It was neither capitalism nor communism that made possible this progress, as well as the pathologies of our modern age (i.e. war, the unprecedented and damaging concentration of global wealth, environmental destruction). It was coal, followed by oil and gas that made this progress possible. This was, and still is (for the time being) a carbon-fueled expansion. Our ideologies are mere subplots. And now, as the most accessible reserves of coal, oil and gas have been exhausted, we must ransack the hidden corners of the planet, and take off the tops of mountains (thus ruining the valleys, creeks and rivers below) in order to sustain, for just a while longer, this mathematically impossible proposition of Ever More Economic Growth.
The easy-to-calculate trajectory of compound growth indicates that the scouring of the planet will eventually lead to collapse. As the volume of the global economy expands, then everywhere that contains something concentrated, unusual, precious will be sought out, exploited . . and ruined, its resources extracted and dispersed, as the world's diverse and differentiated marvels are destroyed. Visualize the poisoning and destruction of so much life in the Gulf of Mexico. Or the disaster at Fukushima, the eventual toll of which may well dwarf anything most of us now imagine. Or oil spills like that of the Exxon Valdez. Or the current die-off of so many species that some experts refer to it as the Sixth Great Extinction.
Some people try to resolve this quandary using the myth of dematerialization, i.e. the claim that as processes become more efficient and gadgets are miniaturized, we will use, in aggregate, ever fewer materials. Problem is, there is no sign that this is happening overall. Look at the lives of the super-rich, who set the pace for global consumption. Are their yachts getting smaller? Their houses? The quantity of their purchased artworks? Their purchase of rare woods, rare fish, rare stone, etc., etc., etc.? Those with the means, buy ever bigger houses and ever more houses, around the world if they can, in which to store the growing stash of stuff that they will in most cases, as workaholics, never have enough leisure time to much use. (It's a fact that the annual cost of mooring a yacht is much greater than the cost of renting one for as many days as the average owner actually uses or sails their yacht.) And so it is, by their (and our) accretions, that ever more of the surface of the planet is used to extract, manufacture and store things that we ultimately don't much need and, to an increasing extent, don't much have time to use.
As the philosopher Michael Rowan points out, the inevitabilities of compound growth mean that if last year's predicted global economic growth rate for 2014 (i.e. 3.1%) is sustained, then even if we were miraculously to reduce the consumption of raw materials by 90%, we would delay the inevitable collapse by just 75 years. In the long run, efficiency solves nothing, if economic growth is allowed to continue.
The inescapable failure of a society built upon economic growth and its inevitable destruction of the Earth's living systems are the two central and overwhelming facts of our time.
Yet they are mentioned almost nowhere in our corporate-owned and controlled mainstream media. They are the 21st Century's great taboo realities, and also the subjects guaranteed to alienate your friends and neighbors if you should make the mistake of talking about them. And so it is that we live as if trapped inside a Sunday supplement: obsessed with fame, fashion and the three dreary staples of middle class conversation: recipes, renovations and resorts. Even worse: the trials and tribulations of the beautiful, rich and famous. Anything but the topics that cry out for our attention, but which the large majority of us still cannot bear to face.
Statements of the bleeding obvious (as outlined above), which are the outcomes of basic arithmetic, are treated as exotic and unpardonable distractions from the pursuit of bourgeois happiness, while the insane proposition by which most of us live, i.e. continued economic growth and increasing consumption forever, is regarded as so sane and normal and unremarkable that it isn't worthy of discussion, challenge or even mention. And that's one good way to understand the depth of this problem: by the inability of most people (even those who are very well educated) to even discuss it or seriously consider it.
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