Serv it up! Stir it up! - References and quotes Philosophy 2021 REFERENCES AND QUOTES SUSTAINABILITY ECONOMICS: WHERE DO WE STAND? Fig 10. “Evidently a new and radically different development trajectory is needed. Some would call it a new paradigm. Our historical emphasis on the use of fossil fuels to increase labor and capital productivity is no longer appropriate. We must concentrate, in the future, on increasing resource productivity. In effect, goods must be converted as much as possible into services, and services must be delivered with the minimum possible requirement for material and energy inputs. The changes involved will not be marginal.” “It is convenient and evocative to label the latter as the “spaceship” – or “zero-emissions” – economy, inasmuch as it is an economy in which all materials that are intrinsically scarce must be recovered, repaired, reused, remanufactured or – as a last resort – recycled. In the ultimate spaceship (or circular) economy the material cycle would have to be closed, or nearly so. On the other hand, such an economy must be extremely energy-(exergy)-intensive.” 291 How economic textbooks portrayed economic activity as a closed loop. Economics can’t still see exergy is an essential factor of production. “In contrast to the closed perpetual motion machine described above, the real economy is essentially a large-scale materials processing system, largely powered (for the present) by machines using fossil fuels that were created and stored in the earth's crust hundreds of millions of years ago. Virtually none of the materials consumed by the economy are recycled at present. The basic engine of economic growth in a massproduction manufacturing economy is the positive feedback cycle, shown in Fig. 11. In brief, the impetus to growth arises from the fact that demand for a product tends to increase as (real) prices fall. This phenomenon is called the ‘price elasticity’ of demand. Falling prices, in turn, result from exploiting economies of scale in manufacturing. Thus, firms can reduce costs, cut prices, increase sales and maximize profits (and grow) by increasing the scale of production. So ever greater consumption of resources is, ipso facto, a driver of growth in this paradigm: consumption (leading to investment and technological progress) drives growth, just as growth and technological progress drives consumption.” Service economy. IPS. Valuing the things can create more jobs if that is your thing. 292 Solar hydrogen plus conservation economy – spaceship economy. Problem with nuclear power, not 14. 293 Problem with neo-classical economics is that it doesn’t understand physics, it has no role for physical materials, energy or the laws of thermodynamics. “Energy and materials exist in the theory as outputs – products and services – but not as inputs or drivers.” 294 I DECOUPLING DEBUNKED – EVIDENCE AND ARGUMENTS AGAINST GREEN GROWTH AS A SOLE STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY Service has a footprint. ICT and mountains of electronic 44 Service economy only exist on top of the material economy, not replacing it. 45 I PROSPERITY WITHOUT GROWTH “There is an even more important lesson emerging from all of this. The suspicion that the richest in the world are consuming more and more of the world’s resources in pursuit of less and less additional satisfaction contains a powerful humanitarian argument for redistribution. Should we not aim to optimise the overall satisfaction associated with our material throughputs rather than maximise the throughputs themselves? And if this is the case, should we not focus our efforts on increasing incomes (and material throughputs) in the regions where this will have the biggest impact on people’s quality of life?” 83 107 The functioning of capitalist economy. 109 Absolut increase in CO₂ Figure 5.2 116 Increasing material footprint 118 No evidence of decoupling however evidence of the opposite. 119 “Capitalist economies place a high emphasis on the efficiency with which inputs to production (labour, capital, resources) are utilised. Continuous improvements in technology mean that more output can be produced for any given input. Efficiency improvement stimulates demand by driving down costs and contributes to a positive cycle of expansion. But crucially it also means that fewer people are needed to produce the same goods from one year to the next. As long as ‘aggregate demand’ grows fast enough to offset this increase in ‘labour productivity’, there isn’t a problem. But if it doesn’t, then this dynamic means that less labour is needed and someone somewhere loses their job. If demand slows for any reason – whether through a decline in consumer confidence, through commodity price shocks or through a managed attempt to reduce consumption – then the systemic trend towards improved labour productivity leads to unemployment.” 