To survive, we must change everything, now.
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I read an insightful article from the New York Times by Thomas Friedman (author of one of the best books I’ve read, Hot, Flat and Crowded -seriously, do yourself a favour and buy/find this book, then gobble it up. You will not look at the world in the same way again).
Crikey.com.au also has a good comment on it here.
Anyway, Friedman makes some very good points in his article. He also asks some questions I have been asking myself. Why do we need to “grow” so much, and all the time? Why can’t we grow organically? Why do we “need” 15% plus growth in our shares, in our superannuation, in our houses. Do we “need” this, really? I don’t think so. Do we need 10 billion people on the Earth? Nope. Should we have 10 Billion people on the Earth? Clearly not.
What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall — when Mother Nature and the market both said: “No more.”
We have created a system for growth that depended on our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in more and more factories in China, powered by more and more coal that would cause more and more climate change but earn China more and more dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills so America would have more and more money to build more and more stores and sell more and more stuff that would employ more and more Chinese …
We can’t do this anymore.
And:
Over a billion people today suffer from water scarcity; deforestation in the tropics destroys an area the size of Greece every year — more than 25 million acres; more than half of the world’s fisheries are over-fished or fished at their limit.
“Just as a few lonely economists warned us we were living beyond our financial means and overdrawing our financial assets, scientists are warning us that we’re living beyond our ecological means and overdrawing our natural assets,” argues Glenn Prickett, senior vice president at Conservation International. But, he cautioned, as environmentalists have pointed out: “Mother Nature doesn’t do bailouts.”
Friedman references Australian environmentalist Paul Gilding’s post on this – Gilding:
“When we look back, 2008 will be a momentous year in human history. Our children and grandchildren will ask us, ‘What was it like? What were you doing when it started to fall apart? What did you think? What did you do?’ Often in the middle of something momentous, we can’t see its significance. But for me there is no doubt: 2008 will be the marker — the year when ‘The Great Disruption’ began.”
It’s a great point. What will you be able to say when your grandkids ask “what did you do to help?”.
I sure as hell will be saying: “Everything I could.”
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Couldn’t agree more with the article you quote from the NYT.
We’ve become conditioned by the poly’s & big business to believe we need endless growth, more consumer items, to work harder, longer, pay more tax, etc.
It’s a modern condition – the old values were far more balanced, we had respect for more than just money. When you bought a ‘major’ item, like a TV, you didn’t expect to use it for say 5 years, then throw it away when a new model came out or it broke. You could get things repaired too – not just replace them – which is near on impossible now.
It’s been like this for probably most of your life. We can remember before consumerism expolded, and before governments were so unbalanced toward growth rather than the environment. It’s well and truly time for a reversal, and it’s going to have to be a people’s revolution this time. And people like you, who can communicate strongly and clearly will be the drivers.
[...] started writing the below text over Christmas, but kind of lost my way, until I read Thomas Friedman’s op-ed in the New York Times the other day about how we all need to really re-assess what it is we really [...]