A fascinating look at a world in which we have become obsessed with economic growth at the
expense of quality of life, and what we can do to change
Ever get the feeling that things are falling apart? You're not alone. From bad banks to global warming it can all look hopeless, but what if everything could turn out, well, even better than before? What if the only thing holding us back is a lack of imagination and a surplus of old orthodoxies? In fascinating and iconoclastic detail—on everything from the cash in your pocket to the food on your plate and the shape of our working lives—this book describes how the relentless race for economic growth is not always one worth winning, how excessive materialism has come at a terrible cost to our environment, and how it hasn't even made us any happier in the process. The author believes passionately in the human capacity for change, and shows how the good life remains in our grasp. While global warming and financial meltdown might feel like modern day horsemen of the apocalypse, this book shows how such end of the world scenarios offer us the chance for a new beginning.
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Short-listed for Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing 2014 (UK).* Online activity through Abacus twitter
| Introduction |
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xiii | |
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Some reputational risks of predicting the apocalypse |
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1 | (15) |
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Growth and the curious invisibility of limits |
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16 | (29) |
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Planetary Plimsoll lines -- finding the Biosphere's safe waterline |
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45 | (35) |
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The Icarus Complex -- living the high life, the jet age and consumer culture |
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80 | (23) |
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5 Meaning and imagination |
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The fall of materialism and the rise of well-being |
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103 | (24) |
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127 | (10) |
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Taking back the banking system |
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137 | (32) |
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The age of diminishing returns -- warnings from history |
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169 | (19) |
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The art of rapid transition -- hope from history |
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188 | (29) |
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217 | (20) |
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Why feeding ourselves Shouldn't be a problem, but a joy |
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237 | (18) |
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Why we can generate sufficient energy, without getting dirty |
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255 | (27) |
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Junk highs and the Big Sell -- what advertising has to answer for |
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282 | (26) |
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Strangelujah! -- from passive consumers to active producers |
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308 | (25) |
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The great divergence -- growing larger and further apart |
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333 | (28) |
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361 | (19) |
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380 | (1) |
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381 | (8) |
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389 | (5) |
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The climax economy: re-imagining how we get on |
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394 | (10) |
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404 | (7) |
| Notes |
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411 | (22) |
| Picture credits |
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433 | (2) |
| Select bibliography |
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435 | (8) |
| Index |
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443 | |
Andrew Simms is the author of several books including the bestselling Tescopoly. He is a Fellow of nef (the new economics foundation), trained at the London School of Economics and was described by New Scientist magazine as, 'a master at joined-up progressive thinking.' He is also one of the UK's leading campaigners who coined the term 'Clone Towns,' co-authored the groundbreaking Green New Deal, was one of the original organisers of the campaign to cancel poor country debt, and devised how to mark the day in the year when the world enters 'ecological debt.' Andrew witnessed first hand for more than twenty years failed international efforts to solve critical economic and environmental problems, from extreme poverty to climate change. This book is the result of his search for something better.
