The clamor for jobs and economic recovery drones on. Whether it’s CNN, MSNBC, or FOX, everyone wants to know when and how we are going to “create jobs” and start “economic recovery.” Virtually unnoticed, The Washington Post reports “Scientists Call for End to Deep Sea Fishing” and “Study Calls for Halting Oyster Fishing in Chesapeake Bay.”
Meanwhile, the planet screams for relief from the human “economy” that’s destroying it. Do we really want this economy to grow? Wouldn’t that mean more trees cut down to grow more crops for more hungry humans; more oil, coal, and natural gas consumed to power more industry, more shipping, more travel, and more consumerism? More of what got us here in the first place — global warming and the current mass extinction?
Of course there are those clamoring for “green jobs.” What they don’t realize is that a paycheck — spent on pointless consumer goods, gas for the daily commute, food shipped half way across the globe, and so on — has the same impact whether it’s earned making solar panels or mining coal. The net effect of a “green job” is virtually the same as any other. Any job that grows the economy is more of the same.
Jobs, so it would seem for the most part, are actually coffin nails. So what’s next?
Maybe it’s time that we started envisioning and creating a post-growth world. Some people, like the folks over at Post-Growth Institute, already have. And they have complied an impressive list of things that things that we can do ourselves to usher in a post-growth world.
Robert Mitchell Jr. 