Presentation to
David Suzuki Foundation
Frank Rotering
December 1, 2009
1
Stein Valley
Festival, 1989
2
"Economists are stupid they focus on growth and
free trade but completely
ignore natural limits."
Stein Valley Festival, 1989
3
Computer class
Simon Fraser University
4
Two main questions:
• Is the economy at the root of
the environmental crisis?
• Are economists and their
discipline "stupid"?
5
Michael Lebowitz
- economic history
Steven Globerman
- microeconomics
Terry Heaps
- regional economics
Nancy Olewiler
- environmental
economics
Zane Spindler
- macroeconomics
6
Is the economy at the root of the
environmental crisis?
• Causes excessive production and
consumption
• Generates damaging waste flows
• Overutilizes natural resources
• Drives up population level
7
So:
YES
8
Are economists and their
discipline "stupid"?
Ideologically and personally committed to:
• Continuous economic growth
• Business and corporations
• Free trade and globalization
... and overwhelmingly ignorant of natural limits.
9
So, in Suzuki's sense:
YES
10
Steve Easton - int'l trade
"Where's your
model?"
11
X2
p1D1 + p2D2 = p1x1 + p2x2
X1
12
My overall conclusions:
• The economy must be revolutionized
• Standard thinkers will resist fiercely
• A progressive economics does not exist
Therefore:
• Develop the missing economic theory
• Find progressive allies
• Revolutionize the economy
13
Guiding
Framework
Economy
Functional
Framework
Transportation
Option A
End Production
No
Environmentally
Sound?
Unknown
Planning Stage
Yes
Planning Stage
End Production
No
Sustainable?
Yes
Implement
Phase 1
End Production
No
Yes
Environmentally
Sound?
Set
Objectives
Achieve
Objectives
No
End Production
Environmentally
Sound?
Yes
14
Guiding Framework
GOAL: Sustainable well-being
OBJECTIVES:
 What to produce, in what quantities
 Rates of resource and waste flows
 Rates of habitat destruction
 Population level
15
Economic of Needs and Limits
(ENL)
 A guiding framework to help a society set
economic objectives intended to achieve
sustainable well-being
 Based on the core attributes of humankind
and nature
16
ENL's Core Logic
Human
Logic
Optimum
Quantities
(Value, Cost)
Environmental
Logic
Target
Output
Quantities
Limits
(Flows, Thresholds)
17
ENL Value
Objective effects of consumption
Negative Value
Positive Value
18
ENL Cost
Objective effects of production
Labor Cost
Natural Cost
19
Optimum Output Quantity
Marginal
Health
Optimum
Value
0
Q/t
Cost
20
Environmental
Budgets
Waste Flows:
Renewable Resources:
Regeneration Rate
Absorption Rate
Habitat Destruction:
No Species Decline
21
Target Output Quantity
Limit
= 10,000
Marginal
Health
TARGET:
Optimum Quantity
Value
Ecological
Limit
0
Q/t
Cost
22
Target Output Quantity
Limit
= 6,000
Marginal
Health
Optimum
Quantity
Value
TARGET:
Ecological
Limit
0
Q/t
Cost
23
needsandlimits.org
24
Current Economic
Thought
ENL
End
Constraints
GUIDING
FRAMEWORK
Means
FUNCTIONAL
FRAMEWORK
NEW ECONOMIC THEORY
25
YouTube video:
"Revolutionizing Economic
Thought"
26
Organic Change
GUIDING
FRAMEWORK
1 Specify
FUNCTIONAL
FRAMEWORK
objectives
Economy
27
Organic Change
GUIDING
FRAMEWORK
1 Specify
FUNCTIONAL
FRAMEWORK
objectives
2 Achieve
objectives
Economy
28
Organic Change
GUIDING
FRAMEWORK
3 Evaluate
results
1 Specify
FUNCTIONAL
FRAMEWORK
objectives
2 Achieve
objectives
Economy
29
Organic Change
GUIDING
FRAMEWORK
3 Evaluate
results
1 Specify
objectives
FUNCTIONAL
FRAMEWORK
2 Achieve
objectives
Economy
30
Organic Change
GUIDING
FRAMEWORK
3 Evaluate
results
1 Specify
objectives
FUNCTIONAL
FRAMEWORK
2 Achieve
objectives
Economy
31
Organic Change
GUIDING
FRAMEWORK
3 Evaluate
results
1 Specify
objectives
FUNCTIONAL
FRAMEWORK
2 Achieve
objectives
Economy
32
Organic Change
GUIDING
FRAMEWORK
3 Evaluate
results
1 Specify
objectives
FUNCTIONAL
FRAMEWORK
2 Achieve
objectives
Economy
33
Organic Change
GUIDING
FRAMEWORK
3 Evaluate
results
1 Specify
objectives
FUNCTIONAL
FRAMEWORK
2 Achieve
objectives
Economy
34
Results of Organic Change
 A new economy that achieves sustainable
well-being
 Evolved institutions
 An unknown economic structure
 BUT: Capitalism has been historically
superseded
35
Kirkpatrick Sale
1993
36
K. Sale - Shortcomings of
Environmentalism
Environmental problems seen as:
"... isolated aberrations within a functioning
system, correctable by regulation and
enforcement, and not as inevitable byproducts of an economic system based on the
imperative of growth ..."
(p. 100, underlining added)
37
"... the environmental movement can never win,
can never be anything but a tolerated gadfly, as
long as it functions within capitalist society. It's as
simple as that."
K. Sale: An Illusion of Progress - June 22, 2003
(underlining added)
38
Jonathan Freedland:
"... it is not just excessive consumerism but
capitalism's very nature that makes it
incompatible with the survival of our planet. For
capitalism requires constant economic growth,
yet the Earth's resources are finite.”
- The Guardian (December 5, 2007)
39
Ecological
Economics:
DEEP DENIAL
Herman Daly
Bill Rees
40
YouTube video:
"A Critique of
Ecological Economics"
41
Website:
"We work towards balancing human needs with
the Earth’s ability to sustain all life."
"Our goal is to find and communicate practical
ways to achieve that balance.”
(Foundation facts)
Can "practical ways"
adequately address
growth-bound capitalism
and reverse overshoot?
42
43
Standard Environmentalism
44
45
Standard environmentalism can
be effective when ...
... the solution to a problem is compatible with
capitalist logic and social relations
 Technical fixes
 Minor behavioral changes
 Modest legal or political reforms
 Production for modified wants
46
It cannot be effective when ...
... the solution to a problem is incompatible
with capitalist logic and social relations
 Steady-state or contracting economy
 End of capitalist-worker relationship
 Long-term profit erosion
 Production for needs or reduced
wants
47
needsandlimits.org
frank_rotering@yahoo.com
48
49
Capitalism must grow
Growth is unsustainable
Capitalism must go
50