Living Within Ecological Limits

CENTER for theADVANCEMENT of theSTEADY STATE ECONOMY

WILD LAW ConferenceQueensland Conservatorium 28 September 2013

Southbank, Brisbane

Richard Sanders richard@quest2025.net

Director, Queensland Chapter CASSE

www.steadystate.org

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Introduction Anthropocene – Planetary emergency where

absolute scarcity is new reality

Think piece on implications of absolute scarcity for legal, financial, economic and governance institutions

Not my field of expertise – some thoughts from the emergent systems view of reality

I will skim through to sow some seeds to spend a little time on a possible way out of this mess

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Structure Absolute scarcity vs. Relative scarcity

Legal, financial, economic and governance systems of Industrial Revolution assumed endless growth – consequences for sustainability

Ecological reality and nested systems theory

Thoughts on new institutions for sustainability

A liberating way forward

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Absolute Scarcity

Relative scarcity is a concept from economics

Economists talk of the scarcity of one thing to another – price is ratio of relative scarcities

Relative scarcity translates into infinite abundance of resources – infinite substitution

Reality is absolute scarcity as scale of human enterprise has grown exponentially creating a planetary emergency - Examples

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Theoretical Framework Nested (holarchical) systems and thermodynamic

(ecological) limits (Nature’s Laws)

Economy is dependent subsystem of society is dependent subsystem of ecology (biosphere)

Rule – subsystems must not behave in ways that undermine integrity of greater systems – this has implications for governance and sustainability

Sustainability Rule – low entropy must be consumed no more quickly than Nature produces it – low entropy is absolutely scarce!

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Institutions - Legal Guth (2008, 466) identifies the legal system as the

primary driver of unsustainability:

“the legal and economic structures adopted to promote the Industrial Revolution were grounded in assumptions of endless economic growth.”

Assumptions reasonable in “empty world”

Invalid in “full world”

The truth about absolute scarcity is that it renders our current legal, financial, economic and governance institutions obsolete

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Institutions - Legal cont’d

Under the legal system individuals and corporations have the right to pursue profits through development on the assumption that this leads to the net benefit of society.

only grounds to reject a development are where a cost-benefit analysis demonstrates the costs of the project outweigh the benefits.

2 problems Discounting Cumulative impacts

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Institutions - Legal cont’d

Discounting benefits generally accrue in the short term and

costs in the longer term so it is mathematically unlikely that costs will outweigh benefits as they are much more heavily discounted.

Cumulative impacts under law, consideration is limited to the

merits of the single project and it is not possible to take account of the cumulative impacts of a large number of developments in a region or catchment

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Institutions - Financial System

Fractional reserve banking drives exponential growth – it’s a pyramid scheme

Private banks create new money as interest bearing debt

World’s money growing at 6% compounding for past 300 years – 1c @ 6% for 1992 years

Money is not wealth but a claim on wealth

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Institutions - Financial System

Sustainability problem = exponentially growing claims on natural capital realised through globalised markets

Financial system drives ever increasing inequity

Financial system is a pyramid scheme and will collapse at some point

This design of financial system will lead inevitably to ecological breakdown, ever increasing inequity and eventual financial system collapse no matter where in the universe it is adopted

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Institutions - Economics Economic theory is fundamentally flawed –

economics can in principle deliver neither efficiency nor maximise the welfare of society – if anything it does the opposite

Economy does not operate according to economic theory anyway

Reality is chrematistics - art of making money

The financial and economic systems constitute a system of power that transfers effort and purchasing power up the pyramid from the many to the few

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Institutions - Governance Nested systems theory tells us we need governance

to constrain subsystems such that they don’t undermine the integrity of the greater systems of which they are part.

Individual behaviour needs to be constrained to ensure the common good

Vehicles of governance have been hijacked by those who don’t believe in it Deregulation ‘Govern’ for vested interests Disinterested and disengaged public Propaganda - How Corporations Take the Risk Out of

Democracy (Alex Carey, 1997)

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Another way is needed “this much is clear: exceeding the ecologically

sustainable assimilative capacity of the Earth is the inevitable result of the economic path the common law has set us on. Neither the current law nor, the market it shapes, contain any way to stop it.” (Joseph Guth, 2008)

Indeed, as suggested so far the entwined legal, financial, economic and governance institutions structurally drive the multi-dimensional planetary emergency that threatens the future of human civilisation

So what are the options for a sustainable world?

