Our environment and economy are at a crossroads. This paper attempts a cohesive narrative on how ... more Our environment and economy are at a crossroads. This paper attempts a cohesive narrative on how human evolved behavior, money, energy, economy and the environment fit together. Humans strive for the same emotional state of our successful ancestors. In a resource rich environment, we coordinate in groups, corporations and nations, to maximize financial surplus, tethered to energy, tethered to carbon. At global scales, the emergent result of this combination is a mindless, energy hungry, CO2 emitting Superorganism. Under this dynamic we are now behaviorally 'growth constrained' and will use any means possible to avoid facing this reality. The farther we kick the can, the larger the disconnect between our financial and physical reality becomes. The moment of this recalibration will be a watershed time for our culture, but could also be the birth of a new 'systems economics'. and resultant different ways of living. The next 30 years are the time to apply all we've learned during the past 30 years. We've arrived at a species level conversation. "Ecological Economics addresses the relationships between ecosystems and economic systems in the broadest sense."-Robert Costanza, (the first sentence in the first article in the first issue of Ecological Economics) "The real problem of humanity is the following: we have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and god-like technology."-E.O. Wilson "We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning."-Jean Baudrillard "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."-James Baldwin
Our environment and economy are at a crossroads. This paper attempts a cohesive narrative on how ... more Our environment and economy are at a crossroads. This paper attempts a cohesive narrative on how human evolved behavior, money, energy, economy and the environment fit together. Humans strive for the same emotional state of our successful ancestors. In a resource rich environment, we coordinate in groups, corporations and nations, to maximize financial surplus, tethered to energy, tethered to carbon. At global scales, the emergent result of this combination is a mindless, energy hungry, CO2 emitting Superorganism. Under this dynamic we are now behaviorally 'growth constrained' and will use any means possible to avoid facing this reality. The farther we kick the can, the larger the disconnect between our financial and physical reality becomes. The moment of this recalibration will be a watershed time for our culture, but could also be the birth of a new 'systems economics'. and resultant different ways of living. The next 30 years are the time to apply all we've learned during the past 30 years. We've arrived at a species level conversation. "The real problem of humanity is the following: we have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and god-like technology."-E.O. Wilson "We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning."-Jean Baudrillard "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."-James Baldwin 1. Overview Despite decades of warnings, agreements, and activism, human energy consumption, emissions, and atmospheric CO2 concentrations all hit new records in 2018 (Quéré et al., 2018). If the global economy continues to grow at about 3.0% per year, we will consume as much energy and materials in the next ∼30 years as we did cumulatively in the past 10,000. Is such a scenario inevitable? Is such a scenario pos-sible? Simultaneously, we get daily reminders the global economy isn't working as it used to (Stokes, 2017) such as rising wealth and income inequality, heavy reliance on debt and government guarantees, populist political movements, increasing apathy, tension and violence, and ecological decay. To avoid facing the consequences of our biophysical reality, we're now obtaining growth in increasingly unsustainable ways. The developed world is using finance to enable the extraction of things we couldn't otherwise afford to extract to produce things we otherwise couldn't afford to consume. With this backdrop, what sort of future economic systems are now feasible? What choreography would allow them to come about? In the fullness of the Anthropocene, what does a hard look at the relationships between ecosystems and economic systems in the broadest sense suggest about our collective future? Ecological economics was ahead of its time in recognizing the fundamental importance of nature's services and the biophysical underpinnings of human economies. Can it now assemble a blueprint for a 'reconstruction' to guide a way forward? Before articulating prescriptions, we first need a comprehensive diagnosis of the patient. In 2019, we are beyond a piecemeal listing of what's wrong. A coherent description of the global economy requires a systems view: describing the parts, the processes, how the parts and processes interact, and what these interactions imply about future possibilities. This paper provides a brief overview of the relationships between human behavior, the economy and Earth's environment. It articulates how a social species self-organizing around surplus has metabolically morphed into a single, mindless, energy-hungry "Superorganism." Lastly, it provides an assessment of our constraints and opportunities, and suggests how a more sapient economic system might develop.
