Weekend Economists Kickoff the Season, September 6-8, 2013

[bread_and_roses]

49. "Economic growth is the biggest destroyer of the ecology"

cross-post from GliderGuider http://www.democraticunderground.com/112753552#top

http://www.oceansidestar.com/news/web-of-life-unravelling-wildlife-biologist-says-1.605499

Web of life unravelling, wildlife biologist says

... in his 35 years of studying what is supposed to be a wildlife sanctuary, it has almost all changed, and it no longer supports the life it once did.

It looks green and serene but to Dawe, "It's a veritable desert here."

The loss to the food web is a loss to the web of life, he says, and people are a huge part of that web.

Indeed, it's an overabundance of people, perhaps by five-fold, which is driving resource extraction and consumption beyond a sustainable planet, he says.

"Economic growth is the biggest destroyer of the ecology," he says. "Those people who think you can have a growing economy and a healthy environment are wrong. "If we don't reduce our numbers, nature will do it for us." - See more at: http://www.oceansidestar.com/news/web-of-life-unravelling-wildlife-biologist-says-1.605499#sthash.MpD9T9Dp.dpuf

There surely are too many people on the planet, but since we are not about to embark on a human eradication program it is the second point that is most pertinent, I think ...

It seems to me that history teaches us that humans can be content with very little in the way of material goods if they have community and a meaningful place in it.

I cling to the hope that we could keep science, medicine and communications (the mega-advances that actually enhance human well-being, unlike plastic-wrapped everything and giant agra) if we reduced consumption of everything else to what is green and local.

We know that humans will do hard and dirty work if it is valued and shared. We know that where women are equal and valued and have some assurance that their children have a chance to live and thrive they have far fewer children.

We know that where humans live in a genuine community (not the insect hives our mega-opolises our cities have become) that most will value it and work to sustain it and each other. We know that global communications would go a long way toward preventing smaller communities from becoming insular and crazy.

We know that humans can craft meaningful lives as farmers and teachers and weavers and song-makers and and and any sort of real work.

But ... since we know all this and continue in the exact opposite directions....

I have no hope. I see no future.