Green Science

'It doesn't help that virtually all representations of pleasure and the life we should aspire to come from advertising, with its incessant message that our happiness is dependent on consuming ever more "stuff". We hear little about the joys of escaping the stress, congestion, ill-health, noise and waste that come from our "high" standard of living. .The absurdity of our situation is illustrated by the way our economy profits from selling back to us the pleasures that we have lost through overwork: the leisure and tourist companies that sell us "quality time"; the catering services that provide "home cooking"; the dating and care agencies that see to personal relations; the gyms where people pay to walk on treadmills because the car culture has made it unsafe or unpleasant to walk outside. As the economy continues to expand, consumer culture becomes ever more reliant on our willingness to accept this. A growing number of people are starting to realise that there may be more to life than working to spend.'" - Kate Soper

In recent weeks, I have been greatly encouraged, despite the poor showing of the Green candidates in the local elections, by the way in which scientists are coming to terms with the changing environment. Two editions of New Scientist stand out in this respect.

One was "A brighter future", a special edition which looked at alternative sources of energy. Of particular interest to the Channel Island was the sections on wind power and tidal power. The technology is now beginning to get the investment it needs to realistic produce significant amounts of energy. In particular, the use of currents to drive turbines is most interesting because it uses a lot of the same approach as a wind farm, but underwater, and has already been shown to work in Norway.

The other New Scientist was this weeks - "The Folly of Growth", which looks at the ways in which we must change our lifestyle, because ultimately there are finite resources, and we are approaching the limits in a number of areas, not just peak oil, but also various important minerals and metals. In a series of separate articles, here are the hard arguments against growth, and in one fine article, which might be called "Imagine Earth 2020", an imaginary scenario is played out in some detail on exactly what a "steady state" economy would be like, with a surprising amount of detail.

What we really need is a get together of concerned people to look at the implications of a "steady state" economy locally, for Jersey, and prepare alternatives, so that when the crunch comes, and the politicians are clutching at anything, there will be a properly coherent and totally workable alternative which we have in place, and which, in stages, we can begin to push for today. A real "Imagine Jersey", rather than a fixed fiasco which did not allow important and false assumptions to be questioned.

[This edition is still in the shops now]

Links:

Herman Daly: Towards A Steady-State Economy
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3941

uneconomic growth in theory and in fact
http://www.feasta.org/documents/feastareview/daly.htm