Climate change isn’t the only problem with our addiction to growth. Growth is causing a Great Death of species and ecosystems. Perhaps no economist and few politicians care if they ever see a bird or blade of grass again, but is a silent planet of stone and dust truly their goal? Do they believe that a magical door in space will let them go to a better world when this one is dead? I guess they are so concerned with growth that they don’t consider other issues. They’re like a driver checking their bank balance as their BMW races toward the red taillights ahead.
The following by christopherwrightau on Climate Change, Politics
With the coming G20 talks about to kick off in Brisbane, the focus of the agenda centres on economic growth as the panacea for all our troubles. Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey have been adamant in their focus upon the need to increase economic growth globally. It’s rare, if not impossible to find anyone in the mainstream public debate who questions the wisdom of ever-increasing economic growth. And yet there is a major underlying problem in our collective worship and addiction to growth – climate change.
Economic growth, rising affluence and a growing world population have been the major contributors to the environmental crisis we now face. Witness for instance our ever-escalating global greenhouse gas emissions. Despite four decades of political discussion about the urgency of climate change, the only times we have been able to halt this inexorable rise has been during periods of economic recession, such as our recent global financial crisis.
