Steady State Herald (CASSE Blog) – Page 26 of 54 – Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy

Innovating Beyond the Growth Trap: A Challenge to the Ecofiscal Commission’s Growth Fixation

July 28, 2015/2 Comments/in Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Sustainability, Technology, The Daly News /by Brian Czech

by James Magnus-Johnston

A new voice has emerged recently in Canada called the “Ecofiscal Commission,” which could have the funding, clout, and determination to steer the country in a more promising direction. The group includes high-profile economists, former political leaders, and high-powered financiers. They define “ecofiscal policy” as something that “corrects market price signals to encourage the economic activities we do want (job creation, investment, and innovation) while reducing those we don’t want (greenhouse gas emissions and the pollution of our land,

Five Myths About Economic Growth

July 22, 2015/16 Comments/in Brian Czech, Consumption, Economic Growth, The Daly News /by Brian Czech

by Brian Czech

Myth #1. It’s economic.

To be economic, something has to be worth more than it costs. Economic activity, per se, is more beneficial than detrimental. Technically speaking, “marginal utility is greater than marginal disutility.”

If you liked a rug, but liked your grandkids more, it wouldn’t be smart to grab the rug out from under them. That’s basic microeconomics. Yet if we look around and reflect a bit,

The Pope Francis Encyclical And Its Economics

July 8, 2015/3 Comments/in Corporate Reform, Economic Growth, Environment, Poverty, Sustainability, The Daly News /by Brian Czech

by Brent Blackwelder

The Encyclical Letter of Pope Francis is attracting extraordinary attention for its message on global warming, deforestation, loss of biological diversity, and other pressing environmental issues. What is less well known is the extensive critique of the global economy found in his 184-page Encyclical. This blog highlights some of the significant points that Pope Francis makes about the need for systemic economic change.

Although the Pope does not use the phrase “steady state economy”

Good Health Requires Different Economics

July 2, 2015/1 Comment/in Economic Growth, The Daly News /by Brian Czech

by Trevor Hancock

For the past three years, I have been leading an important project for the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA), which led to the release on May 25th of our Discussion Paper and a 100-page technical report on global change and public health.

In these documents, we identify what we call the “ecological determinants of health”: clean air and water, food, materials, fuel, the great cycles of water,

Thoughts on Pope Francis’ Laudato Si

June 23, 2015/14 Comments/in Climate Change, Consumption, Economic Growth, Environment, Population, Poverty, Religion, Steady State Economy, The Daly News /by Brian Czech

by Herman Daly

As a Protestant Christian, my devotion to the Catholic Church has been rather minimal, based largely on respect for early church history and for the love of an aunt who was a nun. In recent times, the Catholic Church’s opposition to birth control, plus the pedophile and cover-up scandals, further alienated me. Like many others, I first viewed Pope Francis as perhaps a breath of fresh air, but little more. After reading his encyclical on environment and justice,

The Future History of Political Economy – Part 2

June 10, 2015/8 Comments/in Energy, Steady State Economy, The Daly News /by Brian Czech

by Eric Zencey

Ecological Economics represents the extension into economics of the thermodynamic revolution of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In physics, that revolution dethroned Newton and brought relativity. In biology, it was midwife to the birth of ecology, the study of ecosystems as wholes in which energy networks—food webs—are a defining structure. In chemistry the laws of thermodynamics brought clarity and rigor to a science that struggled to bring theoretical unity to diverse phenomena.

The Future History of Political Economy – Part 1

June 3, 2015/2 Comments/in Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Steady State Economy, The Daly News /by Brian Czech

by Eric Zencey

Ecological Economics and its corollary, steady-state economic thinking, represent a step forward for the discipline of economics and also a return to how it was practiced in the past. In the nineteenth century, economics was a part of a larger enterprise: political economy, the integrated treatment of morals and economics, ultimate ends and efficient means. Late in that century economics calved off from political economy, leaving behind political science and political philosophy as the residuum.

Seismic Political Shifts Reveal Desire for Serious Change

May 28, 2015/0 Comments/in Corporate Reform, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Energy, Environment, Steady State Economy, The Daly News /by Brian Czech

by James Magnus-Johnston

If you demonstrate to people that the NDP [New Democratic Party] can win in Alberta, suddenly anything seems possible. —Paul Fairie, University of Calgary political scientist

On the problematic political spectrum, neither the right nor the left have become wholesale champions of the steady state economy. Then again, embracing something perceived as ‘new’ has never been the strong suit of the politician. It takes years of ideological evolution among the grassroots before seemingly new and different ideas become politically palatable.

Progress Toward a True-Cost Economy Comes from Renewable Energy

May 21, 2015/4 Comments/in Energy, Environment, Jobs and Employment, Steady State Economy, Sustainability, Technology, The Daly News /by Brian Czech

by Brent Blackwelder

A renewable energy revolution is sweeping the planet. This revolution has profound implications because it signals that the global economy is moving to stop the growth of our human carbon footprint.

The global economy has run for a century primarily on fossil fuels but is now undergoing a rapid transition to a global economy based significantly on rooftop solar, wind, and efficiency. This is a tangible movement toward a steady state economy because with wind and solar,

Preempting a Misleading Argument: Why Environmental Problems Will Stop Tracking with GDP

May 13, 2015/1 Comment/in Brian Czech, Consumption, Economic Growth, Environment, Population, Steady State Economy, The Daly News /by Brian Czech

Brian explains how GDP growth will eventually stop tracking with environmental damage–but the reasons may not be what you’d expect!