Green growth or stability?

You can hear Tim Jackson and Peter Victor argue for a steady-state economy while Paul Ekins and Richard Lipsey promote green growth.

An audio recording of the debate is available online, and it will be rebroadcast on the CBC:

No Growth vs Green Growth debate
Tuesday, 2011 February 2, 9pm
Ideas on CBC Radio One

I want to thank a local supporter for alerting me to Tim Jackson’s presence in Canada.  Jackson is an economist working with Canadian economist Peter Victor on modeling an economy not built around constant growth.  Both understand that material throughput must decrease significantly if we are to have an enduring economy, and it is very difficult to reconcile economic growth with declining use of resources.  Put simply, because we live on a planet with limits, it’s probably unreasonable to imagine we can keep making more stuff, so it might be wise to figure out how we can move to a world of different economic values.

I have heard Paul Ekins speak brilliantly as well.  A British economist and former Green, he spoke about the importance of putting a price on both pollution and the use of resources that should be thought of as common to all.

Tim Jackson had a very inspiring TED lecture, as well as a much longer introduction to his book and his ideas at a Deakin University lecture series which are available online.