The Need For Radical Change
In his recent New York Times article, op-ed columnist Thomas Friedman asks the critical question: is it time for radical change?
The Critical Question
Let’s today step out of the normal boundaries of analysis of our economic crisis and ask a radical question: 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.—Thomas Friedman, The Inflection is Near
Natural Stocks
The recent precipitous decline in stock market value is alarming, but what is the alarm signaling? Ought we not to be equally alarmed about our rapidly diminishing stocks of natural resource? Especially when considered in respect of the global population explosion? As long as our dominant paradigm values economic concerns above ecological principles, and continues the rapacious conversion of the planet’s natural stocks into financial resources, we persist at our peril.
“We created a way of raising standards of living that we can’t possibly pass on to our children,” said Joe Romm, a physicist and climate expert who writes the indispensable blog climateprogress.org. We have been getting rich by depleting all our natural stocks — water, hydrocarbons, forests, rivers, fish and arable land — and not by generating renewable flows.
“You can get this burst of wealth that we have created from this rapacious behavior,” added Romm. “But it has to collapse, unless adults stand up and say, ‘This is a Ponzi scheme. We have not generated real wealth, and we are destroying a livable climate …’ Real wealth is something you can pass on in a way that others can enjoy.”—Thomas Friedman, The Inflection is Near
The Great Disruption
One of those who has been warning me of this for a long time is Paul Gilding, the Australian environmental business expert. He has a name for this moment — when both Mother Nature and Father Greed have hit the wall at once — “The Great Disruption.”
We are taking a system operating past its capacity and driving it faster and harder,” he wrote me. “No matter how wonderful the system is, the laws of physics and biology still apply.” We must have growth, but we must grow in a different way. For starters, economies need to transition to the concept of net-zero, whereby buildings, cars, factories and homes are designed not only to generate as much energy as they use but to be infinitely recyclable in as many parts as possible. Let’s grow by creating flows rather than plundering more stocks.
Gilding says he’s actually an optimist. So am I. People are already using this economic slowdown to retool and reorient economies. Germany, Britain, China and the U.S. have all used stimulus bills to make huge new investments in clean power. South Korea’s new national paradigm for development is called: “Low carbon, green growth.” Who knew? People are realizing we need more than incremental changes — and we’re seeing the first stirrings of growth in smarter, more efficient, more responsible ways.—Thomas Friedman, The Inflection is Near
Integral Economy
Isn’t it time to rethink our socioeconomic models? And reconsider the values at the core of our socioeconomic system? Isn’t it time for an economy that is firmly rooted in integral ecological principles? One that values the physical-emotional-psychological well-being of the planet’s inhabitants above financial growth? Our present economic and ecological crisis are truly alarming, but failure to recognize and properly respond to the message the alarm is signaling will have grave consequences indeed.
