Growth Will Not Clean Up After Itself

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As economies get richer, first that air and water pollution increases, but then it decreases. One of the reasons is because as places get richer, they de industrialize. But there now we've got data on carbond oxide omissions,. We can measure a far bigger imprint. And when you take that into account, that curve does not bend down. In fact, it just almost stays in lock step with as g d p increases, global resources impact increases. You have to have very significant interventions even to try and start bending it.

When Kate Raworth began studying economics, she was disappointed that the mainstream version of the discipline didn’t fully address many of the world issues that she wanted to tackle, such as human rights and environmental destruction. She left the field, but was inspired to jump back in after the financial crisis of 2008, when she saw an opportunity to introduce fresh perspectives. She sat down and drew a chart in the shape of a doughnut, which provided a way to think about our economic system while accounting for the impact to the world around us, as well as for humans’ baseline needs. Kate’s framing can teach us a lot about how to transform the economic model of the technology industry, helping us move from a system that values addicted, narcissistic, polarized humans to one that values healthy, loving and collaborative relationships. Her book, “Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist,” gives us a guide for transitioning from a 20th-century paradigm to an evolved 21st-century one that will address our existential-scale problems.