Optimism and pessimism merge to become realism in Paris

O

ptimism and pessimism have already mutated to become the realism expected to emerge from the U.N. climate conversations in Paris.

Herman Daly wrote
decades ago about what
 the world needs to be
agreeing on now in Paris.

Dare I make a call now with the conference just one day old?

Many will declare the event a wonderful success, but the outcome, I suggest, will be inadequate as the world’s prevailing economic system will not by touched in any way or restructured as it should be to remove the emphasis on profit and ever-expanding growth; capitalism’s reason and the root cause of climate change.

Maybe my expectations were a little too high, I had allowed my ambitions off their leash and my utopian thoughts allowed full reign?

After all why have such high expectations when the world’s nations have gathered to discuss how they could best save humanity from a rather questionable future?

Surely, to quote Australia’s Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, when he was making a political point-scoring proposition about our tax system, “all options” would be on the table, but that was about money and it seems that in the view of most world governments “all options” is a position reserved only for those moments when the economy is threatened.

New flash! Climate change is the greatest threat the world economy has ever seen and beyond that, and even more importantly, it threatens the wellbeing of the entire world community.

The idea of capitalism is so entrenched and embedded in our psyche that it is a rare soul who can see that there is another way.

One of those who could envision “another way” was the American ecological economist and professor, Herman Daly, who argued for a steady state economy, which Daly explained was an economic system fit for purpose on a finite planet.

Daly’s work has always been considered impossibly radical and unworkable by mainstream economists; the same people who are urging the world community toward a precipice over which is will most certainly tumble, unless the conversation in Paris changes and makes an abrupt about turn.

 

- Robert McLean.