Look around the world today and you will see a familiar array of economic, social and environmental issues.
No one likes to be in this position, but this is where we are today and we have to accept that.
Tomorrow, we could be in a very different place.
A place we are proud to be a part of, a place where we use only what we need and a place where community and environmental well-being is more important than economic growth. The choice is up to us.
Photographer : Picture by Gerald Xu: xuxiaohui @ Flickr
Caption : Evolution gone wrong
The world we live in today consists of enormous inequality. All aspects associated with global human rights, environmental issues, financial system control, population growth, increasing consumerism etc. all need desperate attention. These issues are extremely important in determining the ability of our species to prosper in the future, and yet, as big as they are, they all have one fundamental flaw in common – these issues are all built on the backbone of short-term profits and aspirations.
For most of us in the developed world, the industrial age of the past few centuries has brought us many great things, including significant advances in science and technology, increased material wealth and a greater control over the natural and built environments. However, throughout the duration of the industrial age we have seen:
- Enormous growth in human population: 5.8 billion (or 85% of the current population) in only two hundred years (previously took 3.8 billion years to produce 1 billion humans)
- Extensive increases in environmental damage: habitat degradation, use and disposal of toxic chemicals and thousands of plant and animal species lost in the void of extinction
- Greater global imbalance: currently, the world consists of ‘islands of prosperity and oceans of poverty’
- Increases in affluenzic diseases, notorious within developed nations, such as depression, financial stress, disconnectedness with family and friends, obesity, anxiety, overwork and a reduced sense of purpose and wellbeing; and
- Fostered dependence on the economic system that continues to fail us (insanity – “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” – Albert Einstein)
What would I change about the world? I would change these things.
I would seek to discover an economic system that doesn’t continually fail and isn’t built on continuous growth and short-term gains. I would change the way people in the developed world viewed their lives – forever aspiring towards increased material wealth in a hollow attempt to increase their prosperity. I would encourage those who do have money and ‘things’, to enjoy them with people who aren’t so lucky. And I would focus on educating all members of the community about the benefits of community involvement, the advantages of treating the environment with respect and the challenges that can be overcome by living life with long-term prosperity as fundamental.
How Do I Know This?
Australian Conservation Foundation, “Better than Growth”, Published by ACF, 2010
Centre for Alternative Economic Policy Research, Roundtable Summary of Proceedings, “Growth and Consumption”, 2004, available online
David Suzuki, “The Legacy”, Published by Allen &Unwin, 2010
Graeme Taylor, “Evolution’s Edge”, Published by New Society Publishers, Canada, 2008
Richard Sanders, “Future Economic Thought”, Commissioned by ACF, 2009
Tim Jackson, “Prosperity Without Growth”, Published by Earthscan, London, 2009
