David Korten: Clueless Economists, Smart Ecologists

[marmar]

from YES! Magazine:



Clueless Economists, Smart Ecologists
David Korten: To successfully address climate change and extreme poverty, the ecology paradigm must replace the traditional economics mindset.

by David Korten
posted Feb 22, 2011


When economic failure is systemic, temporary fixes, even very expensive ones like the Wall Street bailout, are like putting a bandage on a cancer. We need to rethink and redesign the economic system. Unfortunately, such issues are generally left to economists, when we need the perspective of the ecologist.

The differing perspectives of the economist and the ecologist are starkly revealed by the authors of two books that appeared in 2008 as the financial crash was playing out: Jeffrey Sachs, Common Wealth, and Gus Speth, The Bridge at the Edge of the World. These books present nearly identical statements of the need to address growing environmental stress and end extreme poverty. Their recommendations, however, are miles apart.

Jeffrey Sachs, once described by the New York Times as “probably the most important economist in the world,” accepts the existing growth-centered economic model and institutional system as givens and prescribes a solution based on modest adjustments in public budget allocations. For Sachs, money is both end and means.

He calls for modest new investments in existing technologies to sequester carbon, develop new energy sources, end population growth, make more efficient use of water and other natural resources, and jump-start economic growth in the world’s remaining pockets of persistent poverty. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/david-korten/clueless-economists-smart-ecologists