riprosperityproject.org

Dear Dr Dasgupta, I am the founder of the Prosperity Project in Providence RI, so I was interested in reading your article that came to me today in the Encyclopedia of the Earth on Natural Capital and economic growth.  I found it sort of troubling, as it really seems to underestimate the amount of damage humans are doing to the ecosystems, and does not really take to task the miscalculations that we see  in our efforts to understand if the economy is sustainable.  I do not believe that adding up the manufactured, human and natural capital to see if it is a positive number is all that useful.  You note that things like deforestation, soil erosion, depletion of fish in the ocean are vastly undercounted, but you seem unwilling to give them additional weight in the calculations for determining sustainability.  My guess is that nothing being done today is sustainable as long as ecosystems continue to deteriorate.  What makes up for the loss of the rainforest, soil erosion, dead zones in the Oceans, global climate change?  Just because more people have more education and there are more computers, we are still depleting capital and the ability of people to feed themselves in the future.  We can not eat computers.  

I am not an academic, I am an activist, so I guess we have to approach things a bit differently, but I do not think manufactured capital makes up for losses in natural capital, and that the only way to sustainablility is to repair and heal ecosystems.  I am going to copy below the notes for a talk I gave recently at the RI Land And Waters Partnership summit.  You may or may not find it interesting, but I would be interested in your thoughts about how to make sure we are not miscalculating sustainability.  Greg Gerritt Providence RI

There is an inextricable link.  A society can not end poverty without healing the ecosystems (local and global) it depends upon, nor can it heal the ecosystems it depends upon without ending poverty. A general prosperity depends on both ending poverty and healing ecosystems at the same time, and requires an effort that strengthens the linkage between the two.

The basic premise is that the paradigm governing current economic development policies is the wrong paradigm for creating a true prosperity.  The current paradigm is based on enriching the few and relies upon using up natural capital and calling that profit.  The results are poverty, ecological disasters such as global warming and the extinction epidemic, and rampant violence.  We need a new paradigm, and Rhode Island, due to its small size, is the perfect place to test these ideas. 

Three weeks after Roger Williams arrived in Providence in 1636, settling right on the banks of the Moshassuck River, one of his compatriots opined that the Rhode Island economy was in trouble and the best thing to remedy the situation was to give a tax break to all men of property.  Just kidding about Roger Williams and his friends, but for as long as there has been a Rhode Island there has been a lucrative industry in making suggestions to improve the economy, but mostly it has just lined the pockets of those who already have lined pockets while increasing poverty and leading to ecological decay. 

The Economic Policy Council, Economic Development Council, politicians, and practitioners of the dark arts of economics have for years been saying we can fix the economy, but it still does not work.  Children still go hungry, homelessness increases, there is ever greater disparity between rich and poor, and the land is less fruitful. 

Given the long term failure of economic development plans, it seems useful to at least examine if the economic growth promoters are promoting the wrong thing and if a new approach might be more useful. This may be even more important today when the physical limits of the Earth are being reached and the growth mentality that developed in the age of tiny wooden boats crossing tempestuous oceans seem to have run into the end of petroleum and the age global warming.  

It  is time for a study on what a sustainable Rhode Island economy might look like, how it might function, and what kind of prosperity would be possible while healing the ecosystem that support us and to get that information into the hands of the public and the policy makers.

Prosperity.  The dominant paradigm of economic growth leads us to global warming, petroleum depletion, growing poverty, paved over farmland, toxic landscapes, and ever more dangerous weaponry.  The paradigm of a Prosperity oriented economy leads to healthy farms, new ways of looking at energy, peace, a non toxic landscape, and the end of poverty.  Can we change the discussion in RI and actually seek prosperity? What would that look like? 

The RI prosperity project is an effort to help RI transform its economy from one based on growth and greed to one based on ecological wisdom, justice, and non violence.  An economy based on healing ecosystems and stopping global warming as well as providing for every member of our community.  This is a new site, but will soon be filled with writings that relate directly to the prosperity of Rhode Islanders by people actively participating in the process of economic transformation.  It is hoped your comments will enliven the debate and speed up the action.

Greg Gerritt founder RI Prosperity Project  5/24/08