Sweden often claims it is demonstrating a miracle: that economic growth can take place decoupled from inputs of fossil fuel. I am not so sure, and have been looking at the figures for myself. In a rather unscientific way I decided to plot trends to see if there was any pattern that showed up. The Read more about Decoupling of the economy from fossil fuel – myth or reality in Sweden?[…]
Many have earlier pointed out how fossil fuel emissions and the handling of the phosphor cycle need to be regulated. For this the Swedish Sustainable Economy Foundation propose a flexible emissions taxes. But are more needed? A new report, cited in the INDEPENDENT calls for changes to how we handle nitrogen. The report by 200 Read more about We need to stop interfering with the Nitrogen Cycle, too.[…]
Eco village culture to and industrial economy city culture r1 View more presentations from Stephen Hinton.
In shock I watched videos of the tsunami devastating towns along the coast of Japan. And incredulously I watched the explosion at the nuclear power plant. What are the chances of a nuclear melt-down in at least one of the five plants along the coast each with several reactors at it? And, as this is Read more about Japan may bring us all down[…]
It may sound impossible to you as you have probably heard that environmental destruction is the price we pay for economic growth. However, it is just as clear that environmental destruction is the price future generations pay for environmental destruction. If you get what I mean. Many economists I have met have looked at me Read more about Can we have economic growth AND eliminate all pollution? TSSEF thinks so.[…]
The diagram above shows the emissions resulting from how Swedes live. (Click on the picture to access the calculator for YOUR country.) They say a picture is worth a thousand words … and this one has certainly made me think. Firstly, here in Sweden we hear how proud we are of our climate strategy. That Read more about My country’s carbon emissions[…]
The modern economy has undoubtedly given millions better lives.
However, despite years of experience and development of macroeconomic theory, despite decades of Nobel prizes in Economics, there still doesn’t appear to be a way to run an economy without putting severe hardship on a large percentage of the population.
And this state of affairs is generally accepted.
Especially women, wives and mothers. It is women who end up suffering take from this hardship.
The other thing that I know that women particularly care about is the environment. Again, it is also generally accepted that pollution is unavoidable and depletion of natural resources the unavoidable price for economic stability. The costs of pollution and depletion are not paid for directly by the producers or consumer, but by society as a whole. They are called externalities. Externalities, it seems, are unavoidable if we want a stable economy.
There are total 14.8 billion hectares of land on the surface of the Earth Only about 30% is inhabitable There are 6.8 billion people on the planet That gives 0,65 hectare per person to live on 10% of land is arable (of that only a quarter is cultivated today) That gives about 0.2 hectare per Read more about The world may be smaller than you think. This is why we need to invest in securing land.[…]
Thanks to the Post Carbon Institute for putting this together!