Overview

This book explores three questions:1.Should equality, both globally as well as within a country, be part of the benchmarks we use to measure progress? And if "yes," is it feasible to achieve it?2.Will our progress continue forever? Is there a point in time when we can no longer afford the costs of our progress? Are population and economic growth "weapons of mass destruction" that will eventually make everyone worse off through their environmental impacts?3.Since many of today's environmental and economic problems require political solutions at the global level, what form of political organization is best suited to avoid lose-lose scenarios with respect to our unrelenting pursuit of progress?In today's super-heated discussions about climate change many of the political, or otherwise, "solutions" appear to be addressing the symptoms of the problem rather than its causes. These "solutions" invariably aim to temporarily mask environmental problems caused by over-population and over-consumption through technological fixes. Isn't time, then, that we stop fiddling around with temporary solutions and address the causes of environmental degradation head on?