Steady State Economy Archives – Page 4 of 43 – Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy

Guess What Has Decoupled from Economic Growth?

July 13, 2023/2 Comments/in Greg Mikkelson, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Wellbeing /by Gary Gardner

by Greg Mikkelson

Something new and troubling is happening as economies grow across much of the globe. In contrast to prior decades, when human health improved as global GDP swelled, the link to health progress has been broken. No longer is economic growth delivering a health dividend, it seems.

Meanwhile, another metric, the health of the environment, has continued to deteriorate with economic growth. We now face a “ghastly” global environmental crisis,

Who Tallies the Resources?

July 6, 2023/12 Comments/in Daniel Wortel-London, Economic Policy, Governance, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Gary Gardner

by Daniel Wortel-London

The economy of the USA, like that of any other nation, depends on natural resources—minerals, timber, fossil fuels, land, and a host of other renewable and nonrenewable assets. It couldn’t function without these resources any more than you or I could survive without air. So you’d think that determining whether our country’s demand for natural resources exceeds the environment’s supply would be of the greatest importance to politicians.

The Oceans are Sending an SOS

June 29, 2023/2 Comments/in Gary Gardner, Pollution, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

by Gary Gardner

Media coverage of the loss of the Titan submersible last week turned the world’s attention to the oceans—that vast, mysterious realm that sits below the surface of our landlocked consciousness. Two factoids in the coverage caught my attention.

The first, emerging from chatter about the extent of the search effort, is that international law requires vessels to respond to an at-sea distress call if they are able to,

Steady-State Talking Points for Democrats and Republicans

June 22, 2023/2 Comments/in Brian Czech, Economic Growth, Environment, Governance, Politics, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

by Brian Czech

Limits to growth are all around us. Global heating, resource shortages, and biodiversity collapse are linked at the hip with stagnating productivity, inflation, and crippling debt. Little by little, citizens and politicians are waking up to ecological limits and the economic linkages.

The awakening is painfully slow for those who have long lamented society’s obsession with growth. After all, economic growth entails a growing human population and ecological footprint,

Tons, Hectares, or Dollars? Measuring the Pressure Exerted by the Economy on the Biosphere

June 15, 2023/4 Comments/in Biodiversity, Endangered Species, Greg Mikkelson, Materials use, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

by Gregory M. Mikkelson

Like a doctor measuring a patient’s vital signs, environmental scientists use various indicators to assess the health of the global ecosystem. These planetary vital signs are reckoned in a variety of units, such as tons of greenhouse gas emitted or hectares of land deforested. Meanwhile, conventional economists try to measure everything in terms of dollars (or other currencies). For example, they assign monetary values to the “ecosystem services”

Limits to Wealth = Limits to Growth

June 8, 2023/8 Comments/in Daniel Wortel-London, Economic Policy, Environment, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Wealth /by Gary Gardner

by Daniel Wortel-London

Inequality threatens people and planet alike. Billions struggle to make ends meet while a tiny minority grows fabulously wealthy. At the same time, the conspicuous consumption of the wealthy and the waste they generate takes an enormous environmental toll. The intertwining of social and environmental damage suggests that standard fixes for inequality are inadequate.

Herman Daly thought that waste from the wealthy could not be ended through redistributive taxation alone.

Food: Abundant for How Long?

June 1, 2023/6 Comments/in Gary Gardner, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

by Gary Gardner

Global food production today is cornucopian: More food, of greater diversity, is available to more people in more places than at any time in human history. At the same time, this food abundance has a dark underbelly. Some 828 million people—nearly ten percent of the human family—are chronically hungry, and two billion people lack critical micronutrients such as Vitamin A and iron. This juxtaposition of increasing abundance and chronic scarcity might suggest that ending hunger simply requires extending 20th century agricultural success to the entire human family.

Using GDP to Estimate the Limits to Growth

May 25, 2023/8 Comments/in Brian Czech, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

by Brian Czech

The merits and proper uses of GDP—gross domestic product—have been debated with increasing frequency and intensity in recent years. Neoclassical economists continue to view a growing GDP as the sign of economic success and even social health. Conversely, ecologists who have studied the issue view a growing GDP as an alarming indicator of unsustainability at this point in history.

Meanwhile, a growing number of individuals and organizations in the post-growth community have proposed to eliminate GDP altogether,

May 25, 2023/0 Comments/in Steady State Economy /by Brian Czech

Prospecting for a Steady State in North America

May 18, 2023/3 Comments/in Economic Growth, Environment, Greg Mikkelson, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

by Gregory M. Mikkelson

In late summer of 2001 I moved from the USA to Canada, where my rose-colored glasses paradoxically made the grass look even greener. While President Bush had just reneged on the Kyoto Protocol, Prime Minister Chrétien stood by it, having been one of the first to sign. Two years later Chrétien withstood the pressure to join Bush’s disastrous war against Iraq.