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Club of Rome / Matthew Simmons

Matthew Simmons has done a review of the Club of Rome's book "Limits to Growth".

This takes me back to the debates of the 1970s about light and deep greens. As a light green I believed then that it is possible to have economic growth without a growth in the consumption of energy and resources.

I continue to believe that and can cite evidence. However, I have continued to take the view that we should focus on improving quality of life rather than increasing the consumption of resources.

The review is worth reading (see link).

Comments

John Hemming said…
I think we are getting close, but I don't think it is 2005. I accept that people will look at coal, but there are depletion issues there as well.

It creates a massive number of challenges.
Stephen Booth said…
Sir,

at this year's UNISON National Delegates' Conference I was fortunate enough to attend a fringe meeting where Environmental Scientist Jonathan Neale gave a talk on the subject of climate change.

A key point of his talk was that whilst a degree of further climate change is inevitable (we can't fix the last few hundred years of damage in a day) a solution is possible without a drop in living standards, but that it would require a large public works programme. He indicated that the two key factors would be increasing use of public transport for commuting and improvements to domestic and commercial property insulation.

I did write an article on the subject for the West Midlands Region Conference Newsletter, but it got bumped for another article on the subject.

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