A difficulty predicted 40 years ago, but ignored

Herman Daly warned of this difficulty decades ago.

Herman Daly wrote
about our need for a
 Steady State Economy
back in the 1970s.

The American ecological economist and professor at the School of Public Policy of University of Maryland in the United States and former Senior Economist in the Environment Department of the World Bank understood the difficulties brought on by unlimited growth.

Daly, who warned of pushing the earth too far, was one of the prime movers in narrative about the need for a Steady State Economy – an idea that was about sustainability, but one that has largely been ignored.

Subsequently, a combination of ignorance and arrogance about the need for sustainability and our insistence on endless growth has brought the conclusion predicted by Daly.

Today’s Melbourne Age tells us that: “Human activity has pushed Earth beyond four of nine 'planetaryboundaries', scientists warn”.

“At the rate things are going, the Earth in the coming decades could cease to be a "safe operating space" for human beings,” The Age reports.

Great event, but little good news

It is difficult to report any good news from Sunday’s “The Automatic Earth” Melbourne workshop.

Theo Kitchener's simple explanation
 of where we are now and how
we should respond.

The April 21 workshop at the Fitzroy Town Hall was in itself good news, but the subject and the message from the keynote speakers hardly fell within that ambit.

Organized by the Melbourne based “Doing It Ourselves”, the day-long workshop featured international energy and finance commentator, Nicole Foss, the Australian Director of the Centre for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy, Geoff Mosley, the co-founder of the Beyond Zero Emissions, Adrian Whitehead, and the founder of “Doing It Ourselves”, Theo Kitchener.

More than 150 people enjoyed the sumptuous welcome of their hosts with a generous level of food opulence that defied the less than comforting reports from the speakers.

Foss talked at length about the convergence of the world’s worsening climate, the implosion of economies all around the world, worsened by the apparent naivety of governments which appear to be comfortable bedfellows with the international fossil fuel companies.

She is learned in energy of all stripes, has a particularly sharp understanding of international law and intimate knowledge of the world economy, explaining at the Fitzroy forum the fragilities of the world’s economy, how it is likely to collapse and how people should protect themselves though holding cash and by building resilience into their lives.

Mosley explained the rigours and benefits of the Steady State Economy and how it would stand to benefit communities and nations preparing to establish a system that might allow them to survive the collapse that Foss considered inevitable.

Whitehead, who was instrumental in creating the Greater Otway National Park and helped stop construction of the Naas Valley Dam on the ACT, could see only societal collapse and most of his address was how people should prepare to address that disarray.

Kitchener is a self-described “apocaloptimist” and so brought a sense of good news to the workshop was eager to see people apply the tools they could use to encourage a positive social and environmental transformation.

She said: “We have tried everything possible and that hasn’t worked and so now we must try the impossible”.

Her “Doing It Ourselves” website includes a 12 minute video that explains the unfolding difficulties and possible responses - http://www.doingitourselves.org/.