The earth is full. It’s full of us, full of our stuff, full of our waste, full of our demands; yes, we are a brilliant and creative species, but we’ve created a little too much stuff—so much that our economy is now bigger than it’s host, our planet…” – Paul Gilding, independent writer and adviser on sustainability. The above and following quotes are from Gilding’s TED talk on sustainability. A Familiar Message With Little Regard Given To It It is nothing new that advocates and scientists are warning that consumption is out of control on our planet. However, little is done to educate us, the various populaces of the planet, that our current levels of consumption are detrimental to the future survival of our species, other species, and the planet as a whole. As Gilding says, We’re burning through our capital, or, stealing from the future… what this means is our economy is unsustainable … when things aren’t sustainable they stop.” In Love With A Crazy Idea When we think about economic growth stopping we go, ‘that’s not possible,’ because economic growth is so essential to our society that it is really questioned… it is based on a crazy idea, the crazy idea being that we can have infinite growth on a finite planet… I’m here to tell you the Emperor has no clothes, that the crazy idea is just that: It is crazy.” Gilding states a counter argument: But we need growth. We need it to solve poverty. We need it to develop technology. We need it to keep social stability.” His reply: I find this argument fascinating, as...
