The EU countries, India, and China are among the nations where representatives have concluded that “Unsustainable economic activity and a focus on growth…has been a driver of the decline of biodiversity.” This conclusion is expressed by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), comprising high-level scientists and diplomats from over 150 member states. The IPBES helps to empower national governments—from heads of state to bureaucrats in civil service—to recognize the conflict between economic growth and biodiversity conservation.
Due to a broad-based set of environmental, economic, and social concerns, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) is proposing a moratorium on the construction of new AI data centers. In a 4-minute video, Sanders asks his audience to consider: Who is pushing for these data centers? What will AI and robotics do to working families? How will people survive if they have no income? He’s not saying that AI, robotics, and data centers must be shut down permanently, but rather that “we need to slow it down” because “we need all of our people involved in determining the future of AI, and not just a handful of multi-millionaires.”
Among 30 nations assessed by the Hinrich Foundation, which would you think has the biggest ecological footprint? The United States? China? Russia? No, it’s Singapore, and by quite a margin. This results from its “high population density, urbanized economy, and heavy dependence on imports.” This must come as a big surprise to aficionados of a “green-growing” information economy. However, it’s no surprise to ecological economists, given the trophic theory of money. Singapore would have one of the highest trophic scores in the history of nations.
Swiss citizens have spoken. They want a cap on the population of Switzerland. While portrayed in the conventional press as a “right-wing” initiative, a population cap is also a fundamental shift toward a steady state economy. Boiled down to its most basic equation, a steady state economy is stabilized population times per capita consumption. So, if the Swiss initiative prevails in the June referendum, you might say that Switzerland will be half a steady state away.