Mary Odum has recently published an article titled "Stop Growing or Meet the Four Horsemen?" I read it in Resilience. It appeared first, I gather, in A Prosperous Way Down.
The possibility of an Ebola pandemic motivated Odum's article. You can get the gist of her thinking from the following quote:
Americans are now receiving unsubtle messages from the universe that perhaps we have reached our limits, and it is time to stop trying to grow the economy. The four horsemen of pestilence, famine, war, and death are emerging on a global basis, as energy inputs wane and the global economic system begins to turn down. Yet feedback from the system is still telling our system to grow expand, when perhaps it would be wiser to expend more energy on resilient contraction. The threat of Ebola impels me in particular to find my voice again, as the blogosphere is mincing around the real issues here.
While the dangerous implications of Ebola may have motivated her article, one of Odum's major concerns is energy. She said, and I think she's right, that the final footage in the movie Thelma and Louise is a perfect metaphor for where we are going with our hydrocarbon fuel based economy.
Which picture do you like best? They both have relevance for our times. As Odum suggests, they may not be that different, either.
(1) - http://www.topito.com/top-plans-ultimes-du-cinema-le-paquet-pour-la-fin-larmes
(2) - http://prosperouswaydown.com/stop-growing-or-four-horsemen/
Even as we come to this rational realization, that growth in a world of finite resources is impossible, the machinations of local government continue to avert the eyes and pretend that it just isn't so.
ReplyDeleteThe Water Supply Advisory Committee is still, to this moment, refusing to talk about the assumption that Santa Cruz County must grow and the County must "find the water" to allow for that growth.
This is insane!