I find this phrase from the letter by the 100 scientists (see these comments on Word of Mouth for the beginning of this discussion) to be very telling:

We therefore need to equip nations to become resilient to the full range of these natural phenomena by promoting economic growth and wealth generation.

Excuse me, economic growth and wealth generation? Why is the line now always arbitrarily drawn between ‘economic growth and wealth generation’ (which can only mean continuing to use non-renewable so-called ‘resources’ at a rate far beyond what the ecosphere can sustain) and ’stop global warming and climate change’? What about working toward simple sustainability and a stable-state economy? What about ending the destruction of the environment, habitat and extinction of hundreds of species each day, period? The whole argument seems surreal. I feel like a voice in the wilderness, crying.

Especially in the third world with its massive population and extremely limited resources, it is very dangerous to encourage unhindered growth and wealth using the western model. Look at what is happening in those parts of the third world, particularly Asia, which have already adopted our the western model of economic so-called ‘growth. We urgently need to focus on a stable state economy for ALL the world, including ourselves, rather than encouraging everyone to think that the western way is the right way. It is a destructive, unsustainable paradigm, period.

Of course, before we can have a stable state, the third world’s economy needs to grow at least somewhat to a livable and sustainable level (but not ‘livable’ according to our western standard of two cars, three televisions and a plethora of disposable toys, pre-packaged junk food and a separate room for every body function and person in the home, plus guests), and the already-bloated-with-wealth countries (like us) need to throttle back on our gluttonous piggery. But the ultimate goal needs to be sustainability. I don’t hear that being acknowledged, or even mentioned much anywhere these days. There’s so much focus on the Big Picture of Global Climate Change (insert flashing neon red herrings), both on the ‘believer’ side and the ‘deniers’.

Stop the crazy uncontrolled growth, I say. I don’t care about global warming, it’s a moot argument. The problem IS the machinelike uncontrolled drive toward economic growth and ‘wealth generation’. There is enough wealth already in existence, MORE than enough by far; it just needs to be redistributed a little more sanely, ie out of the war machine and the industro-corp production of cheap consumer throw-aways and into sustainable living on the planet. We need to start acting as if we’re here for the long run. Hello!! We are planning to have a planet for our grandchildren to live on, aren’t we?

“Think about the FUTURE, Jack!”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 at 7:48 pm and is filed under Gaia words. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.