Webs Wonder Design

In 1972 the first report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) computer modelling group called the Club of Rome was published as a book entitled -The Limits To Growth.

“Our world model was built specifically to investigate five major trends of global concern – accelerating industrialization, rapid population growth, widespread malnutrition, depletion of non-renewable resources, and a deteriorating environment.”

Its conclusions were received with shock by a world which had seen unprecedented growth since the end of the second world war. The predicament of mankind, the Club of Rome said, was that the world would ultimately run out of many key resources. It’s main conclusions were:

• If present growth trends continued unchanged, a limit to the growth that our planet has enjoyed would be reached sometime within the next 100 years. This would then result in a sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity.
• These growth trends could be altered. Moreover, if proper alterations were made, the world could establish a condition of “ecological stability” that would be sustainable far into the future.
• The world could embark on this second path, but the sooner this effort started, the greater the chance would be of achieving this “ecologically stable” success.

The Limits to Growth was published in 30 languages and became the best selling environmental book in history, selling over 30 million copies.

In 2004 the Club of Rome published an update. While the previous 30 years had shown some progress, including new technologies, new institutions, and a new awareness of environmental problems, the authors were far more pessimistic than they were in 1972. Humanity has squandered the opportunity to correct its current course over the last 30 years, they conclude, and much must change if the world was to avoid the serious consequences of overshoot in the 21st century.

The current financial crash which followed huge increases in commodity and fuel prices in 2008 can be dismissed as purely a result of the greed of city speculators and the usury of banks. Correcting it, we are told, is just a matter of tighter regulation and the baling out by taxpayers of a few hundred banks and financial institutions. I, along with many other people believe it is more than that. The capitalist model which ad nauseum we have been told has delivered prosperity and democracy to the world, has in reality only benefited a small proportion of the it’s inhabitants. More worryingly, the model for wealth creation it has used has not delivered sustainability, so even the benefits received by the minority are now in peril. The capitalist train has run into the buffers, and although it will get going again, our leaders are tying to get it back on the same rusty track which will head straight for the global resource restrictions described in The Limits to Growth.

We are all socialists now

Whether we wish to believe it or not, one of the central tenants of socialism – the nationalisation of banks – has been taking place in both sides of the Atlantic. When a government owns 80% of a bank or financial institution, our leaders may not want to use the “N” word, but nationalisation has occurred.

So why is our mainstream media not having serious discussions about the role and benefits of the nationalisation of key industries? Because the BBC for the overwhelming bulk of its output only gives airtime the spectrum of idea from Labour to Conservative. Other political philosophies are simply excluded from serious debate.

With the world desperately in need of new philosophies and business models which will incorporate the best elements of both capitalism, socialism and environmental sustainability, the mainstream media is simply failing to promote this debate. We have to look for the alternative media for proper discussion of such weighty, but vital matters.

On yesterdays edition of “Democracy Now”, Amy Goodman interviewed Marxist historian David Harvey. His dream of a “no-growth economy” might have seemed pure fantasy a couple of years ago, but today it seems no less likely to deliver a solution than the optimistic and hugely expensive policies of Gordon Brown or Barack Obama.

I believe that in less than 10 years time, after another major crash, when the current model of global capitalism will finally be recognised as having failed, the ideas of David Harvey, along with many evolving community based strategies will emerge as a coherent political movement to challenge the redundant capitalist old guard and their self-serving creed.

If you cannot see the video above, thy this Real Video Stream or listen as a Real Audio Stream. You don’t need to download the Bloatware Real Player, just download and install Real Alternative (first remove Real Networks Real Player if it is installed).

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