Intriguing New Book: Prosperity Without Growth

"Questioning growth is deemed to be the act of lunatics, idealists and revolutionaries.But question it we must. The idea of a non-growing economy may be an anathema to an economist. But the idea of a continually growing economy is an anathema to an ecologist. No subsystem of a finite system can grow indefinitely, in physical terms. Economists have to be able to answer the question of how a continually growing economic system can fit within a finite ecological system."

"For at the end of the day prosperity goes beyond material pleasures. It transcends material concerns. It resides in the quality of our lives and in the health and happiness of our families. It is present in the strength of our relationships and our trust in the community. It is evidenced by our satisfaction at work and our sense of shared meaning and purpose. It hangs on our potential to participate fully in the life of society. Prosperity consists in our ability to flourish as human beings – within the ecological limits of a finite planet. The challenge for our society is to create the conditions under which this is possible. It is the most urgent task of our times."

Prosperity Without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet

Moonlight and Music at New Quarter Park, June 7, 2009.



Moonlight and Music nights are being held at the park this summer to celebrate the 40th anniversary of man's first walk on the Moon.

Come to New Quarter for Moon Gazing with NASA on August 1 and more Moonlight and Music Nights on August 5 and September 4. NQP is in York County at 1000 Lakeshead Drive, just past the Queens Lake neighborhood.

Great NY Times Op Ed

The line "Mother Nature doesn't do bailouts" is my fav.

The Inflection Is Near?

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: March 7, 2009

Sometimes the satirical newspaper The Onion is so right on, I can’t resist quoting from it. Consider this faux article from June 2005 about America’s addiction to Chinese exports:

FENGHUA, China — Chen Hsien, an employee of Fenghua Ningbo Plastic Works Ltd., a plastics factory that manufactures lightweight household items for Western markets, expressed his disbelief Monday over the “sheer amount of [garbage] Americans will buy. Often, when we’re assigned a new order for, say, ‘salad shooters,’ I will say to myself, ‘There’s no way that anyone will ever buy these.’ ... One month later, we will receive an order for the same product, but three times the quantity. How can anyone have a need for such useless [garbage]? I hear that Americans can buy anything they want, and I believe it, judging from the things I’ve made for them,” Chen said. “And I also hear that, when they no longer want an item, they simply throw it away. So wasteful and contemptible.”

Let’s today step out of the normal boundaries of analysis of our economic crisis and ask a radical question: What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall — when Mother Nature and the market both said: “No more.”

We have created a system for growth that depended on our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in more and more factories in China, powered by more and more coal that would cause more and more climate change but earn China more and more dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills so America would have more and more money to build more and more stores and sell more and more stuff that would employ more and more Chinese ...

We can’t do this anymore.

“We created a way of raising standards of living that we can’t possibly pass on to our children,” said Joe Romm, a physicist and climate expert who writes the indispensable blog climateprogress.org. We have been getting rich by depleting all our natural stocks — water, hydrocarbons, forests, rivers, fish and arable land — and not by generating renewable flows.

“You can get this burst of wealth that we have created from this rapacious behavior,” added Romm. “But it has to collapse, unless adults stand up and say, ‘This is a Ponzi scheme. We have not generated real wealth, and we are destroying a livable climate ...’ Real wealth is something you can pass on in a way that others can enjoy.”

Over a billion people today suffer from water scarcity; deforestation in the tropics destroys an area the size of Greece every year — more than 25 million acres; more than half of the world’s fisheries are over-fished or fished at their limit.

“Just as a few lonely economists warned us we were living beyond our financial means and overdrawing our financial assets, scientists are warning us that we’re living beyond our ecological means and overdrawing our natural assets,” argues Glenn Prickett, senior vice president at Conservation International. But, he cautioned, as environmentalists have pointed out: “Mother Nature doesn’t do bailouts.”

One of those who has been warning me of this for a long time is Paul Gilding, the Australian environmental business expert. He has a name for this moment — when both Mother Nature and Father Greed have hit the wall at once — “The Great Disruption.”

“We are taking a system operating past its capacity and driving it faster and harder,” he wrote me. “No matter how wonderful the system is, the laws of physics and biology still apply.” We must have growth, but we must grow in a different way. For starters, economies need to transition to the concept of net-zero, whereby buildings, cars, factories and homes are designed not only to generate as much energy as they use but to be infinitely recyclable in as many parts as possible. Let’s grow by creating flows rather than plundering more stocks.

