4 ms·
at some point, we're going to have to stop assuming that indefinite unstructured economic growth is a given and necessarily good. maybe that time is past, or i
by convolvatron 8y ago
at some point, we're going to have to stop assuming that indefinite unstructured economic growth is a given and necessarily good.
maybe that time is past, or its far in the future. but shouldn't we start adapting to that eventuality rather than having to wake up suddenly to the reality that we're running out of natural resources to support a growing population and filling our own house with pollution?
flattening of population growth or a very slow decline should be exactly what we should be hoping for.
- makerofspoons 8y agoExactly. Earth Overshoot Day (the day in a given year humans consume more than Earth's capacity to regenerate those resources) keeps getting earlier and earlier each year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Overshoot_Day https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Overshoot_Day. Our population and economic growth have not meaningfully deviated from the predictions made in the Club of Rome's report Limits to Growth, which means unless we start bending both curves further down soon we are on track for collapse: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07117-2 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07117-2
- wbl 8y agoThe prices of resources disagree with that assessment.
- makerofspoons 8y agoThe prices aren't including the cost of environmental destruction- we have allowed that to be an externality.
- krageon 8y agoThey don't disagree with anything, they just are. And the beautiful thing about that is that they can be the way they are and be totally unrelated to any real cost.