The Simpler Way perspective on the global predicament
- The Simpler Way perspective on the global predicament by Ted Trainer
- The dominant view, almost never questioned, is that major global problems can be solved within and by the kind of society we have now, i.e., one providing high material living standards and increasing wealth, and driven by market forces and economic growth. Many believe the changes required will have to be big but hardly anyone seems to think that the kind of society we have built over several hundred years needs to be fundamentally reconsidered, let alone abandoned.
I want to sketch the reasons why I believe that this dominant, never questioned conventional view is quite mistaken. For more than fifty years there has been gradually accumulating an overwhelming case that the global predicament is a) far too deep to be remedied without abandoning the fundamental structures, systems, world views and values of consumer-capitalist society, b) is being generated by those foundational structures and commitments, and therefore c) can only be solved by transition to a very different kind of society in which we do not have high “living standards”, globalisation, a central role for market systems, or any economic growth at all, and indeed in which GDP per capita must be cut to a small fraction of current levels.
To the conventional economist, business man, politician, or citizen, let alone to the typical energy technologist familiar with ever- increasing advances, such a claim is likely to sound ridiculously extreme and implausible. So I need to begin by sketching the reasons why I and many others think this general “limits to growth” perspective is overwhelmingly convincing. Then I will go on to outline the general form that a sustainable and just society must take if this analysis of our situation is persuasive. It would have to be an extremely radically different kind of society. My task will be to show that this The Simpler Way it would be workable and attractive.
