Economy and the Environment

[scubamatt]

Just read an interesting article that pointed out a correlation that I hadn't thought of. It sheds new light on the battle to make humans less hard on the planet. I'm not sure that it'll help the fight, but it will redirect my thinking about the issue. . .

Cheers,

Cote

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Comments

[burado]

Five years ago this might have held some water. More and more people, though--the President of the United States now among them--realize that environmental improvement can actually be one and the same as economic growth.

[scubamatt]

I think the point I was trying to underline isn't that it CAN be, but that it MUST be. Any environmental movement without a solid economic plan will be doomed to marginalization while most people worry about their finances as soon as the markets hiccup.

That's the part I hadn't thought of. I knew the best way was to combine them, but I never thought that it was a prerequisite before. Luckily our buddy Barack is doing his best to make the distinction irrelevant.

Cheers,

Cote

[burado]

Ahh. Well, yes. That does make a lot of sense. To save the planet in the long-term, we need to convince people that it won't too much in the short-term... because people, and especially groups of people, suck at thinking long-term.

[ilyria]

The funny thing about the economy it's a thing that people made up and for that reason I don't see why we can't shape it to our will. If the environment is important to people, make the economy reflect that. The environment is intricately related to the human economy, but our current economic system fails to take into account mostly because we have a hard time putting a monetary value on the ecosystem services.

On a slightly related but not completely related note, I highly recommend the book 'Collapse' by Jared Diamond. It is and excellent book that explores, among other things, how natural resources are vital to successful economies and more importantly, to the the survival of civilization. It can be a bit of a downer, but it also left me with the impression that an economy can be developed that protects the environment and allows people to be happy ad prosperous.

[scubamatt]

I think part of the problem is that in our current system, the only virtue is money and more money. Everything else is measured by some other metric. We need to find a way to put a price on the priceless, or we're not going to have very much left to give to our kids.

I'll see what I can't do about picking up a copy of that book. Thanks for the suggestion, it sounds interesting!

Cheers,

Cote

[ilyria]

"We need to find a way to put a price on the priceless"

Agreed!