The annual Roland Clift lecture on Industrial Ecology.
surrey.ac.uk/ces
"Now that the impacts of human activities on the biosphere are obvious to anyone who does not deny the evidence and scarcity of key materials is starting to affect even the most developed economies, it is clear that a sustainable future cannot be just incrementally different from "business as usual". In industrial or post-industrial societies, quality of life is not strongly dependent on conventional economic metrics such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which measure flows of resources. Tim Jackson in CES amongst others has questioned the paradigm of continuous growth in economic activity, measured by GDP. The 'circular economy', advocated by bodies like the International Society for Industrial Ecology, the Royal Society of Arts and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, represents a possible future in which material resources are used more efficiently. Walter Stahel (Visiting Professor in CES) has gone further, advocating the 'performance economy' with economic activity restructured to use labour rather than energy as the main economic factor.
This talk will draw together these issues, to highlight some of the ways in which economic and industrial policy might be rethought by focussing on forms of capital stock rather than flows of resources. What is the significance of the material stock of goods in use, particularly buildings and infrastructure, and of other stocks representing "social" and "human" capital? Could focussing on stocks rather than flows deliver a high quality of life, as distinct from a high level of material consumption?"
4 авг 2024
