Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist. – Kenneth Boulding, economist.
Hey dear readers, this week I found a great organization named New Economics Foundation whose motto is Economics as if people and the planet mattered.
I thought it was great… we’ve already expressed our opinion on how the GDP from each country is a weak measurement of the true well-being of the people, by excluding several social and environmental parameters: like the work put forward by NGO’s, who dedicate time, energy and money, and whose influences in the well-being of lots of communities are not computed in the GDP, or the ecosystemic functions which are taken forward by natural systems, which –if computed– would destroy the economies of lots of countries around the world.
The work presented by the foundation is called “The Great Transition – a tale of how it turned right” and you can download it here; it finds ways to survive and thrive through financial crises, climate change and the peak and decline of global oil production.
It is founded in three hay facts:
- Environmentally, time is running out. What would once have been desirable is now urgent and necessary. And it’s not just the climate. We are fast pushing a range of the Earth’s life support systems to breaking point.
- Equality is not just a good thing, From health to crime, everyone in more equal societies almost always does better, including ability to respond to change.
- Taking action is good for well-being: recent research suggests that activists are more likely to be “flourishing” than nonactivists.
It is always positive to know that alternative ways of living are being studied.
‘Till soon,
Brian Longstaff.-
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