Emailed to every UK MP on 01 July 2023
Subject – A Lifeboat on the Sinking Ship of ‘Economic Growth’
Dear Friends,
The poignant resignation letter from Zac Goldsmith will resonate with the many good souls in every walk of life who are acutely aware and distressed by the evidence of escalating ecosystems breakdown. At the moment we are all powerless to stop the degradation; over-exploitation of natural resources is a long-standing technique that we have used to grow our economy. Our society has been trapped in an ecocidal economic model for more than a century. Each new generation is taught to over-exploit Nature in order to earn a living. In 2022 we added to our Human Rights the entitlement to a healthy environment; but we failed to add any caveat that would restrain our activities within the biocapacity of Earth.
The trap that we have created goes deep into our education and legislation; both of these institutions are designed to perpetuate the peer pressure to overconsume and overpopulate which drives Gross Domestic Product (GDP) upwards. In their initiative ‘Our Common Agenda’, the United Nations has recognised that GDP does not a measure human wellbeing. Many have been searching for a better measure, and some have realised that reducing our global GDP is a pre-requisite to achieving sustainability. The ‘UN Charter for Ecological Justice’ addresses the weakness in our declaration of Human Rights that neglects the impact on our environment as we grow our numbers and our commerce. The Charter has been proposed in a submission to the 2023 global stocktake for the Paris climate agreement; the relevant document can be downloaded from this link on the website for the UN Framework Committee on Climate Change. The Charter also features as a key concept in the science paper: ‘Scientists Warning proposes a Roadmap to Ecological Justice’. An overview of the purpose of the Charter is available in this Medium article: Arrogance in the Anthropocene.
With much love for Humanity, and remorse for all the lives, human and non-human, that are being sacrificed on the altar of ‘Growth Economics’
Barbara Williams