This morning I listened to an interview with Lester Brown, President of the Earth Policy Institute and author of the Plan B books, the latest being Plan B 3.O. In the interview, Brown saw global population stabilizing at 8 billion and went through the usual list of problems that we are now encountering: global warming; shift in land use from food to ethanol production; aquifer and soil depletion; etc. A review of Plan B 3.0 can be found at http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/book_review_pla.php and you can download the book as a PDF file there.
An article by Brown and Jonathan Lewis recently appeared in the Washington Post and can be accessed at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/21/AR2008042102555.html?hpid=opinionsbox1 . What I found interesting is that the page on which the article appears also contains an add for a Toyota Tundra, a monster gas-guzzling panel truck! Oh well.... Brown is now into his seventies. While one has to admire what he and other aging eco-warriors have done and are still in many cases doing, I personally think it ain't going to work the way they want it to. I'm tending back to the view that people don't learn rationally, they learn catastrophically, a view that I've tried very hard to abandon. We accelerate until we hit a wall. Those that are left will then pick themselves up, scratch their heads, and ask each other 'now what the hell that was all about!?' Ed ----- Original Message ----- From: Cordell, Arthur: ECOM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 9:13 AM Subject: RE: [Ottawadissenters] Economic De-growth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity I wish the project well. I don't think it will go very far. de-growth is usually called economic recession or economic depression. I don't see much support for this in any part of our society. I realize they are looking for managed or sustainable or optiumum or balanced de-growth, but the net result is that we have built a society that hands out economic goodies. People will have to be convinced that taking away such goodies is a positive or plus in their lives. Arthur ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Jon Legg Sent: Wed 5/14/2008 9:04 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [Ottawadissenters] Economic De-growth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity Hi Dissenters, This looks interesting. I haven't taken much time to research this, but it appears that there is the beginning of discussions in Europe on "de-growth" (the word in French that is used is "décroissance". It's the first of a number of conferences sponsored by some organization called, "European Society for Ecological Economics". The name of the conference is, "Economic De-growth for Ecological Sustainability and Social Equity". The web link is as follows: http://events.it-sudparis.eu/degrowthconference/en/ Without much study of all the material, I nonetheless draw some hope from the theme that there are some people who have realized that growth is the greatest problem. Very late in the game, but perhaps better late than never. Cheers, Jon __._,_.___ Messages in this topic (7) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Files | Photos | Links | Polls | Members | Calendar Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Visit Your Group Yahoo! Search Find it now Everything you need in one place. Yahoo! Groups Discover healthy living groups and live a full life. Y! Groups blog The place to go to stay informed on Groups news! . __,_._,___
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