Date/Time
Date(s) - Fri 2 May
18:00 - 20:00
Exponential Economic growth is the driver of Ecological degradation. It is driven by CO2 greenhouse gas emissions through fossil fuel extraction and burning for the plethora of polluting industries. Extreme weather disasters and Climate change will continue to get worse because governments subscribe to the current global economic system, known as ‘Neoliberalism’.
This ‘Corporate Capitalism’ demands ‘economic growth’ regardless of ecological or socially harmful effects. The economic imperative to increase GDP (2-3%p.a.) is imposed by Governments in the global Financial system of transnational Corporations. Political parties of the Left and the Right try to claim it is ‘sustainable growth’ even if it produces massive CO2 emissions and waste eg.Militarism.
New technologies will not stop catastrophic Climate change and environmental devastation, whilst unlimited economic growth ideology permits all profitable industries to persist. Technological optimists assume High Tech will solve all problems eg. ‘carbon capture’ but this has not proven to be effective enough. Efficiency gains are absorbed and exceeded by demands for more consumerism and production. ‘Green Growth’ economics should replace the ‘dirty growth’ production economy, but instead the benefits from ‘greening the economy’ are largely cancelled out by the ‘free market system’ which prioritises maximization of profit over ecological well being. This is ‘Jevrons Paradox’ when a solution to a problem actually exacerbates and increases it.
The Catch-22 conundrum is that people’s livelihood, jobs and social well-being are deemed to be dependent on economic growth by industries that pollute the planet and deplete limited natural resources. We are led to believe that in order to meet human needs (food, health, housing, education etc) we must continue deregulation and production that harms the natural environment. Thus, we witness increasing frequency and destruction from extreme weather events eg. Droughts, floods, hurricanes, wildfires and ecological degradation.
Environmental Protection Policies are not enough. There must also be major restructuring of the global economics and financial banking system to protect the Climate, the Eco System and Human Well Being for future Generations and Life on Earth.
Professor Ruth Irwin presents the research and key concepts essential for transforming the political economic system of Aotearoa New Zealand and the world, in order to regenerate the planetary ecosystem and humanity.
She was Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Aberdeen and Head of Department of Education at the University of Fiji, she has taught Business Ethics at AUT, worked in Philosophy and Politics departments of Auckland University. She is an academic author of several publications and her new book Economic Futures, Climate Change and Modernity.
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