Mankind is caught in a self-made trap. The conflict between conventional economics and the growing realisation that we need to save our planet is irreconcilable. A revolution is required.
Globalisation is sucking resources from the Earth at an increasing rate, driving many industrial activities to places of lowest environmental and social standards; whilst the policy of sustainability is seeking to persuade people, organisations and corporations to behave responsibly towards social issues and the environment. Our current mechanisms of capitalism cannot handle these diverging forces. The established order of how we run society is set to be overthrown and the business landscape reconfigured.
This is the argument I make in my book 'Adapt and Thrive'. Am I right that we need massive and fundamental change?
Submitted by Peter McManners on 20 March 2008 06:36:59
Comments
Absolutely. Not many people understand what sustainability means. Though some people argue that economies can grow through added value of knowledge, in reality economies can only grow by making more stuff, buying more stuff, offering more services and buying more services. This all takes increasing resources, much of them non-renewable.
Economic growth and sustainability are incompatible. Sustainable growth is an oxymoron. Think about it. It is impossible to consume finite resources forever, and consuming increasing amounts of finite resources just hastens the day when some vital resource starts to decline. Maybe oil is the first of those vital resources. Even renewable resources can be consumed unsustainably, if done so beyond the resource's renewal rate. Also, if we are even partly responsible for damaging our environment, then we are living unsustainably.
A massive change is required but I don't see any of our leaders willing to suggest such a thing, because economic growth is so embedded in our psyche that such suggestions would be suicide for politicians.
Submitted by TonyW on 8 May 2008 20:12:16