Hans asks the socially, politically and economically unpalatable questions

Any processes that would make a serious dent on the advance of climate change appear to be socially, politically and economically unpalatable.

Melbourne-based
anthropologist,
Dr Hans Baer.

However, as distasteful as they may be our adherence to existing values ultimately threatens continuation of live as we know it.

The University of Melbourne’s Dr Hans Baer is another who promotes the idea of living more frugally and talks with the authority of the PhD in anthropology arguing that we need we need “de-growth” in society, rather than the relentlessly championed paradigm of growth.

Dr Baer, who is an associate professor in the university’s School of Social and Political Sciences at the Centre for Health and Society, has a history as asking the difficult question at public lectures.

He was in the audience at a recent lecture when the much-discussed very fast train for Australia’s east coast was discussed and it importance to growth was constantly referred.

He quizzed the speakers as to how the infinite growth they championed could be achieved and sustained on a finite planet and the MC for the night declared that a question for another occasion.

Later, Dr Baer felt his question, which he believed was relevant to the whole conversation, had been “deflected”.

Along with Dr Baer, I see the only workable solution to genuine climate change mitigation being de-growth.

De-growth for the developed nations must of course be associated with growth in those nations, or parts of the world, that have been exploited, or forgotten by the capitalistic drive to riches, should be encouraged to grow.

Evidence that a slower economy, an enforced de-growth, would have a positive impact on global carbon dioxide emissions emerged from the 2008 global financial crises for with less ability to spend, consumption fell, energy use dived  and for a moment we slowed the worsening of our damage to earth’s climate system.

And now, it seems, the U.S. Government has accepted the science of climate change, science it has known about for decades, and in an ABC story today headed: “White House calls for action on climate change after release of new report”, U.S. President Barack Obama, has called for “bold actions”.

Considering the seemingly unbridled power of the market enthusiasts, it is unlikely that those so called “bold actions” will include any moves toward de-growth.

Society's inabilities and unwillingness tells its own story

Writing in “The Collapse of Complex Societies” Joseph A. Tainter, a U.S. anthropologist and historian, said in discussing resource depletion:

Joseph A. Tainter

“As it becomes apparent to the member or administrators of a complex society that a resource base is deteriorating, it seems most reasonable to assume that some rational steps are taken to assume that some rational steps would be taken toward a resolution. The alternative assumption – of idleness in the face of disaster – requires a leap of faith at which we might rightly hesitate. If the former assumption be admitted, then few variables whose mere existence indicates that the resource depletion argument is inadequate.”

Tainter studied anthropology at the University of California and Northwestern University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1975.

He is currently a professor in the Department of Environment and Society at Utah State University. His previous positions include Project Leader of Cultural Heritage Research, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station, Albuquerque, New Mexico and professor of anthropology at the University of New Mexico.

The resource depletion argument is not, interestingly, in itself inadequate, rather it is society’s inability or unwillingness to confront socially disturbing facts, which if allowed to reach their natural conclusion unattended, will uproot existing lifestyles and force humanity down a whole new, and unchartered, path of existence.

Resource depletion is unquestionably real and is illustrated by an endless array of anecdotal evidence, but should you want the hard and brutish facts, then turn to the shelves of any library or bookshop and there you will find a vast selection of literature from some of the world’s sharpest minds explaining the world’s resource inadequacies, particularly if the aim is the provide for seven billion people.

In a world addicted to the idea of profit and growth, almost exclusively at the expense of humanity’s happiness and contentment.