We believe our proposed petition can help advance Australia toward a sustainable economy.
Globally there is a growing concern over unrestrained economic growth. It is clear that it is impossible to have infinite economic growth on a planet or in a nation of finite resources. Many nations have embarked upon a trajectory of unrestrained growth. This is clearly not a sustainable course to take. The “Limits to Growth” report issued by the Club of Rome (1972), and the Ecological Planetary boundaries, as described by the Stockholm Resilience Centre in 2022, clearly show the consequences of continued unrestrained growth in our economy. Overshoot of Planetary boundaries, caused by a range of human activities, shows we have now transgressed the safe operating space in six of the nine main categories of environmental impacts. Consequently we are developing a petition to Parliament.
Planetary boundaries have been Overshot.
All these matters, not to mention the series of IPCC reports on climate change, point to the urgent need to reject policies that aim for and promulgate limitless growth.
Indeed the “Overshoot” of our planetary boundaries is indicative of the scale of our problems across a range of natural cycles. Many of us are aware of the breaches of “biosphere integrity”, such as massive species loss and habitat and biodiversity degradation. The variety of threats, outlined above, illustrate the interrelatedness of our natural systems, where overshoot of one system affects and damage other cycles.
For all these reasons we advocate a transition to a "Steady State Economy"
Our economy is embedded in society, and society is embedded in the biophysical World. Our ecosphere is a finite non growing system within which we are embedded and upon which we ultimately all depend. As Herman Daly outlined :
“A steady state economy is one that develops qualitatively (by improvement in science, technology, and ethics) without growing quantitatively in physical dimensions; it lives on a diet—a constant metabolic flow of resources from depletion to pollution (the entropic throughput) maintained at a level that is both sufficient for a good life and within the assimilative and regenerative capacities of the containing ecosystem”. (Herman Daly “Top 10 policies for a steady State Economy” -Steady State Herald 2013)
Three fundamental guiding principles
Put simply, ecological economics advocates three fundamental principles around which a transition to a SSE may be accomplished. A SSE seeks incremental changes towards:
* A sustainable population size for the carrying capacity of our region,
* A distribution of wealth which is fair and equitable on an intergenerational basis.
* Low resource use, aiming for an ecologically sustainable scale.
Hence we will be reaching out to people and Not for Profit Groups who may wish to endorse and support our petition. Together we believe we can make a difference.