Comment by juanbyrge
6 years ago
Here's something fast: the Holocene extinction.
Since the dawn of modern civilization, countless species have become extinct, and around 1 million species face extinction caused by human events.
Should we really be worshipping economic progress?
This isn't about economic progress, it's about humans getting things done in a short amount of time and with fewer resources that what we currently hear about. If you want to expand his list to include other things why don't you send your examples to him?
> Should we really be worshipping economic progress?
Yes.
The genie is out of the bottle, there's no going back to some imaginary idylic pre-industrial world. The best way to preserve what there is and free up more space for preservation is to pursue technology and efficiency ruthlessly. Do more with less.
We can have development with constraint, we can have development without the cult of growth, we could go back to the more inclusive, constrained form of economic progress seen in the immediate post war. We could even try to tune the system in new ways to limit the clear problems of unconstrained globalised capitalism.
We do not need to go back to a Medieval agrarian feudalism, return to mercantilism or unwind the industrial revolution. It happened, we should learn from it and make the best of it...