An insect on Wild Carrot
Bumble Bee on a Spear Thistle flower head.
I was really pleased to find this Dragonfly apparently laying eggs on an old log at the side of our small pond. I thought they laid their eggs in or on aquatic plants.
But here is the subject of this post.
Statements in the news bulletins today and speeches by the Governor of the Bank of England managed to relate the UK economy with the sporting performances in the Olympic Games. If only we could all work together with a common goal of reestablishing economic growth we will all be OK.
Surely everyone who has been around for a few years must know that continuous economic growth year in and year out can only end in disaster for our beautiful Somerset and our planet.
That's why I have become interested in the work of the New Economic Forum.
Below is an extract from their web site:
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"Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist" - Kenneth Boulding
There is nothing ‘natural’ about our current economic arrangements. They have been consciously designed to achieve a simple objective: growth. But growth is not making us happier, it is creating dysfunctional and unequal societies, and if it continues will make large parts of the planet unfit for human habitation.
We need to do things differently, and soon.
This means starting from first principles and building a new model for how the economy functions. Right now every one of us is dependent on growth. The way our economy is structured means that unless there is growth people lose their jobs, the tax base shrinks and politicians struggle to fund the public services we all rely on every day.
At nef, we want to break that vicious cycle by building a new macro-economic model that is geared not towards growth, but towards achieving the outcomes that are important to society and that can be sustained by the planet's finite carrying capacity.
We need to do things differently, and soon.
This means starting from first principles and building a new model for how the economy functions. Right now every one of us is dependent on growth. The way our economy is structured means that unless there is growth people lose their jobs, the tax base shrinks and politicians struggle to fund the public services we all rely on every day.
At nef, we want to break that vicious cycle by building a new macro-economic model that is geared not towards growth, but towards achieving the outcomes that are important to society and that can be sustained by the planet's finite carrying capacity.
