If It’s Profitable, Is It Really Sustainable?
By Gunnar Rundgren, Garden Earth
That an economic activity has to be profitable is considered a truism, something taken for granted and not reflected upon. But what if the opposite is the case?
Tag: economic growth
From What If to What Next: Kate Soper and Tim Jackson
By Rob Hopkins, Rob Hopkins blog
Might this be the time to forever do away with the idea that the only way to measure our progress, cultural, social, spiritual, economic, is purely by how much bigger our economy is than it was last year?
The Collapse of Rhetoric. Can Economists and Ecologists Talk to Each Other?
By Katy Shields, Ugo Bardi, The Seneca Effect
At the time of Seneca, rhetoric was perhaps the main skill of a man of culture: the capability of debating was valued and practiced.
Capitalism, the Doomsday Machine (or, How to Repurpose Growth Capital)
By Richard Heinberg, Common Dreams
Why wait for collapse? Repurposing growth capital now could help unwind the doomsday machine sooner rather than later.
The Nottingham Economic Recovery and Renewal Consultation – Part Three
By Brian Davey, Feasta
Promoting economic growth is unethical because economic activity has overshot the carrying capacity of the biosphere and is degrading the ecological system.
Growth without economic growth
By R. Strand, Z. Kovacic, S. Funtowicz, L. Benini, A. Jesus, European Environment Agency
Economic growth is closely linked to increases in production, consumption and resource use and has detrimental effects on the natural environment and human health.
The economic legacy of the Holocene
By Lisi Krall, Resilience.org
We should face reality: The other-than-human-world now has become almost entirely eclipsed by an unassailable “superorganism”—us, the human species—that continues to expand in evermore destructive fashion.
The Economic Superorganism: Excerpt
By Carey W. King, Resilience.org
In the context of the energy and economic narratives, who needs more willpower? Do our political leaders need “political will” to constrain the choices for both public and private energy company investments?
What a Milk Carton Can Tell Us
By Gunnar Rundgren, Garden Earth
My milk package, the electric cars, agriculture land use and the wood saving stoves are all examples showing why overall reduction in resources use or emissions (absolute decoupling) through substitution and efficiency is a pipe dream in a growth economy.
Green Economic Growth is an Article of ‘Faith’ Devoid of Scientific Evidence
By Nafeez Ahmed, Insurge Intelligence
For years, financial institutions and governments have been focused on the idea of ‘decoupling’ GDP growth from resource use. This has been driven by the recognition that to stay within the ‘safe limit’ of 2 degrees Celsius, we have to dramatically reduce our material consumption.
We Can’t Grow Our Way Out of Poverty
By Jason Hickel, New Internationalist
We can end poverty, right now, without any additional aggregate economic growth at all. The key here is to recognize that we don’t live in a poor world. On the contrary, we live in an incredibly rich world. Global poverty is a product not of any actual scarcity, but rather of the systematic creation of artificial scarcity.
Taking the Imperative Out of Growth
By Mark H. Burton, Steady-State Manchester
Positive Money is to be commended for its efforts in helping to bring the deep and systemic problem of Economic Growth to the public eye. However, while agreeing with this broad orientation, it is worth taking a close look at the report’s policy proposals and at the economic theory behind them.