Heroes Not Zombies

I’m not an economist but I do think we can learn a lot from the natural world, and if economic theories and practices don’t fit with the natural world, they aren’t realistic. This is the one planet we all live on. This planet has one vastly interconnected ecosystem involving the gases in the atmosphere, the sunlight which bathes the world, the water cycle of oceans, rains, rivers and lakes, and the elements embedded in, and below the surface of the soil.

We are part of a living world, a biosphere, of bacteria, viruses, fungi, plants and animals, all processing elements of the Earth, changing the micro-biospheres in which they live, and in turn changing the entire planet.

This week, apparently, the human race grew past 8 billion people for the first time ever. The growth of the human species has been exponential, most obviously over the last one to two hundred years.

The thing about any exponential growth in the natural world is – it stops. It reaches a peak. Have we reached peak human yet? Who knows? But the reality is, one day, we will…..and the likelihood is that we’re entering peak zone right now.

So when we plan ahead to make a healthy vibrant world for our grandchildren and their grandchildren to live in, we should recognise we are in the peak zone, and the growth rate of the next hundred years isn’t going to be the same as the last hundred.

In our current economic system growth of a population is assumed to lead to growth of demand, and growth of demand will drive growth of supply. That’s what we hear all the time from our politicians – growth, growth, growth. Only a growing economy is a healthy one.

But the resources we consume to produce the goods and services to feed the growing demand and supply are limited. Nobody is making more Earth. Nobody is creating more inanimate matter – gold, silver, copper, lithium, cadmium, phosphorus….none of those things you find on a Periodic Table, or in and below the surface of the Earth. And when it comes to animate matter, we are destroying species, forests, marine communities, faster than at any time in history.

Resources, as we call the natural world, are limited, and consumption of them can’t keep on growing and growing. They too are entering, or have entered, the peak zone.

Nothing natural just keeps growing and growing forever. Nature behaves in cycles and seasons, developing through maturity, not simply getting bigger and bigger.

Don’t we need to create an economics which is more natural? One which recognises reality? One which addresses the longer timescales if we want our descendants to not just survive, but thrive?

Fortunately there are economists doing exactly this. If you’d like to explore this subject, I reckon a great place to start is Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics. Here’s a great introductory summary on Wikipedia –

There’s a pretty large body of work exploring these issues. My first encounter with it would be Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful, and the Club of Rome’s Limits to Growth. Maybe you’ve come across some good authors or economists who are equally sceptical of the current economic model. If you have, please share them in the comments section.