Cary Neeper's Blog: Reviewing World-changing Nonfiction - Posts Tagged "crisis"

by Paul Gilding, New York, Bloombury Press, 2011.

Gilding’s thesis is that the bottom line is clear. In 2011 he says that a “...global crisis is no longer avoidable.” To minimize the “...loss, suffering, and conflict...in the coming decades...” we will “bring out the best” in humanity and win the war to avoid catastrophe.

The Great Disruption “...is not just debt, or inequity, or a recession, or corporate influence, or ecological damage. It’s the whole package...beyond incremental reform...We are quite capable of building: an economy that feeds, clothes and houses all. ..fulfills lives [and] treats the planet like it’s the only one we’ve got.”

In reviewing the CO2 problem, Gilding notes that climate change is a symptom of the larger problem, which is our “addiction” to growth—both biologically and in the market place. He notes all the usual clichés and outlines in detail the disruption in our businesses as usual. But when we understand that we must accept our planetary boundaries and the careful regulation that can enhance business ventures, we will gradually transition—through considerable trauma—to a prolonged steady state that enhances our lives.

Gilding is good at reviewing all the objections to sharing and localization, the difficulties with capitalism, communism and complexity. His prediction of the refugee problem we now experience is chilling, as he points out horrific details of the Disruption. When denial is no longer possible, he lands squarely on the obligatory solution, no-growth economics. A Full-Earth Economy (steady state was introduced by Herman Daly in the 1970s and is still presented and developed by the Center for the Advancement of Steady State Economy (http://steadystate.org) as the prescription for a pleasant long-term future for Earth and humanity.