Deep Economy: Reading Guide 5
Chapter 5 – The Durable Future
“Development is not a product, not a target, not some happy future state...it’s a process, measured not in budgets but in...human energy” (p. 211)
McKibben devotes this chapter to demonstrating how a more local economy can concretely produce sustainable methods of production. What is also stressed is the actual measurable increase in happiness and contentment which these local economies provide. He makes clear the need for developed nations to cut back on consumption and energy expenditures in order to enable countries in the developing world to increase their quality of life. Most important, for McKibben, is the balance that must be sought between production and consumption globally in order for all people to lead a more enriched life on a healthier planet.
The following outline examines the two overarching themes in this chapter.
Poverty and Re-Defined Wealth - McKibben spends a good deal of this chapter examining the lives of people in nations such as China, India and Mexico. What he seeks to show his audience is that the Western model of development is actually not increasing their wealth (p. 184). Nor is it raising their standard of living. Our idea of development demands specialization. This means people are encouraged to do only one thing, like planting one crop or manufacturing one item. This specialization has resulted in environmental devastation and economic collapse (p. 179, 180).
What everyone has been told by economists and corporations is that growing Gross National Product (GNP) is the only way out of a life of misery in the developing world (p. 180). GNP is the estimated values of goods and incomes in a given country. This measures focuses not on the wealth of communities, but the wealth of nations. Instead of elevating quality of life, however, stressing this kind of development has increased poverty, McKibben claims. He emphasizes that this poverty does not mean simply going without. It means starvation and death (p. 181). A nation as a whole may show an increase in wealth by measures of GNP, but the people within these countries suffer if it isn’t distributed widely (p. 190, 195). Reliance on big agribusiness and fossil fuels has been the biggest contributing factor to this suffering. These farming methods have transformed “traditional poverty into modernized poverty” (p. 191). These impoverished populations aren’t a sad accident. This kind of poverty is “designed to function smoothly in a world economic system” focused on the total economic wealth generated by “nations” (p. 191). The reality is that our current global economic system often benefits companies at people’s expense. Poor communities provide cheap labor and resources that increase corporate profits (p. 191-193).
What is more, croplands have been so destroyed by large-scale farming that the people who live on them cannot grow food to simply sustain themselves. The soils have turned to sand and are polluted by over-farming, pesticides and fertilizers (p. 185, 200). Their only choice is to move to the slums of manufacturing cities and wait for a job (p. 191).
But, McKibben would like to show a way out of this cycle of devastation and relocation. If wealth is redefined to mean more than money or profit, then the wealth of communities can increase, ultimately raising the real “wealth” of nations. If an increase in food supply is what’s valued instead of dollars, smaller-scale farming provides this kind of wealth (p. 198). He shows numerous examples of communities, like the Nayakrishi Andolon farm in Bangladesh, that have managed to revitalize their soils and their lives by planting a variety of crops without pesticides and fertilizer. Nayakrishi has also abstained from buying seeds from Western labs. This organic farm has enhanced the lives of the villagers. They feel a deeper and more substantial relationship with one another. What is more, it has made a monetary profit as well (p. 200-203). It is proof that there is an alternative to big agribusiness on every level. These small-scale farming models may not raise the GNP, but they do raise a deeper understanding of “wealth.” More importantly, they positively affect people’s lives in substantial ways (p. 204). Monetary growth is sacrificed for higher goals (p. 210).
Moreover, McKibben emphasizes that people are innovative; they make the most out of what they have available. If communities work together they can accomplish almost anything and not negatively affect the planet. They can redesign old bicycles to harvest grain (p. 206). They can teach each other to breed rabbits – a skill which buys them supplies and enriches the soil by planting grass for the rabbits to eat (p. 208). They can ban together to raise the literacy rate and reinvigorate democracy (p. 213). They can become self-sufficient and, because of this, feel a richer happiness (p. 214).
An Ailing Planet, A New Development – McKibben’s other goal is to stress that the planet cannot sustain the methods of production currently in use. What is more, the developing world cannot model itself after the West. It is physically impossible. McKibben’s prime example for this is China. He points out that if China alone matched the U.S. in car ownership, more carbon dioxide would be produced “annually than the rest of the world’s transportation system” currently emits (p. 183). China’s employment of large-scale farming has devastated its grasslands and water table, which means they cannot continue to produce their own food. China’s strategy is to buy grain on the global market. Not only would this raise food prices and create scarcity, it simply can’t be done; “the world can’t produce enough grain” (p. 189). His main intention is to prove that, if development as we know it cannot be physically possible for China, it can’t be physically possible for anyone in the developing world (p. 184). Another way of looking at development must be sought.
This new development is by and large “a process...measured...in human energy” (p. 211). This means achievement comes from working together and not continuing our current model of “hyper-individualism” (p255). It would stress the necessity of community, of feeling a connection with those around you and not the stuff around you (p. 225). Solidarity with others and community engagement give us the understanding that human-well being can be defined in broader terms (p. 214-217). The wealth of knowledge, skills and talents of those around us can be used to produce goods and food without damaging the planet (p. 207). But this can only be done if communities work as a team (p. 212). McKibben’s Western example of this sort of collective thinking is Europe. Available health care and higher education are valued there above higher incomes (p. 223). These are products of community thinking on the largest scale. However, McKibben’s work has sought to teach us that any community, regardless of size, can work together – to produce food, to produce energy. But above all, to produce a richer sense of wealth and a deeper sense of identity.
