Photo: DROUGHT! by David Damberger
Zambia, 2005 - The Sichaza family overlooking their field, which was barren due to a drought.
Recent Articles & Videos
August 9, 2008 ..... 49 min.
Interview with William R. Catton, Jr.
Bill Catton is the author of the seminal book, "Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of
Revolutionary Change," published in 1980.
September 19, 2005
Economics: dead or alive? If you didn't read the Peak this summer you missed a dandy head-butting contest about the state of economics.
The Project
The aim of the Needs and Limits project is to provide conceptual support for humankind's shift to a mode of civilization characterized by sustainability and global well-being. To achieve this shift we must radically alter the guidance of our economies - that is, the method used to determine key outcomes such as production quantities and population levels. For most economies today, these outcomes arise spontaneously from the capitalist logic of consumer wants and corporate profits. The suggested approach is to replace this logic with one based on human needs and natural limits, and to derive economic objectives directly from these principles. The framework that incorporates the new logic is called the Economics of Needs and Limits, or ENL. ENL is summarized in the overview (see below), and is fully covered in the book shown at right.
Strategy
The transition to a new mode of civilization requires a workable strategy for fundamental economic and ecological change. The strategy proposed here begins by acknowledging that human nature has a firm biological basis. This implies that, although change must be rapid in order to avert ecological collapse, it must also be evolutionary. This document thus describes a strategic approach that is conservative with respect to humankind, but revolutionary with respect to the economy and the environment.
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Available here are published and unpublished articles. The main topics are ENL, the strategy, alternative approaches such as ecological economics, and the destructive concepts of standard economics.
Videos
This section lists the videos in the Needs and Limits series. These cover roughly the same ground as the articles. Because of YouTube's length restriction, most are less than 10 minutes long.
Resources
Two resources are currently offered: a primer on economic analysis and an annotated bibliography. The primer is intended for those who want to understand ENL at the technical level, but who lack a background in economics. This document uses simple language to discuss several key topics: marginal analysis, value, cost, and optimization. The annotated bibliography provides quotations from the 50 or so books that have had the greatest impact on this economic and strategic thought.
2nd Edition
Free Download - 5.36MB pdf file
Order a hard copy at cost price: $9.95
Frank Rotering with happy dog in Cuba