I Cannot Be Sustainable on My Own

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You can hear or read a masterful summary by Bill Rees of his ecological footprint thinking, combined with a discussion of human brain evolution and the forces driving the human brian, including the need to re-invent a global mythology, here.

Rees points out that economic growth only became a governmental policy in the 1950s (who could have imagined!) and that not only is it killing us but it is not necessary despite the human brain structures driving us away from our current best interests.

 “Contraction and convergence has to be the way, if you are going to have equity on a single planet, and sustainability at the same time.  We should be designing a smaller, equitable steady-state economy, that maintains itself within the carrying capacity. 

 “This is not difficult.  The concepts are easy.  The getting there is the difficult part, because of the conflictual nature of the human animal. 

 “Now, many people are horrified at the thought that we would have to shrink, but there's plenty of evidence to show that this shouldn't be a problem, if we really were an intelligent species.”

Dr. Rees was recorded April 15^th as a guest of the World Federalists of Vancouver, at the Unitarian Church in Vancouver, Canada by Alex Smith of Radio Ecoshock.  Transcription by Alex Smith.   Audio available as a free mp3 download in the Radio Ecoshock show released May 28^th, 2010 at ecoshock.org.