---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Great Transition Network <[email protected]> Date: Sun, Nov 29, 2015 at 8:48 AM Subject: The Church of Economism and Its Discontents (GTN Discussion) To: [email protected]
>From Ugo Bardi <[email protected]> ------------------------------------------------------- [Moderator's Note: Thanks again for all of the thought-provoking comments so far. Just a reminder that the open discussion will close at the end of Monday (11/30), after which Norgaard will have the opportunity to respond. -- Jonathan] Dear colleagues, I am a recent member of this forum, and, so far, I have been just lurking, but I have been following the discussion. Now, I thought I might intervene with a comment, directed in particular to the concept of "econocene." First of all, we are all familiar with the concept of Anthropocene, an idea that has been incredibly successful in the recent debate. As Randy Hayes points out in a previous message, the idea of Anthropocene has led to a branching of different concepts, with some people seeing it as proof of how dangerous we are as human beings, while others take it as meaning "Look how great we are: man wins, nature loses." Among other things, the Anthropocene has generated a specific version of the concept of "decoupling" that assumes that humans do not really need nature in order to survive - they can build up their own artificial life support system. It is the attitude, among others, of the "ecomodernists," www.ecomodernism.org/. The idea of humans "decoupling from nature" arises strong feelings of horror in many, but, the way it is proposed, it may be seen as a genuine attempt to preserve nature from the human assault that has generated the disasters of the Anthropocene. If Man does not need Nature, then Man can leave Nature in peace (and Nature can leave Man in peace). This would be, in my opinion, the embodiment of the concept of "econocene." While economics as a science is often accused of not including Nature in its models, this is the true revenge of the economists; who can then respond, "but who needs Nature?" In a sense, all this has a certain veneer of elegance; the problem is that elegant theories have a way of getting mauled when clashing against a reality that may not be elegant at all - rather, ugly and clumsy – but that appears to be made of somewhat harder materials than the stuff dreams are made of. So, can human beings really decouple from nature and peacefully abandon the destructive Anthropocene to enter the peaceful Econocene? That would be truly the triumph of the church of economics. On the other hand, we might as well see the revenge of the Anthropocene and the dismissal of economics as a heretical subset of biology (that might well entail also the dismissal of humans as a species). On this point, I can suggest to you my paper (presently being submitted to a scientific journal): "What future for the Anthropocene" - arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1510/1510.02040.pdf, where I argue that the time subdivision called Anthropocene in its strong dependence of fossil fuels will be short lived because of depletion and destined to transform itself into something very different that I called the "stereocene" (the age of solid state devices). Ugo Bardi University of Florence, Italy [email protected] > > *********************************************** > > Friday, October 30, 2015 > > > From Paul Raskin > > ----- > GTN Friends: > > I write to launch our NOVEMBER DISCUSSION, which will consider Richard Norgaard’s new GTI essay, “The Church of Economism and Its Discontents.” Please read it at www.greattransition.org/publication/the-church-of-economism-and-its-discontents, and consider commenting. > > Is orthodox economics akin to a secular religion? Are we living in the “Econocene”? Is there a way out? Norgaard, a founder of ecological economics, argues yes, yes, and maybe. In so doing, he guides us further into the terrain of alternative economics we’ve explored recently in our discussions of GTI pieces by Herman Daly, Giorgos Kallis, Peter Barnes, and John Bellamy Foster. > > I wonder, though: > * Is economism still a monolithic ideology? Or are critical currents within the economics mainstream increasingly questioning its reductionist framework and false predictions? > * As a framing for our contemporary condition, is “the Econocene” a useful corrective to the geologic emphasis of “the Anthropocene”? How do these compare to GTI’s term, “The Planetary Phase of Civilization,” which aims to convey the multi-dimensionality of the globalizing social-ecological system? > > I’d appreciate hearing your thoughts on these and other issues raised by Norgaard’s stimulating essay. > > Comments are welcome through NOVEMBER 30. > > Looking forward, > > Paul Raskin > GTI Director > > NOTE ON GTI’S PUBLICATION CYCLE: > GTN discussions occur in ODD-NUMBERED months, and GTI publishes in EVEN-NUMBERED months. Each discussion takes up a new essay or viewpoint prior to its publication. After the discussion closes, GTI publishes the piece, edited comments from the discussion, and a response from the author (along with other new articles). You can review all GTN discussions at www.greattransition.org/forum/gti-forum. > > > > > ----- > Hit reply to post a message > Or see thread and reply online at > www.greattransition.org/forum/gti-discussions/171-the-church-of-economism-and-its-discontents/1406 > > Need help? Email [email protected] > > > -- Keep Calm and Use Renewable Energy ******************************** Prof Ugo Bardi Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Firenze c/o Dipartimento di Chimica, Polo Scientifico di Sesto Fiorentino Via della Lastruccia 3 - 50019 Sesto Fiorentino (Firenze) - Italy tel +39 055 457 3118 www.cassandralegacy.blogspot.com **************************************** --- Questa e-mail è stata controllata per individuare virus con Avast antivirus. www.avast.com/antivirus ------------------------------------------------------- Hit reply to post a message Or see thread and reply online at http://www.greattransition.org/forum/gti-discussions/171-the-church-of-economism-and-its-discontents/1425 Need help? Email [email protected] -- Check out the Commons Transition Plan here at: http://commonstransition.org P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/
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