Commented on “Triple Pundit”

Posted: January 4th, 2010 | Author: Steve | Filed under: Sustainability | Comments

pmain: all good points. One that needs to be addressed right away is the idea of compounding growth in business as necessary or even possible. Simple math will show you that continuous compounding or exponential growth is not possible in a closed system. The Earth is a closed system, and as long as the Earth is the defining system boundary, then unchecked growth is not possible.

For some strange reason, even the most brilliant amongst us fail to grasp the consequences of this. We seem to be almost hard-wired to ignore it, because our individual evolutionary imperative tells us to accumulate as many resources as possible, to make sure that our own descendants survive. On an individual level, the short-term far outweighs the long-term.

Therefore, it is imperative that we implement systems of economics and government that take into account the realities of limited resources, limited ecosystem services, and overpopulation. One major step forward would be for generally accepted economic theory to price resources at their true cost to society.

Steve

Originally posted as a comment
by spuma
on Triple Pundit using DISQUS.