Collision Course: Endless Growth on a Finite Planet
- ISBN-10
- 0262320924
- ISBN-13
- 9780262320924
- Series
- Collision Course
- Category
- Science
- Pages
- 416
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2014-08-22
- Publisher
- MIT Press
- Author
- Kerryn Higgs
Description
The story behind the reckless promotion of economic growth despite its disastrous consequences for life on the planet. The notion of ever-expanding economic growth has been promoted so relentlessly that “growth” is now entrenched as the natural objective of collective human effort. The public has been convinced that growth is the natural solution to virtually all social problems—poverty, debt, unemployment, and even the environmental degradation caused by the determined pursuit of growth. Meanwhile, warnings by scientists that we live on a finite planet that cannot sustain infinite economic expansion are ignored or even scorned. In Collision Course, Kerryn Higgs examines how society's commitment to growth has marginalized scientific findings on the limits of growth, casting them as bogus predictions of imminent doom. Higgs tells how in 1972, The Limits to Growth—written by MIT researchers Donella Meadows, Dennis Meadows, Jorgen Randers, and William Behrens III—found that unimpeded economic growth was likely to collide with the realities of a finite planet within a century. Although the book's arguments received positive responses initially, before long the dominant narrative of growth as panacea took over. Higgs explores the resistance to ideas about limits, tracing the propagandizing of “free enterprise,” the elevation of growth as the central objective of policy makers, the celebration of “the magic of the market,” and the ever-widening influence of corporate-funded think tanks—a parallel academic universe dedicated to the dissemination of neoliberal principles and to the denial of health and environmental dangers from the effects of tobacco to global warming. More than forty years after The Limits to Growth, the idea that growth is essential continues to hold sway, despite the mounting evidence of its costs—climate destabilization, pollution, intensification of gross global inequalities, and depletion of the resources on which the modern economic edifice depends.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2022-01-15
- 186 pages
- Paperback
- Rutgers University Press
-
- 2022-01-14
- 171 pages
- Paperback
- Rutgers University Press
-
- 2021-06-22
- 256 pages
- Ebook
- Harvard Business Press
Similar books
-
Collision Course: Ronald Reagan, the Air Traffic Controllers, and the Strike that Changed America
By Joseph A. McCartinThrough the stories of controllers like Mike Rock and Jack Maher, who were galvanized into action by the disaster and went on to found PATCO, McCartin describes the camaraderie and professionalism of those who sought to both make the ...
-
Collision Course
By Robert SilverbergThe crew of the XV-ftl was looking forward to shore leave, vacation and a chance to see their families.
-
Collision Course
By S. C. StephensLucas had it all—popularity, a devoted girlfriend, a brotherly best friend, and a loving mother who would do anything for him.
-
Collision Course
By David CrawfordOnly the strong will survive.
-
Collision Course: The Strange Convergence of Affirmative Action and Immigration Policy in America
By Hugh Davis GrahamThe Politics of Immigration Reform in the Kennedy - Johnson Years A series of political changes occurred in the early 1960s that cleared the ground for a comprehensive immigration reform bill . Kennedy's election ensured that ...
-
Collision Course
By Marie HarteBody Shop Bad Boys Series: Test Drive (Book 1) Roadside Assistance (Book 2) Zero to Sixty (Book 3) Collision Course (Book 4) What People are Saying About Marie Harte's Body Shop Bad Boys series: "High octane chemistry keeps the pages ...
-
Collision Course
By C.P. RowlandsBrie O'Malley, successful author and college professor, isn't sure if she believes in destiny in a universe where a random act of violence extinguished her happy-ever-after.
-
Collision Course: The Olympic Tragedy of Mary Decker and Zola Budd
By Jason Henderson... the red fez-wearing comedian and magician, who collapsed with a heart attack performing live on stage. Although even then there was a sidebar on the Mail's front page alongside the news of Cooper's demise with the headline: ...
-
Collision Course
By Tony GonzalezI had not had this training; neither had “Buddy” Mahiko, who had been in the same police recruit class as I. Some people criticized the two ... The agile six.ty-three-year-old man bounced from his chair upon hearing 87 Collision Course.
-
Star Trek: Academy
By William Shatner, Judith Reeves-Stevens, Garfield Reeves-StevensThrown in jail beside a Vulcan boy charged with plotting to sell Vulcan artifacts, a troublesome young James T. Kirk forges an uneasy alliance with his cellmate, Spock, as they choose between staying imprisoned or joining Starfleet.