Transcript restraints or constraints

Gary Gardner
Worldwatch Institute
October, 2010
Progress and Debts
II. The Value of Boundaries
III. Progress Re-Rooted
IV. Progress Re-Imagined
I.
 From Latin pro gredi, to step forward
 We might think of it as energy for forward movement
 Technological—telephones, computers, airplanes, etc.
 Social—women’s rights, minority rights, child labor laws
 Health—long lives, eradicated diseases, effective
treatments of all kinds
 Political—advance of democracy and individual freedom
 …that Progress is forward energy within boundaries,
within a set of restraints or constraints
So Progress is a balancing act: the right combination of
energy and restraint
Big Bang
 Energy as
Creativity
 Gravity as
Restraint
 Moral Debts
 Ecological Debts
 Economic Debts
Century
1st to 15th
16th
17th
18th
19th
20th
War Deaths
(millions)
3.7
1.6
6.1
7.0
19.4
136.0
Deaths
per 1000
People
n.a.
3.2
11.2
9.7
16.2
35.0
Product
Makeup
Pet food
Perfume
Cruises
Ice Cream
Annual
Goal
Additional
Expend ($b)
Needed ($b)
18
Reproduc.
12
health
17
Eliminate
19
hunger
15
Universal
5
literacy
14
Clean water
10
11
Immunize
every child
1.3
Category
Vertebrates
Invertebrates
Plants
Fungi and Protists
TOTAL
Number Threatened in 2010,
as % of Species Evaluated
21
31
68
50
34
 US Dollar Becomes a Fiat Currency--1971, we went off




of tying dollar to gold
US Transition to a Net Importer--1975
US Transition to a Net Debtor Nation--1981
US Net Asset Depletion--1985, last year in which U.S.
Ownership of foreign assets exceeded foreign
ownership of U.S. assets
Declining US Real Median Family Income--peaked in
2000
 “All things in moderation”– Terence
 “The Middle Way”—Buddhism and Bahá’í Faith
 “Excess and deficiency are equally at fault” --
Confucianism
 “He who knows he has enough is rich”--Daoism
Gandhi’s “Seven Deadly Sins”
 Wealth without work
 Pleasure without conscience
 Science without humanity
 Knowledge without character
 Politics without principle
 Commerce without morality
 Worship without sacrifice
Problem or Challenge
How Boundaries Can
Address the Challenge
Moral Debts
Re-Ethicize Progress by setting ethical
boundaries around decision-making of
all kinds
Ecological Debts
Re-Root Progress by setting
environmental boundaries around the
policies and practices of politicians,
businesspeople, and citizens
Economic Debts
Re-Value Progress by setting fiscal and
monetary boundaries around personal,
corporate, and government accounting
 Abolition of weapons of mass destruction
 Well-being, not just wealth creation, as economic goal
 Investing for the common good
 SRI, especially “via positiva”
 Microfinance
 Giving Direction to markets
 Design for environment
 Carbon Markets
 Car-sharing (services rather than goods)
 Product take-back laws
 Factories co-located for waste use
 Zero waste cities
 Equality of rights to pollute
Fair trade
Goods
One World
Shop
One World
Shop
Fair trade
Goods
Oikocredit
Shared
Interest
Charity
Bank
For More Information
www.worldwatch.org