Is A No-Growth Economy The Answer?

When I first discovered my passion for nature, I never thought I would have to study economics . In fact I thought these two subjects could never coexist. In fact it's actually quite surprising that the majority of economic growth comes from the ecosystem. Our economy is built on manufacturing and consumers paying for the manufactured goods. We build our economy on exports and the more the produce, the more we sell and the more we grow. The main question is what happens to these goods we we don't need them? The answer is they go back into the ecosystem as waste which can be through landfill or pollution.

Countries develop their economy by increasing production and thereby increasing consumption. However, in order to do this a large amount of extraction has to happen in order to get the necessary fuel and resources. And how do we get this? Deforestion, mining and basically any process that kills wildlife and causes our biodiversity to decline. 

So this poses the question, can the economy and the ecosystem grow and develop together? Short answer is no. As one grows the other shrinks and with us prioritising the economy, the ecosystem is continuing to decline. The theory and idea of ecological economics doesn't suggest we revert to a preindustrial society with no technology, but states we should maintain our current economy to avoid and limit future extraction. This will help to preserve our natural resource and the earth for future generations. This will also limit the disposal of waste going back into the ecosystem. If we can also reuse and develop our waste it will also limit the extraction process. Ecological economics calls for a shift from conventional economics to stop economic growth because we simply cannot sustain it. We need to stop growing. I mean imagine if every single country reached the same level of development as the UK or America. It simply is not possible. We need better allocation and management of our natural resources to save our planet.

So to summer use, the economy and the ecosystem are connected and if the economy grows (as every government wants to), the ecosystem will decline. Instead of making the production system an open system, it needs to become closed with a focus on reusing and repurposing waste rather than disposal. Society also needs to shift away from a consumer based economy, in a sense. We need to stop buying what we want and what we need. We need to reduce all the unnecessary stuff we have that damages our environment.