Jack Santa Barbara

A new book explains how an economist, in challenging the orthodoxy, has helped activists change the world.

Post Carbon Institute’s Associate Director Ken White recently visited Atamai Village, an evolving resilient community outside of Motueka, near the top of NZ’s South Island.

New Zealand will inevitably make a transition to a steady-state economy. The onset of energy descent — having less and less energy to use with each passing decade — will push it to do so sooner rather than later. The critical question is whether the transition to a steady-state economy will be by design or disaster.

“Right Relationship” is a book for the worrying-about-collapse weary. It is a book for those of us who realize the world we live in is in great peril and that something fundamental has to change to ensure the human story continues and flourishes. The book arises from a Quaker tradition which has had remarkable successes in the past – the abolition of slavery being only one noteworthy example.

His “endurance” criterion is flawed in that it focuses on endurance of the energy system, not ecosystems. “…clean energy – whether relying on fossil fuels or some other option – does not ensure a sustainable human presence on earth…”