A report written by Tim Jackson for the Sustainable Development Commission entitled Prosperity without Growth now forms the basis of a new book with the same title, published by Earthscan.
The book asks is more economic growth the solution? Will it deliver prosperity and well-being for a global population projected to reach nine billion?
Tim Jackson argues that advanced economies should abandon growth to make room for developed nations. No one denies that development is essential for poorer nations. Yet in the advanced economies there is mounting evidence that ever-increasing consumption adds little to human happiness and may even impede it.
More urgently, it is now clear that the ecosystems that sustain our economies are collapsing under the impacts of rising consumption. Unless we can radically lower the environmental impact of economic activity - and there is no evidence to suggest that we can - we will have to devise a path to prosperity that does not rely on continued growth. The book seeks to provide a credible vision of how human society can flourish - within the ecological limits of a finite planet.
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