Tom Ellis
Dec 21, 2023

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Thank you for this excellent assessment, Elizabeth. You have hit the nail on the head here: the idea of “ecological overshoot” is taboo in the corridors of power, simply because it threatens the major premise of any economy based on money—that is, on arithmetic. And that major premise is that “More is always better”—that endless “growth” of extraction, production, consumption, and waste (which demands endless population growth as well) is absolutely essential to sustain the economy. Yet it is patently obvious that “endless growth” is fundamentally incompatible with a finite biosphere. In fact, the money system is the Cancer of the Earth, and that cancer is now terminal. Collectively, we’re doomed, but individually we still have options, the best of which is to unplug from the money economy as much as possible, by growing gardens, growing community, and growing awareness.

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Tom Ellis
Tom Ellis

Written by Tom Ellis

I am a retired English professor now living in Oregon, and a life-long environmental activist, Buddhist, and holistic philosopher.

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