I think the movie of Annie Leonard contains a lot of truth and important points. For me the key point is the currently established economical system, which requires permanent growth.
From my point of view this system is causing most of the currently observed problems. Such a system could only work for a long time in an environment of unlimited resources, otherwise such a system will hit at a certain time borders. And that is what we are currently facing - the system starts obviously hitting it's borders.
Only these days some people start to understand the impact of the changes caused by us since the start of industrialisation, with it's genius idea of mass production, which lead after about 150 years simplified to a list of huge problems:
- overpopulations of humans
- crisis on energy to maintain the system
- severe interference with the biosphere of the planet (changing the climate, extinction of enormous amount of species - plants and animals - and hence reducing the natural bio diversity)
- Prosperity in limited areas of the planet on the cost of other regions
It is extremely remarkable that it took only 150 years to get to this situation! And still only few people would admit that we have to change!
From my point of view it will be required to find a way to have a economy (I assume there will be no system without), which is based on balance instead of growth.
For a very long period in history the human societies lived in balance with their environment (at least on the level of problems they had to face compared to the once we have to face!!). But why? One reason is for sure that consume had a totally different meaning compared to what it means today in our society. In former times things were bought and produced because they were needed and they were used as long as they could be used. Yes, of course the real rich had some luxury but I would assume that is negligible. So "normal" people had their 1 or 2 pairs of shoes, some clothes, and the stuff they needed for there living. Stuff was inherited from parents and was further used! What is happening nowadays? Out of fashion, old, used? Of course we throw the things to the trash. This is luxury! Of course we do not realize anymore what luxury life we actually live. I would assume that Design, latest Fashion and so on were less important then functionality and durability in previous times.
I am pretty sure that we will need to step back, step back to a system, where the individual will have to limit it’s rate of consumption of goods. To a system with the aim to maintain balance not growth.
The first argument against such a system from industry, companies and so on will be that balance will mean stagnancy. I disagree, even if the overall economy for a society would be kept stable on a certain level of energy consumption, of acceptable impacts on the environment would this really imply that no progress is possible anymore? I doubt that! Why should it? Companies could still compete with each other to get a bigger share on the overall economy and new technology will provide advantages against competitors as they do now.
1 comment:
the blog is really getting pace now! cool.
This is a good subject! as engineers we always have a system view of any behavior, and from that point of view it seems clear that the way things are going the economy is going to hit some limit, and indefinite growth is not possible. I have a feeling that what keeps it going is speculation. The prospect that somewhere there is money to be made. Like in developing countries where markets still need to be open to foreign trade, and new consumers are to be gained. They are like a brand new full battery, they are worth the most when they are still new and unused. Once you plug them they start discharging and loose some of their potential. So one sells arms to another Saddam somewhere that will take over another poor nation, close its borders for a few years and let it "charge", so to say, as to increase its potential, then when it's ripe, we take it out, or so to say, we free it, and unleash its potential, boosting the economy momentum...
If we compare the economy with an electric system i'd say that money is electricity, that work or production is the alternator (produces energy), the economy is a battery (stores and unleashes energy), banks are like capacitors (hold temporarily energy), trade is like an inductor (creates forms of energy due to dynamics), regulations are like internal resistances (where energy is lost), taxes are shunts (where energy gets distributed to other points away from the load) and consumer goods are the actual system loads (where energy is spent). Speculation is like transistors, where gain can be obtained, but never for free.
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