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The End Of Growth: Adapting To Our New Economic Reality (2011)

by Richard Heinberg(Favorite Author)

4.01 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0865716951 (ISBN13: 9780865716957)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

New Society Publishers

review 1: This book raises many interesting/serious issues, and a few interesting ideas.I think most people probably have some idea, perhaps only very generally, that e.g. oil is not in infinite supply; fewer people may have thought about other resources (water is something folks may have heard about.) Potash, rare earths, and some others come up if you read e.g. the Economist or some other similarly serious publications (I'm guessing probably not in USA Today...)I think less often thought about is that these material resource issues all depend a great deal on energy supplies, and that energy supplies, in turn, rely on materials. Moving to renewables is not only difficult because of economic and technological/scientific issues, but because of material and energy issues; which in t... moreurn become economic and then technological/scientific issues.The effect all that will have on the economy, again, might be thought about infrequently...You get the idea, I think, of what the book discusses and how it argues. So why only three stars?Despite what the book says addressing this very point, I don't see a neo-Malthusian crash coming; I do think credible, *major* economic reforms, and serious political changes, are needed re: energy generation and use, scientific and technological research and investment, environmental protections and harm mitigation. I think economics (both accounting and finance and "economics" as politics) needs to not only abandon the model of externalizing as many costs as possible, but adopt the model of internalizing as many costs as reasonable (obviously, at some point, you do have draw a circle around what you consider your model/system and, hence, what you are accounting for.) If we don't do those things... life will get very miserable for some people, even a lot of people, "progress" will likely grind to a halt for a while...I guess, for better or for worse, the book did not convince me I need to live on a commune and learn to shoe a horse. Which is where the book veers off to in it's last chapter, amid some (very interesting) discussion about alternative currencies and alternative economies. I don't see a collapse of high-tech civilizations as credible future scenario. Again, I admit that things could get hairy... but I'm not investing in yurts just yet.
review 2: The idea of the book is quite depressing. Resource availability is no longer growing, while population continues to grow. Our financial system is essentially a Ponzi scheme that depends on increasing numbers of people and credit. While potentially disturbing, the truth in the book is informative for seeing through the current financial machinations on state, national, and international levels. If our earth can't support our growing out of the financial crisis, what do we do? If you're looking for a happy ending, turn to the final chapter. There are plenty of suggestions on how you can begin getting involved with the effort to re-create our world in a sustainable way. I was particularly struck by getting involved in a food co-op. The suggestions involve localizing your resources and aggregating local health, social service, and food resources. Communities of people have begun doing this. You don't have to re-invent the wheel. The book comprehensively proves that at our current pace, we are going to run into a fiscal and environmental wall. I find it encouraging in approaching the problem from how we can get involved with our neighbors to use our resources in a sustainable way. less

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