Are you Green? Do you care?

People are different. What raises the passion in one person is often, sadly, of no concern to another. My limited amount of activism has centred on social justice and human rights issues, such as poverty and domestic violence. If it’s not about people (or my version of that) it goes nowhere with me.

So I need to explain that I started reading Prosperity without Growth – Economics for a Finite Planet* by a British author, Tim Jackson, with a similarly open (!) mind. I had an excuse. I was only doing it to appear smart – someone had asked to talk to me about a ‘sustainability’ proposal and I wanted to pick out a few key phrases from the book to show off my ‘expertise’.

If you approach climate change and sustainable economies in the same dismissive gung-ho way, this is the book for you!  It is about people! For example in the chapter ‘Flourishing within Limits’ Jackson talks about how the drive to consume is defining our individual identities, our ability to communicate, our sense of belonging. He says it would be impossible to halt or lessen consumption without replacing it with other activities with purpose and meaning. He talks about the ‘social recession’, which is caused by the same reinforcing cycle of ‘anxiety and novelty’ in an unequal society.

What has this got to do with being Green?

The push to consume uses up the world’s resources, with the Western world living as though it had three to five planets worth of raw materials and energy sources to draw on. To meet our short-term expectations (for profit and consumption), our future is being bartered off.

Many of us will be following the uprisings in Egypt and also in other countries in the Middle East with their demands for democracy and better living standards. The news is exciting – it’s uplifting for those changing the course of history. It’s also a reminder that western countries like ours, with our high standard of consumption and over-use of resources, do not exist in isolation.

Jackson points out that an economy where the whole world (including the Middle East) achieves affluence would need to be 15 times the size of today’s economy by 2050 and 40 times bigger by the end of the century. My grandson will be 90 in the year 2100; we are not talking about never-never land.

I can’t pretend this is a comprehensive book review – it was never intended to be. Just between you and me, there may have been a few chapters around economic theory that I have saved for later. But take a look – it’s worth your while. Request it at your library if you can’t see it on the shelves. But think twice before you buy it.

Dale Little, Mental Health Promoter, Mental Health Foundation

*Jackson T (2009) Prosperity without Growth – Economics for a Finite Plane  Earthscan England