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New Institutions - Legal

Ecological tort Guth (2008) proposes a tort of ecological

degradation that places liability for ecological degradation on the individual and gives standing to any member of the community to bring an action for ecological degradation.

Fundamental transformation of the System

Common property

Usufruct title

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New Institutions - Financial

Financial system is basis of capitalism – private (privaré) accumulation of wealth is not an option!

100% reserve financial system

100% reserve can fund the transformation of society to an ecologically sustainable basis

Production and absolutely scarce resources can be oriented to needs of all rather than biased to wants of the few

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New Institutions - Economic

Cooperatives

Permaculturise the suburbs

Meet needs primarily through social relations

National/Continental physical budget constraints

Rationing of the essentials that need to be mass produced

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New Institutions - Governance

Based on Earth Law and the primacy of planetary ecological integrity

Nested system of governance reflecting nested reality

We can be governed by god, king, corporate or ourselves - consumers become citizens again

‘We, the people’ reclaim democracy from the hijackers

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A Way Forward Planetary Dialogues – Freirean Dialogue held globally

monthly

Awaken to our enslavement in an evil system of power rooted in key institutions and seek our liberation from it

Awaken to ecocide, inequity and collapse

A Liberating Vision of new civilisation to realise very best of our humanity

Reclaim our systems of governance

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The CASSE Position Position statement on economic growth

Recognises the conflict between growth and environmental protection

Calls for the transition to a SSE Purpose

Demonstrate the level of support for a SSE Advance the SSE in policy discussions

Endorsements >10 000 people, >200 organisations

http://steadystate.org/act/sign-the-position/

Thank you!

CENTER for theADVANCEMENT of theSTEADY STATE ECONOMY

Richard Sanders richard@quest2025.net

Director, Queensland Chapter CASSE

http://steadystate.org/act/sign-the-position/

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Introduction

This is a story about our Survival

All about a shift to a more valid paradigm

Physical impossibility and political impossibility

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Introduction We live on a spaceship

A ball of rock hurtling through space cloaked in a thin veil of life – the biosphere

The web of life continually replenishes the biosphere and keeps it in a stable far from equilibrium state unlike the Moon or Mars

The biosphere is like a solar powered factory

It is the primary economy and spontaneously produces matter and energy that is concentrated, structured and organised and therefore is useful

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Planetary Emergency Most of the ecological and biophysical gauges in

the cockpit of spaceship are in the red zone

We are in a planetary emergency!

Impacts are so great – Anthropocene - a new era

In terms of Ecological Life Support: CO2 is at 390 ppm. Safe level is 350 ppm Sixth major extinction event of all time Humanity has overshot the carrying capacity of the

planet

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Planetary Boundaries Study in Nature in 2009 - Rockstrom et al. 2009, Nature 461: 472-475.

Nine planetary boundaries that define the “safe operating space” for humanity on the planet

Relate to earth-system processes:

1. Climate change2. Biodiversity loss3. Nitrogen and phosphorous cycles4. Stratospheric ozone depletion5. Ocean acidification6. Global freshwater use7. Change in land use8. Atmospheric aerosol loading9. Chemical pollution

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Planetary BoundariesSource: Rockstrom et al. 2009, Nature 461: 472-475.

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Ecological Footprint Biocapacity

Global Ecological Overshoot

We are in a state of overshoot Resources are being

used faster than they can be regenerated

Wastes are being produced faster than they can be assimilated

Economic growth is liquidating our planet’s ecosystems and will lead to the collapse of human civilisation

Source: Global Footprint Network

The World

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The Sustainability Problem

The physical scale of the global economy can no longer be sustained

Decades of economic growth has not addressed the growing gap between rich and poor

Economic growth is the root of the multi-dimensional planetary emergency that threatens the future of human civilisation

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Steady State Economics

Internationally agreed sustainability criteria are inter- and intra-generational equity

Intergenerational equity – non declining stocks of the various forms of critical natural capital through time = steady state

intra-generational equity

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Steady State Economics Herman Daly/ CASSE recommendation -

Transition to 100% reserve financial system

Impose ecological and equity constraints on the economy and use the market to allocate resources within those constraints

Fractional reserve financial system on any planet would result in overshoot, growing inequity and GFC (structurally locked in – not because of greed)

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Steady State Economics

Can the market allocate within the constraint?

Absolute scarcity cannot be allocated by the market

Polanyi - economic relations separate us

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Return to the Commons

A return to the Commons?

Rights for Nature

Usufruct rights for humans