The creation of wealth is the process by which $10 in widget parts
become, through human effort, a $20 widget. Economic growth describes
an increase in the rate at which one is able to create wealth.
In theory, economic growth and environmental sustainability are
independent concepts. One could imagine an economically growing
society that was founded solely on renewable and recycled resources.
In reality, the economy of our present world is heavily dependent on
the exploitation of non-renewable resources, and so growth is often
associated with increasing environment degradation.
The admirable goal of an economically sustainable world that you
describe need not be a world of stasis. It is likely that human
creativity and intellectual achievement will inevitably lead to growth.
To take an obvious example, there are an essentially limitless number
of books, plays, and movies yet to be created. The question is not
whether the future world will be able to forgo growth, but whether that
world will be able to restructure their economy in a way that allows
economic growth to develop in an environmentally sustainable and
neutral way. Probably the biggest step along that path will be finding
ways to meet the world's energy needs through renewable means.
It might also be worth rembering that it is the successful, growing
economies that are most apt to worry about pollution controls and
nature preserves. For the US, clean water and air regulations and the
significant imporvements that they brought are in many ways a product
of economic success. A successful economy that is conscious of
environmental concerns can even derive economic growth through efforts
to improve the environment. Even as much as it is an artificial
imposition on the economy, a carbon cap and trade program could have
the power to make combatting global warming into a major growth
industry.
Sustainability is an important long-term goal, but it is not
intrinsically opposed to economic growth.
-Robert A. Rohde
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