Category: Green economics

Is a green economy possible?

admin /25 June, 2009

There is lots of talk about a Green New Deal in the US and Europe and the expectation is that government’s can steer industry into a sustainable mode of production that will reverse the alarming trends leading to food and water shortages, global warming, acidification of the oceans and the deforestation of the globe. While this is exactly what environmentalists have been fighting for over the last three decades many worry that it is too little too late, or that the problem is more fundamental than any one realises.

Is a Green economy possible? -Pt 2

admin /25 June, 2009

See part 1

How do we move forward?

And so to the primary question. Is it possible for humanity to live sustainably?

Obviously the answer is yes, all natural systems settle into some sort of rhythm eventually and we are a part of nature. The real question is whether we learn how to do this after civilisation collapses horribly ten times, three times, once or, hopefully, in the next decade or two.

Where to from here?

One of the most important things to understand is that by a zero growth economy we do not mean a stagnant one. It is the nature of life to create change. James Lovelock developed the Gaia hypothesis from his observations about planetary life. We know Mars is dead because it is chemically inert. We know there is life on earth, even from outerspace, because its atmosphere is incredibly volatile, full of reactive chemicals that can only exist if there is some driving force that creates complex, highly energised compounds.

The Impact of bottled water

admin /10 May, 2009

Occasional member of Team Generator, Rosy Whelan, has sent us a power point presentation prepared by RPArchitecture in New York about the impact of Bottled water on the planet. She notes that it is a favourite bugbear of hers. It is also a favourite bug bear of mine Rosy. I have combined the statistics that you have sent along with the statistics from Giovanni’s Guide to Saving the Planet.

53 million tyres are thrown out in Australia every year

Recycling is just rubbish

Geoff Ebbs /16 March, 2007

Carefully sorting your rubbish is no way to save the planet, writes Giovanni Ebono

Waste is big business. Australians spend over  $2billion each year on disposing of around 30 million tonnes of waste. Over 1700 companies operate in the waste disposal sector employing about 10,000 people. The waste management industry is bigger than sugar or cotton and only marginally smaller than Australia’s annual export of grapes. 

Big business it may be, but that two billion dollars produces nothing and, while it adds to the published GDP, adds no value to the economy. In an attempt to reduce the rising costs of landfill governments actively promote recycling. 

As individuals, Australians enthusiastically embrace recycling. We separate paper, glass, metals and recyclable plastic from the rest of our rubbish. Many of us compost kitchen scraps and garden waste, some councils offer a third, green topped bin for garden waste.

We get a warm inner glow from carting the yellow (or purple) topped wheelie bin into the street once a fortnight, confident that we can save our grandchildren from a mad Max future. They shall not fight over the few, remaining resources among the remnants of a once great civilisation, just so long as we sort our rubbish. 

This view is over simplistic. In fact, something about the waste management business smells and it is not just the unwashed wheelie bins.

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