Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of
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late-night thoughts about democracy S 81<br />
quality. It takes time <strong>to</strong> make a great city. It takes time <strong>to</strong><br />
res<strong>to</strong>re soil. It takes time <strong>to</strong> res<strong>to</strong>re one’s soul. In each case,<br />
speed dis<strong>to</strong>rts reality and destroys <strong>the</strong> harmonies <strong>of</strong> nature and<br />
society alike (Orr, 1998). Hurry certainly changes society for<br />
<strong>the</strong> worse.<br />
Ivan Illich’s provocative 1974 book Energy and Equity makes<br />
<strong>the</strong> case that “high quanta <strong>of</strong> energy degrade social relations<br />
just as inevitably as <strong>the</strong>y destroy <strong>the</strong> physical milieu” (1974, p. 3).<br />
“Beyond a critical speed,” Illich argued, “no one can save time<br />
without forcing ano<strong>the</strong>r <strong>to</strong> lose it” (p. 30). But any proposal <strong>to</strong><br />
limit speed “engenders stubborn opposition . . . expos[ing] <strong>the</strong><br />
addiction <strong>of</strong> industrialized men <strong>to</strong> consuming ever higher doses<br />
<strong>of</strong> energy” (p. 55). Even assuming nonpolluting energy sources,<br />
<strong>the</strong> use <strong>of</strong> massive energy <strong>of</strong> any sort “acts on society like a drug<br />
that is . . . psychically enslaving” (p. 6). The irony, Illich says, is that<br />
<strong>the</strong> time it takes <strong>to</strong> earn <strong>the</strong> money <strong>to</strong> travel at high speed divided<br />
in<strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> average miles traveled per year gives a fi gure <strong>of</strong> about<br />
15 mph . . . about <strong>the</strong> average speed <strong>of</strong> travel in <strong>the</strong> year 1900, but<br />
at considerably higher cost.<br />
What does a slow economy look like? Woody Tasch, chairman<br />
<strong>of</strong> Inves<strong>to</strong>rs’ Circle, <strong>of</strong>fers one view: “It would be driven by . . . <strong>the</strong><br />
imperatives <strong>of</strong> nature ra<strong>the</strong>r than by <strong>the</strong> imperatives <strong>of</strong> fi nance.<br />
Its fi rst principle would be, I suppose, <strong>the</strong> principle <strong>of</strong> carrying<br />
capacity, embedded in a process <strong>of</strong> nurturing” (2008, p. 175). A slow<br />
money economy would change <strong>the</strong> way we invest and discipline<br />
<strong>the</strong> expectations <strong>of</strong> quick returns <strong>to</strong> capital <strong>to</strong>, say, 5 <strong>to</strong> 8 percent<br />
per year, which now sounds pretty good. It would require buyers,<br />
for example, <strong>to</strong> hold s<strong>to</strong>ck for, say, six months before <strong>the</strong>y could<br />
sell. Tasch calls this “patient capital,” but by any name it involves<br />
<strong>the</strong> recalibration <strong>of</strong> money and fi nance <strong>to</strong> <strong>the</strong> pace <strong>of</strong> nature. And<br />
that would be a revolution.<br />
My third suggestion is <strong>to</strong> build an economy on ecological<br />
realities, not on <strong>the</strong> belief that we are exempt from <strong>the</strong><br />
laws <strong>of</strong> ecology and physics. In his classic 1980 book Overshoot,<br />
William Cat<strong>to</strong>n writes “The alternative <strong>to</strong> chaos is <strong>to</strong><br />
abandon <strong>the</strong> illusion that all things are possible” (p. 9). He<br />
(continued)