THE TALE OF GREEN GROWTH
The Tale of Green Growth [August 2013]
Growth, growth, growth. Growth is necessary. Without growth the whole system will collapse. In the last decade the growth ideologists perverted the idea of sustainability and dressed their own paradigm in green. Green is in fashion, after all. It's young, it's healthy, it's sexy, it sells. Everybody now talks about Green Growth and it is extremely profitable. One statistic says that green businesses gained profits even during the last recession: so called “sustainability focused companies” outperformed their competition. Among those whose stocks did more than 15% better were companies involved in the automobile, chemicals, media, and retail sectors.
However, the idea is based on two disputable assumptions: The belief that there is no viable alternative to economic growth and that growth and business can be sustainable at this point in history. As early as 1972, reputable scientists told us that “Limits to Growth” exist. 40 years of unsustainable growth later and barely willing to acknowledge the fact, we still want to believe that cosmetic surgery changes character.
The majority of economists and businessmen seem to have found a way to defy the most basic laws of physics. Physics clearly states that energy cannot be created out of nothing. Yet the green industry leads us believe that we can buy ever and ever more, while using fewer resources. They want to make us believe that we can consume as much as we like, as long as we buy green products. If it has a certificate of some form, we feel free to buy as much as our money can buy, and society deems it legitimate as long as it is within your means. This is not only dangerous, but most likely going to be our road to self- destruction. Our growth is not within the planet’s means anymore. It simply cannot be sustainable.
We are constantly being fed a fairy tale to which we remain oblivious. Why do we keep forgetting that Rumpelstiltskin is not real? Do we not remember the moral of his story? Just like in the story of Green Growth, Rumpelstiltskin starts with a lie. A miller tells the king that his daughter can make gold from straw. If so the king promises, he will marry the girl. Burdened with this impossible task and put in front of the wheel, the crying miler’s daughter is visited by Rumpelstiltskin, who can in fact execute the transformation. But of course, it has a price. Since the king threatens to kill or marry her -questionable things do not only happen in real life- the girl is willing to give anything to Rumpelstiltskin. He asks for the first born and, in her desperation, she agrees. But when the future comes and he wants to collect, the then queen, of course, regrets her promise. While the story does end well for the king, the miller and his daughter, we all know real life generally lacks happily ever afters.
What does this tale have to do with us? Rumpelstiltskin is, in a sense, the ultimate green businessperson. He can make gold from straw, without any other inputs or polluting byproducts. Examine the story and examine the claims of green production, in either case, the costs of production are merely deferred elsewhere or reduced. The ramifications upon an economy in which straw is an upstream resource for gold production are far-reaching, altering the value of straw and redirecting it from an important purpose – feeding livestock. Does the value of a ton of straw for consumption equal that of a ton used for gold? Likewise, if the energy required to produce a green automobile or ‘renewable’ energy requires expanding production of fossil-fuel driven processes, is this truly 'green'? Contemporary technology means that the carbon footprint of an electric car is not better than a very efficient gas engine. In order to produce photovoltaic panels, one needs to process silicium processed at a temperature of 1200-1400 degree Celsius. Producers do not use renewable energy to make those panels. Similarly, wind mills need rare metals that cannot be mined cleanly. Any consumption comes with a price.
Rumpelstiltskin and green businesspeople alike depend upon access to finite and precious resources, which are needed elsewhere in order to meet other essential demands, like food. While Rumpelstiltskin uses magic to transform straw to gold, we need resources. Recycling uses huge amounts of water and electricity. One source says that the production of 1000 pieces of recycled paper, for example, still requires about 75 liters of water and 14 kWh of electricity. Reducing the required inputs only delays the eventual point at which they will perish.
In a fairy tale, the good live happily ever after, but only after they have learnt a valuable lesson and proved that regretful of their mistakes. The lesson of Rumpelstiltskin is that all wealth comes at a price, although payment might be delayed. In the future, today’s green economy might take our children. Our own tale is based on momentous premises, and rather than a fairy tale, it is likely to be a tragedy.
The tale is woven from two main assumptions. First, that growth is necessary for survival. This holds true, to a certain extent. Economic growth is the basis for a system based on credit and interests. This system’s aim is accumulation, which interestingly seems to need no further reason and therefore no justification. This is one of the reasons why an imaginary outsider – the reader of our story – would probably think that our trust in capitalism is like the belief in magic. Investments have to make monetary profits, despite all other costs. Our ways of extracting wealth from natural resources may cause an Armageddon, but being rich is still the goal. It is seldom questioned and a lack of economic growth is always presented in the media as a problem since, self-evidently, money and power are in the hands of those who benefit from the system. And yes, we get told that money can multiply via Green Growth without causing any harm. Non-growth economists like Niko Paech or Tim Jackson point out that growth is only important to the destructive capitalism we live in and that growth can never be sustainable, since we already take too much. In order to maintain a system that rests on ever growing demands, new needs need to be created. Overconsumption is an inevitable outcome of a system that continuously manufactured new needs. We need to live with less or we grow towards disaster. Truly green is reduction.
The second assumption is that everything is fine as long as we buy green. We are told that technology, and therefore efficiency, will save us. If we all buy green technology, the future will be rosy. But economist James Stanley Jevons discovered as early as 1865 that improvements in efficiency do not have the positive effects that we dream of. In “The Coal Question” he describes the commonly ignored “Rebound effect”. Tales of the green economy boldly forget that this effect. Better efficiency is typically followed, and therefore, leveled out by increased consumption. Thus, buying more efficient products does not save resources in the long term. Even if our phones were 100 percent made of recyclable materials, it clearly is a new need. Twenty years ago barely anyone needed a cell-phone, and don’t we know that electronics are particularly problematic, as they consist of rare metals, the mining of which is a profoundly dirty business?
Despite the illusion, anything we buy uses natural resources. Buying more can never, therefore, be green. Also our technology is not that advanced, electronic cars, solar panels and wind power plants, all thought of as clean solutions i.e. 100% green, depend on extensive use of energy and resources for production. The tale of Green Growth is exemplary in emissions. It becomes self-evident, if you look at GNP and CO2 emissions. Despite all talk of the rise of green business, GNP and CO2 emissions are not just correlated, they are dependent. An increase of the GNP means an increase in emissions. The inhabitants of Athens could literally witness this. Economic decline brought Athens the bluest sky in decades.
What is the moral of the Green Growth story? Rumpelstiltskin does not exist, but we will have to pay the price for believing in him.
