Sorry for the language but the argument that you can have economic growth without energy/resource consumption is just plain false. I'm deeply frustrated that people continue parroting that view without any credible evidence.
To be fair to you, your initial point only hinted at Decoupling and didn't claim it directly. My bad.
> "Is it possible to enjoy both economic growth and environmental sustainability?" ...which is nowhere close to my initial point
So in your view, quality of life and happiness are separate concerns from "the economy"? I truly hope you're right! We may never be able to decouple resource extraction from economic production - but we might have a shot at decoupling economic production from QoL if we can learn to collectively reduce our consumption and find more fulfilling ways to live on less. There's no historical precedent for a civilization ever willingly de-growing themselves and surviving (see the work of Joseph Tainter) let alone thriving, but one can hope.
Sorry for the language but the argument that you can have economic growth without energy/resource consumption is just plain false. I'm deeply frustrated that people continue parroting that view without any credible evidence.
To be fair to you, your initial point only hinted at Decoupling and didn't claim it directly. My bad.
> "Is it possible to enjoy both economic growth and environmental sustainability?" ...which is nowhere close to my initial point
So in your view, quality of life and happiness are separate concerns from "the economy"? I truly hope you're right! We may never be able to decouple resource extraction from economic production - but we might have a shot at decoupling economic production from QoL if we can learn to collectively reduce our consumption and find more fulfilling ways to live on less. There's no historical precedent for a civilization ever willingly de-growing themselves and surviving (see the work of Joseph Tainter) let alone thriving, but one can hope.