In part, this is because of the simple but profound insight that forms one of the
bases for this book that climate change and the combustion of fossil fuels that are
the primary causes of the problem are not a matter of scarcity or inadequate economic development. Quite the contrary! The problem of climate change is a matter
of too much fossil fuel that is easy to extract from the ground and burn to power all
manner of human technologies. Applying economic reasoning premised on scarcity, shortage and the need to massively increase human energy use and hence
produce necessities for human flourishing, to the problem of climate change, is a
major conceptual and political error. Hence, the need for a fundamental transformation of policy discourses and of their intellectual underpinnings in modern
assumptions and modes of thinking. A “mindshift” is very obviously needed.
This is obviously in part about economics, and crucially about the idea that
growth is the answer even if it is not clear what the question actually is. Maja
Göpel’s “great mindshift” is also about a recognition that humanity has, albeit
mostly inadvertently, changed its place in the planetary system by the scale and
persistence of its activities. The introduction of the controlled use of fire, agriculture, the selective breeding of domesticated species, complex tools, city building,
industrialization, and now the construction of a global production and trading
system based on fossil fuels have transformed both humanity and our habitat in
fundamental ways. We have already postponed at least one, possibly two ice ages,
and hence, the rich and powerful parts of humanity have effectively taken the future
geological conditions of the only habitat we all have into their hands. All of which
has led to the increasingly wide adoption of the term Anthropocene to specify
present circumstances.
These new recognitions, of both the problem of too much fossil fuel and the
sheer scale of humanity’s actions, now require that we rethink many things. Just as
modernity required a dramatic shift in thinking as part of what Karl Polanyi termed
the great transformation to a commercial society based on the notions of interests,
economic growth and relatively unregulated markets, the new conditions of living
in the Anthropocene require new formulations and also new modes of human
conduct. If the planetary habitat for future generations is to be kept even close to the
conditions that humanity has known for its recorded history, we will have to “shift
our minds” in a new transformation that incorporates the insights of earth systems
science and numerous new research endeavours to build sustainable societies on
new principles.
Given that economic reasoning has become the way in which so much of human
activity is described, interpreted and increasingly governed, a fundamental
re-evaluation of its basic premises, of the scarcity assumption, the efficacy of
current modes of “growth” and the quest for narrowly defined efficiencies in
markets, is long overdue. Hence, this volume, which tackles these key themes
directly, is to be very much welcomed as a most useful and timely contribution to
both the critical re-evaluation of the hegemonic thought processes and policy
practices of contemporary economism as well as to new political, economic and,
crucially, ecological thinking that breaks away from the increasingly counterproductive formulations in contemporary policy. As the World Social Forum slogan
viii
Foreword by Prof. Dr. Simon Dalby
bases for this book that climate change and the combustion of fossil fuels that are
the primary causes of the problem are not a matter of scarcity or inadequate economic development. Quite the contrary! The problem of climate change is a matter
of too much fossil fuel that is easy to extract from the ground and burn to power all
manner of human technologies. Applying economic reasoning premised on scarcity, shortage and the need to massively increase human energy use and hence
produce necessities for human flourishing, to the problem of climate change, is a
major conceptual and political error. Hence, the need for a fundamental transformation of policy discourses and of their intellectual underpinnings in modern
assumptions and modes of thinking. A “mindshift” is very obviously needed.
This is obviously in part about economics, and crucially about the idea that
growth is the answer even if it is not clear what the question actually is. Maja
Göpel’s “great mindshift” is also about a recognition that humanity has, albeit
mostly inadvertently, changed its place in the planetary system by the scale and
persistence of its activities. The introduction of the controlled use of fire, agriculture, the selective breeding of domesticated species, complex tools, city building,
industrialization, and now the construction of a global production and trading
system based on fossil fuels have transformed both humanity and our habitat in
fundamental ways. We have already postponed at least one, possibly two ice ages,
and hence, the rich and powerful parts of humanity have effectively taken the future
geological conditions of the only habitat we all have into their hands. All of which
has led to the increasingly wide adoption of the term Anthropocene to specify
present circumstances.
These new recognitions, of both the problem of too much fossil fuel and the
sheer scale of humanity’s actions, now require that we rethink many things. Just as
modernity required a dramatic shift in thinking as part of what Karl Polanyi termed
the great transformation to a commercial society based on the notions of interests,
economic growth and relatively unregulated markets, the new conditions of living
in the Anthropocene require new formulations and also new modes of human
conduct. If the planetary habitat for future generations is to be kept even close to the
conditions that humanity has known for its recorded history, we will have to “shift
our minds” in a new transformation that incorporates the insights of earth systems
science and numerous new research endeavours to build sustainable societies on
new principles.
Given that economic reasoning has become the way in which so much of human
activity is described, interpreted and increasingly governed, a fundamental
re-evaluation of its basic premises, of the scarcity assumption, the efficacy of
current modes of “growth” and the quest for narrowly defined efficiencies in
markets, is long overdue. Hence, this volume, which tackles these key themes
directly, is to be very much welcomed as a most useful and timely contribution to
both the critical re-evaluation of the hegemonic thought processes and policy
practices of contemporary economism as well as to new political, economic and,
crucially, ecological thinking that breaks away from the increasingly counterproductive formulations in contemporary policy. As the World Social Forum slogan
viii
Foreword by Prof. Dr. Simon Dalby