The earth is approaching irreversible climate change. Humankind must quickly reduce the ecological impact of its economies to avoid catastrophe. Click the "Strategy" tab above for my suggested approach to fundamental economic change.
Recent Activities
Interview with Jack Etkin of Victoria (Canada) Community TV
Reversing Overshoot: A Strategy ...... Video
Provides a summary of my strategy for economic transformation, including the need for political struggle.
Post Carbon Institute: Blind to Capitalism and Power ...... Article
Criticizes the views of Richard Heinberg and the leadership of Post Carbon Institute.
Interview with Ken Rose (Radio station KOWS, California)
Environmentalism and Political Struggle ...... Article
Briefly compares two views: one that avoids political struggle in addressing the ecological crisis, and another that embraces it.
The Project
The aim of the "needs and limits" initiative is to help humankind reverse ecological overshoot and to achieve sustainable well-being.
This shift requires that we radically alter the way we determine key economic outcomes such as production quantities, resource and waste flows, and population levels. For most economies today, these outcomes arise spontaneously from the logic of capitalism, which is rooted in corporate profits and manipulated consumer wants. The approach suggested here is to replace this logic with one based on human needs and natural limits, and to derive economic objectives explicitly from these new principles.
My proposal for the replacement logic is the Economics of Needs and Limits (ENL). This conceptual framework is summarized in the overview and fully covered in the book shown at right.
Strategy
The transition to a new mode of civilization requires a workable strategy to achieve fundamental economic and ecological change. This requires the replacement of capitalism's economic logic and the evolution of its institutions in a process called organic change. The strategy document lists the key points of this approach.
ENL Overview
The overview document offers both a brief sketch of ENL for introductory purposes, and a detailed outline for those who want to understand the framework's logical structure. For a comprehensive treatment, please consult the book shown at right.
Articles
Available here are my published and unpublished articles on various economic topics.
Videos
The videos in this section include critiques of Green Reformism and Ecological Economics, an interview with William R. Catton, Jr., the fundamentals of ENL, and my views on economic thought and environmentalism.
Resources
Five documents are included in this section: an extensive annotated bibliography, a primer on economic analysis, the first and second editions of Needs and Limits, and a critique of ENL's early ideas by a British economist. My two interviews with Douglas Lain (Diet Soap Podcast) can also be found here.
3rd Edition
Free Download - 5.4MB pdf file
Order a paperback copy from LULU.com.
Price is $19.95.
Frank Rotering