Posts


Happiness and the COVID-Caused Recession

by Beth Allgood

Modified from the original published in Our Daily Planet (ourdailyplanet.com) on March 21, 2020.

In 2013, the United Nations designated March 20th as the International Day of Happiness to recognize the importance of happiness and wellbeing in the lives of people around the world. Last year I attended the launch of the annual UN World Happiness Report in New York. This year the UN is closed to the public,


[Book Review] Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline

by Max Kummerow

In Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline (Crown Publishing Group, New York, 2019) Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson argue that population decline will bring many social and economic changes—some good, some bad. They assert that “In three decades, give or take…global population starts to decline.”

Note that their title is a bit misleading. World population will probably rise to over 10 billion before the slow decline would begin.


The World Fertility Transition: Moving Toward a Steady-State Population

by Max Kummerow

“There’s just too many of us and no one is talking about it.”
—Biologist Patrick Benson in Meera Subramanian’s, A River Runs Again: India’s Natural World in Crisis

It is hard to imagine a growing population supporting a steady state economy. “Jobs” and higher incomes for growing numbers of people anchor the platforms of political candidates and economists worldwide.

But what about a different approach?


Steady Statesmanship Goes Global

A window of opportunity has opened at the United Nations: it’s time to promote the steady state economy around the globe.


What’s “Rio+20” and Why Should We Care?

Rio+20 is a real opportunity for steady staters — a potential coming-out party for the economics of sustainability.


Toward a New Bretton Woods and a Sustainable Civilization

Eric Zencey reports encouraging news from the United Nations, but he knows a sustainable economic system won’t arise without concerted effort.


Rio+20 Needs to Address the Downsides of Growth

Herman Daly succinctly sums up the steady-state perspective in his suggestion for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development.