Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
While it may be clear that the wager on endless growth is a bad one, a more difficult question arises: “what would be the characteristics of an economy that does not grow?”. In his book “Macroeconomics Without Growth1” Steffen Lange attempts to construct a framework for answering this question
Why does nature need half the planet? To maintain a highly functional system of plants, animals, and their habitats. And we need such a functional ecosystem to support our own species. Nature is ourhabitat. No nature means no economy, no national security, and no international stability.
In Vermont, a famously beautiful and progressive land that has also offered us a viable presidential candidate, there was virtually unanimous support in the legislature for recognizing limits to economic growth, the problems caused by growth, and the solutions inherent to a steady state economy.
Extremely dangerous political rhetoric has proliferated over the past several decades, seducing the masses onto a path that leads to the destruction of nature and civilization.
In Extraenvironmentalist #88 we discuss the Resilience Imperative: Cooperative Transitions to a Steady-State Economy with co-authors Michael Lewis and Pat Conaty. We talk about ways to create a decentralized, cooperative steady-state economy that can work as an alternative to the highly globalized and financialized economic paradigm of today.
If society does muster the political will in time, the great eco-economic leap forward in cultural evolution could be complete in as little as a generation.
Globalization and cheater economics have been destroying the world’s great rivers and their fisheries.
A steady state economy is defined by a constant population and a constant stock of physical capital.
There’s a lot in Cary Neeper’s Archives of Varok novels. They are by turns wondrous, wise, witty, tense and gripping—all in service of a heartfelt environmental polemic.
As production (real GDP) grows, its marginal utility declines, because we satisfy our most important needs first.
I believe one of the major reasons the concept of a steady state economy is not gaining traction is the omission of the role of fresh water in the production and maintenance of all its ecosystem and economic goods and services.
The transformation of our perpetual-growth society into a steady-state society…would be less painful if it were eased by environmental journalism worthy of the name
