The large majority of economists foolishly insist that overall economic recovery is at hand, in spite of the fact that real unemployment remains especially high, real estate values continue to sink, and governments stagger under record deficits. The End of Growth by Richard Heinberg proposes a startling diagnosis very similar to that of Martin Wolf and Prof Gordon: Humanity has reached a fundamental turning point in its economic history. The expansionary trajectory of industrial civilization is colliding with non-negotiable natural limits.
Richard Heinberg's latest landmark work goes to the heart of the ongoing financial crisis, explaining how and why it occurred, and what we must do to avert the worst potential outcomes. Heinberg explains how growth is being blocked by three things:
Resource depletion
Environmental impacts
Crushing levels of debt
These converging limits will force us to re-evaluate cherished economic theories and, if we are lucky, will allow us to reinvent money and commerce.
The End of Growth describes what policy makers, communities, and families could do to build a new economy that operates within Earth's budget of energy and resources. We could thrive during the transition if we set goals that promote human and environmental well-being, rather than continue to allow the financial and industrial elite to pursue the now-unattainable prize of ever-expanding GDP. (But realistically, how likely are we to be able to do this? And so it is that our "thriving" is by no means assured.)
(Richard Heinberg is the author of nine previous books, including The Party's Over, Peak Everything, and Blackout. A senior fellow of the Post Carbon Institute, Heinberg is one of the world's foremost peak oil educators and an effective communicator of the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels.)
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