It seems to me, that there are three top priority goals for any organization, that wants to do something worthwhile on a global scale. They are: 1. eliminating inequality, 2. stopping overpopulation and 3. moving energy out of harmful uses, and directing it into purposes that help reach the first two goals.
A very short note at the end of the year (having recently survived yet another end of the world): There must be something very wrong with incentives in our economic systems. As the limits to material growth are approaching, we should have in place strong incentives for using less physical resources. Instead, many – if not most – incentives systems reward people for using more resources. We reward our best and brightest for getting better at using more resources every year. Don’t we?
The impossibility of infinite material growth on a planet with finite resources presents us with three moral dilemmas:
Firstly, how can we, who enjoyed the boom years with all imaginable consumer goods and luxuries available to us, deny people in the newly industrialized and developing economies the right to pursue the same level of consumption and comfort?
Secondly, how can we justify to our own children that cutting back on consumption is something they must be prepared to do, if our generation will not cut back?
The third dilemma is, what kind of solutions should we be promoting and selling to people, once we have the understanding of the previous two. What does sustainable business development mean under these conditions?
Hello Maintenance Goodbye Growth 