Consume our way to destruction

“We do not inherit the earth from our parents; we borrow it from our children.” Chief Seattle (from Nolberto Munier’s Introduction to Sustainability)

How do we get out this recession?  We need to get consumers spending.  We need to get their unlimited wants started again (seems like a good idea?).  This is what many economists and government officials think needs to be done.  And it is completely ridiculous.  If we continue to consume like we have in the past, the future of Earth will continue to become jeopardized.  We must slow consumption and shift to a green economy.

I have recently been reading a lot on sustainable development and that is the fuel behind this rant:

We need a paradigm shift.  In economics it is believed that more is always better but in today’s age, this way of thinking should be long outdated. Unfortunately it is not, due to excessive greed and ignorance.  The new way to think must be that more is not sustainable.  No more unlimited wants that are completely unnecessary to having an acceptable standard of living.  No more new laptops every year, no more endless importing of cheap foreign made crap that just gets thrown out, and certainly no more of this:

The World - off the coast of Dubai

The people who tell us we need to consume our way out of this recession are not thinking about the sustainability of our planet.  Currently GDP per capita is thought as a good measure of the standard of living. This has caused a long time marketing of the false belief that standard of living increases come from increasing GDP per capita through ramping up production levels, consuming more goods, and in the process, creating a disgusting amount of pollution.  Officials believe the current way out of this recession is to increase business and consumer confidence so they start spending again and return to the unsustainability that was two years ago.  Yes, this may cause growth in GDP per capita, which will “increase” our standard of living (and stress…) But how long can we keep doing this?

Personally, I don’t want to get of this recession by returning to the trend of needless spending and unsustainable living.  If that is how we end up recovering from this current economic crisis then in x years we will be back in another recession. Except this time it will be because of the lack of available resources to power production and the fact that Florida, among other places, will cease to exist.  At that point it may be too late for change.

We need to convince others that only a shift to a greener global economy will truly increase our standard of living.  This means reducing the importance of GDP per capita as its measure.  Moving to a greener economy will require sacrifice, as there will be a significant amount of time before we reach an acceptable standard of living, but it is this or continual destruction of planet earth.  If it means having sustainable jobs, sustainable industries, and a way for humans to live sustainably then the benefits will grossly exceed the costs.

Jobs will be plentiful because we will have learnt how to live with the planet by utilizing geothermal heat, solar power, wind power, and tidal power.  Through the use of renewable energy, the world as a whole will be able to live a life not filled with despair and poverty.  The gap between the rich and the poor will hopefully collapse and we will consume less, but we will be happier, less stressed and most importantly we will not jeopardize future generations’ right to enjoy this beautiful planet.

I hope this recession brings change.  I hope we learn that our future rests on being sustainable in how we live.  I hope we don’t beat this recession by getting consumer’s buying goods that cause our planet harm, or by resparking industry that heavily pollutes.  We need to beat this recession by investing in a greener future and by promoting sustainable living and more importantly living within our means.

I end with a quote, again, from Nolberto Munier’s Introduction to Sustainability:

“Humankind needs to reduce its consumption of everything: water, minerals, meat, paper, computers, cars, chemicals, and land.  Society has to increase the efficiency of its production, to generate less garbage, to create more natural agriculture, to reduce atmospheric pollution.  In all probability, the key idea is that we have to erase from our vocabulary the word ‘waste’.

I am off to read up on sustainable economic growth.  Here is quite a unique idea