Economists insist that recovery is at hand, yet unemployment remains high and governments stagger under record deficits. The End of Growth proposes a startling diagnosis: humanity has reached a fundamental turning point in its economic history.
The expansionary trajectory of industrial civilization is colliding with non-negotiable natural limits. Richard Heinberg’s latest book goes to the heart of the ongoing financial crisis, explaining how and why it occurred, and what we must do to avert the worst potential outcomes. Written in an engaging, highly readable style, it shows why growth is being blocked by three factors: resource depletion, environmental impacts, and crushing levels of debt.
These converging limits will force us to re-evaluate cherished economic theories and to reinvent money and commerce. The End of Growth describes what policy makers, communities, and families can do to build a new economy that operates within Earth’s budget of energy and resources. We can thrive during the transition if we set goals that promote human and environmental well-being, rather than continuing to pursue the now-unattainable prize of ever-expanding GDP.
Dig into this book! It is crammed full of ideas, information and perspective on where our troubled world is headed — a Baedeker for the perplexed, and that’s most of us.
— James Gustave Speth, author of The Bridge at the Edge of the World
supplemental materials (ONLINE ONLY!)
Published by New Society Publishing in collaboration with Post Carbon Institute. 2011. 288 pages. ISBN 9780865716957.