Gilding says he’s actually an optimist. So am I. People are already using this economic slowdown to retool and reorient economies. Germany, Britain, China and the U.S. have all used stimulus bills to make huge new investments in clean power. South Korea’s new national paradigm for development is called: “Low carbon, green growth.” Who knew? People are realizing we need more than incremental changes — and we’re seeing the first stirrings of growth in smarter, more efficient, more responsible ways.

In the meantime, says Gilding, take notes: “When we look back, 2008 will be a momentous year in human history. Our children and grandchildren will ask us, ‘What was it like? What were you doing when it started to fall apart? What did you think? What did you do?’ ” Often in the middle of something momentous, we can’t see its significance. But for me there is no doubt: 2008 will be the marker — the year when ‘The Great Disruption’ began.

Bird Watching and "Memoirs of a Farm Boy"

On Saturday, I went birding with the Williamsburg Bird Club. Let me say, first of all, that my new binoculars enhanced the experience tremendously. My Eagle Optics Ranger 10 x 50s were a Christmas gift from my husband. (Thank you, dear.) We watched a variety of birds from hawks to songbirds and I learned so much because I could really see the details! The Club records birds seen on 2nd and 4th Saturdays at New Quarter Park on Cornell Lab's eBird site, in case you want to look it up.

We didn't see many ducks on Queens Creek, however, and this was slightly unusual. After birding for awhile, be began to hear gunshots and eventually picked out the duck hunters' boat sitting next to the marsh at the place we call The Point. (In the center and to the right in this photo.) We saw about a dozen decoys anchored around them. Some of the birders grimiced and shook their heads every time we heard a blast. Poor, poor ducks.

On Sunday I read William H. Turner's book Chesapeake Boyhood: Memoirs of a Farm Boy (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf). It had been loaned to me by my cousin Ralph Anderton from Bohannon (Mathews, Virginia). Ralph grew up in that rural way too, and I have heard my birding friend Bill Williams mention a similar attachment to the land rooted in his childhood exploits. As boys, these men hunted and fished because that was what you did. Through hunting and fishing they grew to appreciate wildlife and the natural environment. I highly recommend this book to all who care about Virginia's natural history and Virginian's attachment to it. I hope some of my birding friends will read it so that they may develop greater empathy.

My favorite chapter was "Farm Life:"

"When I was growing up in the 1930s and 1940s, farm life on the subsistence level in Virginia revolved around certain routines ... There was little planning or expectation, but this does not mean to imply any monotony, shortsightedness, or boredom. To the contrary, we lived exciting and wholesome lives...

"One of the biggest jobs we had was pulling weeds and hoeing. No herbicides were ever used, and there were significantly fewer weeds than you have now. Somehow I think that the weeds have become immune to poison ... their immunity is keeping ahead of modern chemistry, and the art of pulling them by hand is lost.

"It was a good, simple, healthy life, enjoyed by young and old. But it is as extinct as the passenger pigeon."

Williamsburg Christmas Bird Count

I enjoyed joining the Jolly Pond Circle crew for the Williamsburg Christmas Bird Count. Left to right: Margaret, Alex, Lee, Sara, Shirley.

Here are clips from a Williamsburg-Yorktown Daily article about the day:

Christmas Bird Count Nets Some Surprises

For 20 years, Bill Williams has been a volunteer bird spotter for the Williamsburg Bird Club. "When I started, I was just in awe of how the experienced birders could spot subtle differences between the birds," he says.

Two decades of doing this will teach you a thing or two. Now, Williams is the official records committee chairman and compiler for the Williamsburg Bird Club's Christmas Bird Count.

This year's 32nd annual count on December 21 saw a few unusual species spotted, but also a reduction in some of the birds that used to be common in the area. Most exciting to Williams is that 53 volunteers, an all-time high, staked out spots in a 15-mile circle, centered at the Colonial Williamsburg Visitors Center.

"Of the 53 participants, we saw 109 species, which is about an average year," Williams says. "There's usually very little change in that number."

... Among the rare finds was a northern gannet, spotted in the York River. Williams says it's the first time the shorebird has ever been spotted during the Christmas bird count. Usually, at this time of year, the gannet's range is far to the south and east of the Historic Triangle.

There were also two short-eared owls spotted in the Hog Island Wildlife Management Area. Williams says it's just the third time they've been spotted during a Christmas count.

... There are far fewer songbirds than there used to be. Williams says the rusty blackbird, which used to be seen in large flocks, have seen their numbers decline all through their range.

... Other species ... have seen numbers edge up. Williams says there were 49 brown pelicans spotted during the Christmas count.