Out spacious country distorts peoples' view of finitude

Australia is a spacious country.
 

Seemingly so endless, that it distorts peoples’ view of the finitude of the earth.
 

Kerryn Higgs new book.

The ideals of capitalism of growth and whatever cost and profit again regardless of the cost fit well with the apparent limitless size of Australia.
 

That perception is wrong in the extreme for Australia, despite protestations of the boosters, is poor in every sense – we have remarkably little water, out ancient soils are nutrient poor and already, in terms of population, we are overstocked.
 

Many have lamented the damage done by and the voracious of capitalism with the latest being from Australian writer and researcher from the University of Tasmania, Dr Kerryn Higgs, who has further amplified that criticism.
 

Writing in her new book, “Collision Course: Endless Growth on a Finite Planet” she says “Consumption is now seen as our principal role in the world”.
 

And, of course, it is that very consumption, particularly of energy-rich goods and products that has taken us down the path upon which the only destination is climate change.
 

The short-termism of capitalism is offensive to the natural world as the profit and growth demands of the market system have no respect for ecological fundamentals upon which humanity depends.
 

“Growth,” Dr Higgs writes, “became the ‘common-sense’ solution to virtually all social problems – including, paradoxically, the environmental degradation it was causing.”
 

Dr Higgs quotes Georgetown University environmental historian, author, and professor, John Robert McNeill, who characterized modern times, especially the last 50 years, as “bizarre, anomalous and thoroughly unsustainable”.
 

So, it seems, the idea that the world is infinite is not simply peculiar to Australians, rather it is human-wide misunderstanding that is manifesting itself in climate change.

 

Read a review of Dr Higgs' book by Ian Lowe.

Robert McLean.