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Imagining a World Without Growth (Dream of Envirofreaks)
NY Times ^ | December 1, 2015 | Eduardo Porter

Posted on 12/02/2015 7:10:47 AM PST by C19fan

Could the world order survive without growing?

It’s hard to imagine now, but humanity made do with little or no economic growth for thousands of years. In Byzantium and Egypt, income per capita at the end of the first millennium was lower than at the dawn of the Christian Era. Much of Europe experienced no growth at all in the 500 years that preceded the Industrial Revolution. In India, real incomes per person shrank continuously from the early 17th through the late 19th century.

As world leaders gather in Paris to hash out an agreement to hold down and ultimately stop the emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases that threaten to make Earth increasingly inhospitable for humanity, there is a question that is unlikely to be openly discussed at the two-week conclave convened by the United Nations. But it is nonetheless hanging in the air: Could civilization, as we know it, survive such an experience again?

The answer, simply, is no.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: environment; warming

1 posted on 12/02/2015 7:10:48 AM PST by C19fan
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To: C19fan

When you are dead and they are living in caves eating nuts and berries, they’ll be happy.


2 posted on 12/02/2015 7:13:30 AM PST by Uncle Miltie (islam is a totalitarian death cult founded by a child rapist.)
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To: C19fan

Civilization as we know it will not survive these political pinheads, so the effect of not growing is secondary.


3 posted on 12/02/2015 7:31:47 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: C19fan

They also orgasmed over a world without humans.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Without_Us


4 posted on 12/02/2015 7:46:54 AM PST by aquila48
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To: C19fan

We need further growth if only to lift the bottom two billion to a basic standard of living with solid housing, running water, reliable electricity, sewer, K-8 education for boys and girls, basic healthcare.
And it is when life is no longer so desperate and child mortality drops to near zero and prospects for each child look good that parents are willing to have just one or two children.


5 posted on 12/02/2015 7:51:49 AM PST by tbw2
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To: Uncle Miltie

The article is ludicrous. There are no real data from the periods he is discussing. The historical “growth” claims are gross speculation by academics, and this sort of speculation is usually in the service of a leftist agenda.


6 posted on 12/02/2015 8:07:21 AM PST by achilles2000 ("I'll agree to save the whales as long as we can deport the liberals")
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