Our environment and economy are at a crossroads. This paper attempts a cohesive narrative on how ... more Our environment and economy are at a crossroads. This paper attempts a cohesive narrative on how human evolved behavior, money, energy, economy and the environment fit together. Humans strive for the same emotional state of our successful ancestors. In a resource rich environment, we coordinate in groups, corporations and nations, to maximize financial surplus, tethered to energy, tethered to carbon. At global scales, the emergent result of this combination is a mindless, energy hungry, CO2 emitting Superorganism. Under this dynamic we are now behaviorally 'growth constrained' and will use any means possible to avoid facing this reality. The farther we kick the can, the larger the disconnect between our financial and physical reality becomes. The moment of this recalibration will be a watershed time for our culture, but could also be the birth of a new 'systems economics'. and resultant different ways of living. The next 30 years are the time to apply all we've learned during the past 30 years. We've arrived at a species level conversation. "Ecological Economics addresses the relationships between ecosystems and economic systems in the broadest sense."-Robert Costanza, (the first sentence in the first article in the first issue of Ecological Economics) "The real problem of humanity is the following: we have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and god-like technology."-E.O. Wilson "We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning."-Jean Baudrillard "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."-James Baldwin
Our environment and economy are at a crossroads. This paper attempts a cohesive narrative on how ... more Our environment and economy are at a crossroads. This paper attempts a cohesive narrative on how human evolved behavior, money, energy, economy and the environment fit together. Humans strive for the same emotional state of our successful ancestors. In a resource rich environment, we coordinate in groups, corporations and nations, to maximize financial surplus, tethered to energy, tethered to carbon. At global scales, the emergent result of this combination is a mindless, energy hungry, CO2 emitting Superorganism. Under this dynamic we are now behaviorally 'growth constrained' and will use any means possible to avoid facing this reality. The farther we kick the can, the larger the disconnect between our financial and physical reality becomes. The moment of this recalibration will be a watershed time for our culture, but could also be the birth of a new 'systems economics'. and resultant different ways of living. The next 30 years are the time to apply all we've learned during the past 30 years. We've arrived at a species level conversation. "The real problem of humanity is the following: we have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and god-like technology."-E.O. Wilson "We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning."-Jean Baudrillard "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."-James Baldwin 1. Overview Despite decades of warnings, agreements, and activism, human energy consumption, emissions, and atmospheric CO2 concentrations all hit new records in 2018 (Quéré et al., 2018). If the global economy continues to grow at about 3.0% per year, we will consume as much energy and materials in the next ∼30 years as we did cumulatively in the past 10,000. Is such a scenario inevitable? Is such a scenario pos-sible? Simultaneously, we get daily reminders the global economy isn't working as it used to (Stokes, 2017) such as rising wealth and income inequality, heavy reliance on debt and government guarantees, populist political movements, increasing apathy, tension and violence, and ecological decay. To avoid facing the consequences of our biophysical reality, we're now obtaining growth in increasingly unsustainable ways. The developed world is using finance to enable the extraction of things we couldn't otherwise afford to extract to produce things we otherwise couldn't afford to consume. With this backdrop, what sort of future economic systems are now feasible? What choreography would allow them to come about? In the fullness of the Anthropocene, what does a hard look at the relationships between ecosystems and economic systems in the broadest sense suggest about our collective future? Ecological economics was ahead of its time in recognizing the fundamental importance of nature's services and the biophysical underpinnings of human economies. Can it now assemble a blueprint for a 'reconstruction' to guide a way forward? Before articulating prescriptions, we first need a comprehensive diagnosis of the patient. In 2019, we are beyond a piecemeal listing of what's wrong. A coherent description of the global economy requires a systems view: describing the parts, the processes, how the parts and processes interact, and what these interactions imply about future possibilities. This paper provides a brief overview of the relationships between human behavior, the economy and Earth's environment. It articulates how a social species self-organizing around surplus has metabolically morphed into a single, mindless, energy-hungry "Superorganism." Lastly, it provides an assessment of our constraints and opportunities, and suggests how a more sapient economic system might develop.
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Papers by NJ Hagens