Life can only be lived within limits

Posted on

My friend and Green New Deal colleague, Andrew Simms, had an excellent article in the Guardian yesterday in which he pointed out that best estimates suggest yesterday was the day when the planet as a whole consumed more this year than could be replenished from the resources the earth has available to it.

It's a worrying trend for those concerned about sustainability as we have been in ecological deficit since the 70s, and have got worse this year by 2 days compared to 2012. As Andrew put it:

"Live without limits" is the slogan of Jeep, makers of archetypal, gas guzzling off-road vehicles. However, if you tried to, you wouldn't live very long. By accumulating too much ecological debt, we are losing the climate to which we are adapted. Historically speaking, the public debt is at relatively low levels, while our ecological debt is larger than ever and growing. That is the issue that should be at the top of the political agenda.

I agree, but the hegemony of market based thinking seeks to deny that there are any such limits or that there is an issue to be faced.

That is one of the many reasons why one day we will need to hold those who have promoted such false thinking to account. For now, we need to make clear to the world that firstly such 'free' market thinking is actually an exercise in exploiting the planet and the generations to come, and secondly, that there are alternatives.

That's task enough for the moment.


Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:

You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.

And if you would like to support this blog you can, here: