Recently the people have spoken, the environment is more important than any other factor in an economy. This is because -- as everyone should know -- without a healthy functioning biosphere, our current economy, no matter how strong, will collapse immediately. So what constitutes a healthy environment? Presently the Earth has been experiencing depleting stocks of its natural capital, capital by the way that has been collecting in deposits for over 4 BILLION years. This is important to understand, because it is the future of which we will be a part of, whether prosperous or catastrophic is our choice. The idea that the world is always “full” of some things and “empty” of others is false. As our planet continuously changes and shifts to adapt to the changes, which we cause, the natural capital stocked in the planet varies. There is never a point at which one resource may be “full” while another is “empty”, it simply is impossible. This is mainly due to the ever smaller amounts of resources that are stocked in the Earth, they simply shrink to lesser and lesser amounts, but never reaching “empty”. Technology and relative wealth impact these concepts of “fullness” and “emptiness” by creating ever more efficient processes of extracting and utilizing resources, which theoretically increases the amount of a resource simply from the fact that we can now exploit a resource with 2x or 3x the efficiency of prior operations. This creates a new perspective on stretching non-renewable resources through technological breakthroughs instead of comprehensive reengineering of a system to design something new.
As the world continues to deplete its stocks of natural capital, society has begun to speculate on which resource will be the first one to go, and which resource is the most important. Society has decided that potable water is the most scarce resource, along with being the most important for the survival of all species -- especially humans, who have adapted their drinking habits to avoid contaminated water. I believe this speculation is accurate. Presently we witness thousands of people dying every day simply from in-access to potable water. With water being the single most important resource consumed by humans it is important to take these speculations seriously, because no matter how much wealth you may acquire, it will not be enough for one glass of potable water when the time comes that Earth enacts its limits. Now Earth will not necessarily “run out” of potable water, but along with other slowly renewing resources it takes eons to fill fresh water aquifers, and when depleted these aquifers may become contaminated with salt water through pressure changes underground. All the same, if there is ANY type of speculation towards the depletion of potable water stocks, it is imperative that humans address this speculation seriously.
After studying the concepts of ecological economics, I have come to a conclusion -- much the same as when I began -- that our current economic growth models and indicators are unsustainable. With this I use “unsustainable” in the context of being unable to sustain current levels of economic growth for more than 1,000 years. A sustainable economic growth model DOES NOT exist presently, mainly because of the current economic models, including neoclassical, Keynesian, free-market, and many other outdated models that worked for the short period in which we call the industrial revolution. For an economy to be sustainable it must incorporate development, not growth. With development we will see the efficient allocation of resources, as society develops its infrastructure no resource will be put to waste, because the growth of the society is not measured, just the development.
The influential genius R. Buckminster Fuller was famous for stating at the beginning of every conversation a question, this question was posed to create thought processes that still are not utilized properly. The question is, “what is the most important thing we can be thinking about right now?” If answered logically, this question creates further questions regarding the morality of societies current actions, and whether or not we DESERVE to have planet Earth enact limits on our irresponsibility.
Thank you for your interest, please comment and subscribe.
Onward,
Hayden van Andel
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