Now Smaller Really Is Better
“Growth is bumping up against physical limits so profound, like climate change and peak oil, that continuing to expand the economy may be impossible.” – from Deep Economy
If you’re ready to begin thinking about life in a globally warmed, fossil-fuel-scarce world, there is probably no better nor more ultimately optimistic read than Bill McKibben’s compelling and impeccably researched new book, Deep Economy.
In a clear and concise manner, the noted author, thinker and environmentalist tackles the two toughest and deeply interrelated issues of our time: global warming and peak oil. (Peak oil is a term used to indicate the point at which the world will have used up 50 percent of its known oil resources.)
McKibben argues that “relocalizing” our increasingly globalized economy will go a long way toward helping us respond to the challenges of a world coping with climate change and trying to adjust to a new era in which oil — the black gold that has built modern civilization — becomes less and less available and more and more expensive.
Despite the doom and gloom a fossil-fuel-scarce world might conjure up for some, McKibben believes this scenario presents profound opportunity. Going local takes the energy-depleting, highly polluting transportation factor out of our economies. And, if we’re smart about it, through the process of going local we’ll create communities that perhaps even make us happier. Think living close to where you work; enjoying tasty, locally produced food; deriving much of your home’s electricity from the sun or the wind or the waves; traveling on less-polluting, more convivial, local public transit instead of hermitically sealing yourself alone in your car; and even listening to a local radio station that addresses local issues and maybe even features local musicians.
“I’ve been working on large scale environmental issues for a long time,” McKibben says. “Intellectually it’s become clearer and clearer to me that, until we grapple with the central question of our economy, which is size as a goal, it’s going to be impossible to deal with the environmental issues we face.”
Read and discuss an excerpt from the book.
