CASSE - "Perpetual economic growth is neither possible nor desirable."

What's in the Story of Stuff book?

It's all the stuff you asked me about! After launching the Story of Stuff film, I received tens of thousands of emails asking for more information than I could possibly fit into the film. I wrote this book to explore these issues further with you and to share a journey both personal and material. While exploring where our t-shirts, laptops and books come from, I also share my own journey along the way. I share stories of how I went from being a high school kid interested in forests to an adult fascinated with garbage to realizing that the real solution lay beyond either of those issues in isolation.

More about The Story of Stuff Book Here:

The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard       (21 min)

The Bridge at the Edge of the World
I have a copy of Prof.Gus Speth's book. Now I need to read it.

Gus Speth at DEMOS: Capitalism, Environment Crisis
Yale Dean of Forestry and Environmental Studies comes down hard on corporations, calling for a steady-state rather than growth orientation and the need for radical political and economic change to rationally deal with the climate crisis and achieve sustainability. He is speaking at Demos December 2, 2008 about his new book: The Bridge at the Edge of the World. Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability

William McDonough on Sustainability Renowned architect William McDonough, a leader in the movement for sustainable architecture and product design, spoke at Vanderbilt University Sept. 26, 2006.

McDonough is the author of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things.

Life After Growth - Economics for Everyone

"Growth for the sake of yet more growth is a bankrupt and eventually lethal idea.
CASSE is the David fighting the Goliath of endless expansion, and we know how that one turned out."
~ David Orr

To read more see: Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy

CASSE Position on Economic Growth

Whereas:

1. Economic growth, as defined in standard economics textbooks, is an increase in the production and consumption of goods and services, and;
2. Economic growth occurs when there is an increase in the multiplied product of population and per capita consumption, and;
3. The global economy grows as an integrated whole consisting of agricultural, extractive, manufacturing, and services sectors that require physical inputs and produce wastes, and;
4. Economic growth is often and generally indicated by increasing real gross domestic product (GDP) or real gross national product (GNP), and;
5. Economic growth has been a primary, perennial goal of many societies and most governments, and;
6. Based upon established principles of physics and ecology, there is a limit to economic growth, and;
7. There is increasing evidence that global economic growth is having negative effects on long-term ecological and economic welfare...

Therefore, we take the position that:

1. There is a fundamental conflict between economic growth and environmental protection (for example, biodiversity conservation, clean air and water, atmospheric stability), and;
2. There is a fundamental conflict between economic growth and the ecological services underpinning the human economy (for example, pollination, decomposition, climate regulation), and;
3. Technological progress has had many positive and negative ecological and economic effects and may not be depended on to reconcile the conflict between economic growth and long-term ecological and economic welfare, and;
4. Economic growth, as gauged by increasing GDP, is an increasingly dangerous and anachronistic goal, especially in wealthy nations with widespread affluence, and;
5. A steady state economy (that is, an economy with a relatively stable, mildly fluctuating product of population and per capita consumption) is a viable alternative to a growing economy and has become a more appropriate goal in large, wealthy economies, and;
6. The long-run sustainability of a steady state economy requires its establishment at a size small enough to avoid the breaching of reduced ecological and economic capacity during expected or unexpected supply shocks such as droughts and energy shortages, and;
7. A steady state economy does not preclude economic development, a dynamic, qualitative process in which different technologies may be employed and the relative prominence of economic sectors may evolve, and;
8. Upon establishing a steady state economy, it would be advisable for wealthy nations to assist other nations in moving from the goal of economic growth to the goal of a steady state economy, beginning with those nations currently enjoying high levels of per capita consumption, and;
9. For many nations with widespread poverty, increasing per capita consumption (or, alternatively, more equitable distributions of wealth) remains an appropriate goal.

See also

Source: http://www.steadystate.org/CASSEPositionOnEG.html