109 There is no simple formula that leads from the efficiency of the market to the meeting of ecological targets. Simplistic assumptions that capitalism’s propensity for efficiency will allow us to stabilise the climate or protect against resource scarcity are nothing short of delusional. The truth is that there is as yet no credible, socially just, ecologically sustainable scenario of continually growing incomes for upwards of nine billion people. And the critical question is not whether the complete decarbonisation of our energy systems or the dematerialisation of our consumption patterns is technically feasible, but whether it is possible in our kind of society. The analysis in this chapter suggests that it is entirely fanciful to suppose that ‘deep’ emission and resource cuts can be achieved without confronting the structure of market economies.” 125 “But even as the engine of growth delivers productivity improvement, so it also drives forward the scale of throughput. Nowhere is there any evidence that efficiency can outrun – and continue to outrun – scale in the way it must do if growth is to be compatible with sustainability.” 126 The workings of company and problems of profit. Reasons firms seek profit: 1. investment in maintenance and improvements. 2. Pay creditors 3. Return to shareholders. Investment need to improve efficiency or productivity. Cost-minimization is important to companies, “The driver for efficiency is essentially the profit motive: the need to increase the difference between revenues from sales and the costs associated with the so-called factor inputs: capital, labour and material resources.” Cost minimization has a cost. Focus on minimizing labour or material resources depends on their price. Labour productivity is declining, from 4 - 5% 1960 to 0,5 % 2015, See TURNING POINT: THE END OF EXPONENTIAL GROWTH? on useful work. Increasing labour productivity means “same quantity of goods and services with fewer people, the cycle creates a downward pressure on employment that’s only relieved if output increases.” “Efficiency quite literally drives growth forwards. By reducing labour (and resource) inputs, efficiency brings down the cost of goods over time. This has the effect of stimulating demand and promoting growth. Far from acting to reduce the throughput of goods, technological progress serves to increase production output by reducing factor costs.” Rebound effect. Physical limit to efficiency. 130 More service in new economy 159 Examples of climate light services: “community energy projects, local farmers’ markets, slow food cooperatives, sports clubs, libraries, community health and fitness centres, local repair and maintenance services, craft workshops, writing centres, outdoor pursuits, music and drama, yoga, martial arts, meditation, gardening, the restoration of parks and open spaces.” 161 “The critical distinction is to invest in assets that maximise our potential to flourish with the minimum level of material consumption, rather than in assets that maximise the throughput of material commodities – irrespective of their contribution to long-term prosperity.” 167 I DOUGHNUT ECONOMICS: SEVEN WAYS TO THINK LIKE A 21ST-CENTURY ECONOMIST Increasing material footprint and no existence of environmental Kuznets either! Even if it existed we could not continue on its path. 173 Example of coffee beans on how to utilize biological nutrients better. Technical nutrients. Design for repair, reuse, refurbishment and last in the order, recycle. Recycling start doing it. 85 % of phones were not recycled. Nothing is 100 % recyclable. Look at Japan, close (98%) but no cigar. Cyclical economy instead of circular economy! See THE ENTROPY LAW AND THE ECONOMIC PROCESS IN RETROSPECT on economic process as entropic, THE CIRCULAR BIOECONOMY AND DECOUPLING: IMPLICATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE GROWTH on circular economy, DECOUPLING DEBUNKED – EVIDENCE AND ARGUMENTS AGAINST GREEN GROWTH AS A SOLE STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY Wealth of people, biosphere and knowledge dissipate. 183 State role, switch from taxing labor to taxing non-renewables and provide incentives to go from labour productivity to resource productivity coupled with subsidies for renewable energy and regulate to get net-zero and net-positive industries. State/government as taxer, giver of subsidies, regulator, long-term investor and measurer of sustainability 196
To encouragement Next encouragement