It's easy to see what a terrible mess we are in.

Some have called it the 'polycrisis', a confluence of breakdowns in the environment, the climate, and in our social and political structures. The future certainly looks grim.

But there is a way out. It won't be easy, and it may not happen at all, but it is possible...
____________________________

Earth will only remain able to provide even a basic standard of living for everyone in the future if economic systems and technologies are dramatically transformed and critical resources are more fairly used, managed and shared, according to an international research team.

Their report, published in the journal Planetary Health, found the planet's ability to provide and protect is being stretched past its limits, although it remains possible for humans to escape poverty and harm caused by these changes if urgent action is taken.

It found the only way to provide for everyone and ensure societies, businesses and economies thrive without destabilizing the planet is to reduce inequalities in how critical Earth system resources, such as freshwater and nutrients, are accessed and used, and how responsibilities, such as reducing carbon emissions, are shared, alongside economic and technological transformation.

By 2050, unless urgent transformations are made, the researchers argue that Earth's climate will deteriorate to the point where there will be no "safe and just space" left.

The researchers say Earth systems face the risk of crossing dangerous tipping points, which would cause further significant harm to people around the world unless energy, food, and urban systems are urgently transformed.
____________________________

They don't call their plan #degrowth but it looks very similar to me.

The point is, we can't go on the way we are. We *must* have system change, or we will lose everything.

FULL ARTICLE -- https://phys.org/news/2024-09-outlines-path-prosperity-planet-people.html

#Economics#Science#Environment#Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

One simple metric of inequality in the UK:

in 1980 the ration of median FTSE100 CEO pay to median UK wages was: £1 - £11;

In 2022 it had become £1 - £118.

I think it's safe to say that is not commensurate with the improvement in the conduct & success of the top management of UK corporations; nor, should it be said, a fall in the contribution to the UK economy of the work of the general population.

The rentiers (as we know) have stolen our wages.

#inequality #economics #corporations
h/t FT

My half-baked deep thought of the weekend:

Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem should be renamed Arrow's Context-Sensitivity Theorem, and re-interpreted as saying a social choice function that neglects context leads to dictators.

I say this because the axiom of independence from irrelevant alternatives--one of the assumptions behind the theorem--states that a social choice function should be such that the relationship between A and B is not changed once a new alternative C is introduced. Unpacked, this means the choice function should be insensitive to any context C might bring with it.

Arrow's theorem essentially says that a social choice function satisfying this and a couple other axioms leads to dictators (meaning, one individual's preferences dictate the social choice function's preferences, overruling everyone else involved in the choice who might disagree). Hence the re-interpretation: neglecting context in social choice leads to dictators.

#economics #SocialWelfare #SocialChoice #WelfareEconomics #DecisionTheory #ArrowsTheorem