At least since 1972 and the publication of The Limits to Growth it is known that the exponential economic and population growth with a finite supply of resources is a dead end (literally). Yet it was easier to ridicule the publication and continue business as usual because it’s easier to destroy the Earth than to rethink Capitalism. As a consequence we’ve been sitting on our hands for almost 50 years losing precious time, listening to politicians, false prophets, that tell us that growth is somehow sustainable.
Monbiot was born to a Tory politician father and a daughter of a Tory politician mother in Kensington (one of the wealthiest areas of one of the most expensive cities in the world, London) sent to a private (i.e. fee-paying) school, went on to study at Oxford University and lives in one of the richest countries in the world. That level of privilege makes it pretty easy for him not to consume more, but rather more difficult for the population of, say, sub-saharan Africa who’d quite like to get through the day without starving to death thank you very much.
(As you may gather, I don’t have a lot of time for GM.)
Lack of growth isn’t the reason people in sub-saharan Africa (or anywhere else) starve. We produce more than enough for everyone, globally. It’s a distribution issue.
From what I’ve read of him so far, I don’t think he’d disagree with you in the slightest.
From the article:
Wealth must be distributed – a constrained world cannot afford the rich – but it must also be reduced.
