Our addiction to and dependency upon an unsustainable economy

Dear Editors,

Reading today's main story, "Blair shift on climate change", made me think that we (all of us) are like a group of alcoholics discussing our PROBLEM, mostly amicably, sometimes heatedly, some of us still refusing to see or accept that we have a problem at all. However, although we have been discussing it for some years now (some of us for more than 3 decades), we are still drinking, and largely in denial of just how serious our problem is, and that if we don't get on top of it soon, it will kill us. The trouble is that it has become not just our way of life, but also of making a living (we are not just addicted, but in a double bind, making it all the more difficult to face up to).

We are not facing up to the reality of being dependent upon, quite literally addicted to, a growth-dependent economy and grossly materialistic ways of life which are fundamentally unsustainable.

Mr Blair makes some very important observations when he says that "People fear some external force is going to impose some internal target on you ... to restrict your economic growth", or, "The blunt truth about the politics of climate change is that no country will want to sacrifice its economy in order to meet this challenge,"

What he, and virtually everyone else, has yet to face up to is that unless WE place the necessary limits and restrictions on ourselves, a ruthless mother nature will do it for us. What we are observing in the way of climate change is her just "warming up" for the job!

Our current situation (i.e. that of our children and coming generations) IS hopeless, just as it is for an alcoholic who refuses to face up to his addiction. It is ruining his life and will ultimately kill him. For an individual that is a tragedy, for our entire civilisation, perhaps the whole human species, there is no word to express it.

And our situation will remain hopeless until we (or at least some of us) come out of denial, stop criticising or trying to change "the system", and instead start creating an alternative, sustainable socio-economic order, rooted, not in our animal nature, as it is at present, but in our more enlightened human nature (see "an anthropological approach to sustainability").

To: letters@guardian.co.uk Re: Our addiction to and dependency upon an unsustainable economy Date: Wednesday, 2 November 05


Dear Editors, Reading today's main story, "Blair shift on climate change", made me think that we (all of us) are like a group of alcoholics discussing our PROBLEM, mostly amicably, sometimes heatedly, some of us still refusing to see or accept that we have a problem at all. However, although we have been discussing it for some years now (some of us for more than 3 decades), we are still drinking, and largely in denial of just how serious our problem is, and that if we don't get on top of it soon, it will kill us. The trouble is that it has become not just our way of life, but also of making a living (we are not just addicted, but in a double bind, making it all the more difficult to face up to). We are not facing up to the reality of being dependent upon, quite literally addicted to, a growth-dependent economy and grossly materialistic ways of life which are fundamentally unsustainable. Mr Blair makes some very important observations when he says that "People fear some external force is going to impose some internal target on you ... to restrict your economic growth", or, "The blunt truth about the politics of climate change is that no country will want to sacrifice its economy in order to meet this challenge," What he, and virtually everyone else, has yet to face up to is that unless WE place the necessary limits and restrictions on ourselves, a ruthless mother nature will do it for us. What we are observing in the way of climate change is her just "warming up" for the job! Our current situation (i.e. that of our children and coming generations) IS hopeless, just as it is for an alcoholic who refuses to face up to his addiction. It is ruining his life and will ultimately kill him. For an individual that is a tragedy, for our entire civilisation, perhaps the whole human species, there is no word to express it. And our situation will remain hopeless until we (or at least some of us) come out of denial, stop criticising or trying to change "the system", and instead start creating an alternative, sustainable socio-economic order, rooted, not in our animal nature, as it is at present, but in our more enlightened human nature (see "an anthropological approach to sustainability"). www.spaceship-earth.org