Two
years before he was born, Robert Costanza’s mother lost her baby when she was
six months pregnant. It happened in the year 1948 in Donora, Pennsylvania, with
the Donora Smog, an environmental disaster that helped to raise awareness on
the dangers of air pollution.
The incident led to 20 immediate deaths in
October, 1948, and another 50 deaths took place within the following month.
Respiratory problems affected a large fraction of the population. Robert’s
mother lost her baby after she got sick with pleurisy and pneumonia.
This
environmental disaster and the unregulated industrial emissions and car exhaust
in big cities like Los Angeles and New York sparked an outcry that led to the
creation of the Clean Air Act in 1968. Yet these changes were not
followed by any long-term plan to build a sustainable economy.
How
can we develop an economy that is not about providing short-term benefits but
that evolves to develop a creative plan to address the issues the system
perpetuates consistently? These issues are climate and environmental
disruption, biodiversity loss, financial instability, inequality and eroding democracies.
Robert Costanza argues that the GDP or Gross
Domestic Product should not be used as an indicator of a healthy economy. Every
country uses GDP to assess the health of the economy. The use of the GDP
dominates policy goals and consumerism. Yet the GDP is misleading. He explains
this thoroughly in his book Addicted to Growth.
To understand the limited value of the GDP,
take a moment to reflect on the true goal of the economy.
What is the goal of the economy?
Robert Costanza states that the economy should
sustainably improve human wellbeing, and he reminds us that the quality
of human life is interdependent with the quality of all life on the planet. On
the other hand, what happens when humans are at the service of the economy?
What happens if the economy grows at all costs by exploiting the environment,
compromising physical and mental human health and causing the extinction of
multiple species?
According to Robert Costanza, "we are trapped in an addictive pattern of behaviors called social traps, or societal addictions, that provide short-term rewards but are detrimental and unsustainable in the long run.”
Robert Costanza’s reflections and facts encourage us to get together to create a vision of the kind of world we want. He also sets the strategies to face the addiction through something called Motivational Interviewing (MI), a non-judgmental approach that is based on fostering a positive vision. He describes the elements of the motivational interviewing technique in detail and I highly recommend this chapter. It has the potential to kindle conversations that may help us find common ground with others, and to work toward a shared vision of the future.
Overcoming
an addiction
“It is rarely effective to confront addicts
concerning the damage they are causing to themselves and to others.” Denial is
the most likely response when an addict is confronted. For this reason, an
introspective read of the MI and the application of these elements in different
settings may help create a path of understanding and hope.
The fossil-fueled economic growth and the
“economic growth at all costs” model are important aspects of this societal
addiction. We must address it in constructive ways. To do this, Robert Costanza
invites us to review how we dealt with societal addictions before. For example,
he refers to slavery and tobacco as forms of societal addictions.
How did societies overcome past addictions?
He cites the example of slavery in the United States of America as a form of
addiction. The American South wanted the profits of slavery, so they refused to
abolish it. Even after slavery ended, it took one hundred years for the Civil
Rights Movement to take place, and we are still dealing with the aftermath of
slavery.
Tobacco is another example of a societal
addiction. Despite the clear evidence of the effects of tobacco on human
health, it took fifty years to reduce smoking rates by fifty percent. Why did
it take so long?
“It took 50 years for smoking rates to halve
in the face of tobacco companies seeking to lobby governments and muddy the waters of scientific evidence. Advocacy, policies, and education can work but
in the face of determined opposition it can take a long time.”
Like the tobacco industry, the fossil fuel industry knew about the dangers in using their products. They were well aware of the links with climate change and the consequences of spewing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, but they used the strategies of the tobacco industry. They invested in ongoing
disinformation campaigns and political lobbying to prevent change. Robert Costanza makes it clear: “In fact,
both the tobacco and fossil fuel industries used many of the same scientists,
publicists and advertising firms to downplay the dangerous impacts of their
products. Both industries continue to work like drug dealers concerned with
their own interests by preventing the addiction from being recognized and
overcome.”
On why I read this book by Robert Costanza
When I read the book Braiding Sweetgrass
by Robin Wall Kimmerer, I became intrigued to learn more about ecological economics, so I researched
information on the topic and I came across the works of Robert Costanza. I
borrowed his book from the library.
Robert Costanza is Professor of Ecological
Economics at the Institute for Global Prosperity (IGP) at University College
London (UCL). He is the 2024 winner of the Blue Planet Prize. His work brought
global attention to the previously understated importance of ecosystem
services. As a co-founder of ecological economics, a new field of study that
recognizes that the economy is embedded in society and a finite biosphere,
Professor Costanza advocates for an ecologically sustainable wellbeing society.
You can learn more about his work by visiting his website:
https://www.robertcostanza.com/
Conclusion
If you
don’t have time to read the whole book, go to chapter 5 and read pages 102, 111
and 112. I hope this will help you to broaden your perspective on the subject
and to set new expectations. I would like to ask Robert Costanza what the
universities are doing to integrate ecological economics into mainstream
economics.
Finally,
Chapter 6 of Addicted to Growth provides a variety of practical ways
through which people and countries are already working to build a sustainable, healthy future
in harmony with the environment. We can
all be part of this movement to embody the vision and policies that foster the
development of sustainable, healthy, happy and fair societies, so I hope I
inspired you to you explore his book. Hopefully, Addicted to Growth:
Societal Therapy for a Sustainable Wellbeing Future will be shared in high
schools and universities. I strongly encourage educators to read it and share
it.
A world
of peaceful, healthy coexistence is possible when we create the medium and
mindsets to make it possible.
Relevant links:
https://www.greattransition.org/publication/farming-for-a-small-planet
Photo by Sebastian Gabriel. Source: unsphlash.com
