ThirstyFish

With the Paris Climate Summit going nowhere because of lack of commitment by large developed nations, one must ask "What is sustainable"? Author Derrick Jensen neatly takes down the sustainable development argument; "Development" is a lie and so is "sustainability".

Jevons paradox is the increased consumption of a resource due to rise in demand as a consequence of increased efficiency and thus availability. Today's highly efficient Compact Fluorescent light bulbs are five times more efficient than the traditional incandescent bulbs and yet our energy use isn't going down mainly because more of us are using more light bulbs. In fact, physicist Tom Murphy has been noting in a number of articles like "The Energy Trap" that irrespective of how efficient technology is, energy use is coupled with economical growth. In other words, sustainability and efficiency are lies. The real problem is economic growth. So long as we blindly pursue economic growth and do not shift to a steady-state or even negative-growth economy right away, we are doomed. It's that simple. Good luck convincing the "deniers" in Paris...