Down to the wire : confronting climate collapse / David - Index of

governance S 31
to the evidence of mounting constraints imposed by the global
drawdown of natural capital of soils, forests, and resources, and
the larger ecological effects of waste disposal on the atmosphere
and oceans. The faster economies grew, the greater the cumulative
damage. Finally, the idea that the global economy can grow
continually in the 21st century requires one to believe that we
will make a seamless transition from a profl igate consumer-driven
economy to an era of natural capitalism, that decision makers will
choose wisely, and that corporate chiefs will act for the long-term
good—not that there will be what appear later to be mistakes,
greed, panic, and a mad scramble to seize whatever one can get
while the getting’s good. The effect of the boom years was a kind
of success trap in which we built economies on the shifting sands
of illusion, greed, ill-will, and fear.
Economic growth, as presently conceived, cannot be sustained
nor should it be. The economy, in Herman Daly’s words,
“is now reaching the point where it is outstripping Earth’s ability
to sustain it” (2008). As Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and Hunter
Lovins argue in Natural Capitalism, there is a better economy to
be created that does not depend on drawing down natural capital,
imposing costs on the poor or our posterity, confusing prosperity
with growth, and risking global catastrophe (1999). But the
development of that economy will require clarity about the fair
distribution of wealth and risk and shrewd public policies. 24 It
will require us to relearn the arts of frugality, sharing, and neighborliness.
It will take a bit of ingenuity to craft what Howard and
Elisabeth Odum call a “prosperous way down” (2001). But as the
largest debtor nation in world history, we have less of a cushion to
soften the effects of the downturn than had been presumed. The
Congressional Budget Offi ce forecast of the U.S. debt in 2050
cited above does not include the likely costs of climate change
and damages from drought, storms, and degradation or loss of
ecological services that we take for granted. Nor does it include
the costs of possible terrorist events in the United States.