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July 29, 2005
Limits of growth
I've always admired the work and writing of Tom Horton at the Baltimore Sun. He cares deeply about the (declining) health of the Chesapeake Bay, and for decades has refused to give up nagging his fellow Marylanders about the need to make choices. If you want to preserve the Bay, even in its presently degraded condition, you have to face the daily decisions you are making that lead inexorably to the Bay's decline.
Read Horton's article from today's Sun:http://http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.horton29jul29,1,4946355.column?page=1&coll=bal-pe-maryland
I am probably going to sound hopelessly naive, but I have asked myself the essential question in Horton's article with respect to our economy: "Why does a company have to grow to prosper?" I know the answer -- I'm not actually that naive. A company has to grow to satisfy its investors, who seek higher equity value, as equity value is defined by equity markets.
I'll depart from economics here and return to something I know more about: the impact of our society's growth (as we shareholders in society define growth) on the ecosystems that support us. We are not going to make it as a society if we do not reconsider how we define growth. I am not referring to birth rate or to immigration policies. I'm talking about the footprint that each of us places on the earth. In the U.S. we are looking at limits on growth because of our decisions as to the size of the footprint we aspire to (as well as our decisions to occupy ecosystems that could not accommodate humans without technological interventions -- read "air conditioning")
I do take one exception to Horton. He yields to hyperbole in saying that super ultra-efficient vehicles, like the Prius, would buy us only a few months of relief in our use of petroleum. That assessment is far too pessimistic, but it does have a ring of truth. If we all bought and drove Priuses (Priae?) and we allowed that collective concession to calm us into doing nothing to prepare for the end of petroleum, then we would simply be pushing the crisis out into the future.
Posted by aquacura.com at July 29, 2005 10:45 AM