formation of ephemeral shallow-marine platforms and extended lava-fed deltas. Hawaiian-type volcanoes and guyots are unusually large in the population of intraplate ocean volcanoes. Louisville-type guyots as defined in this study could therefore represent a very common but yet poorly documented mode of oceanic island formation in the Pacific Ocean and other similar fast-moving plate settings