“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.”
- Ghandi

What is growth? If one looks at an organism, growth requires inputs (food/energy, micro-nutrients, water, etc). For the economy to grow, massive inputs are also needed, mostly in the form of energy and materials. Currently, the major difference is that the economy relies on nonrenewable resources (fossil fuels and minerals) whereas organisms depend on renewable sources of food. If the economy is to grow in a sustainable manner, nature may be the best guide. This regenerative economy could serve as a model going forward.

Unfortunately, the current model of consumption and increasing technological advancements make for a cyclical pattern of consumption and disposal. It is one which we often struggle to reconcile: waves of technology replacing one technology with another. Think of music: phonograph>record player>8tracks>tapes>CDs/mini discs>digital. Each time, the consumer has to make a purchase and manufacturing has to rev-up and use all that energy and raw materials to produce something for us that will end up in the trash replaced by something new we buy that revs-up the manufacturing cycle again. In the green technology field, it is the same; the push was originally to compact flourescent light bulbs (with what many think of as inferior light). Now, compacts are being replaced by LEDs, so what’s next? Should we change? How many times? What’s the impact of our constant consumption and the changing technologies we’re consuming as we advance? It’s great to get improvements with each new wave of technology but at what cost? This is something we struggle with: we need capitalism to realize the second green revolution, but how much is too much?

It’s one of those issues that we want the economy to grow but that pretty much entails planned obsolescence of current consumer goods. In other words, they have to fail – cradle to grave – for us to buy more and the economy to continue growing. That’s why the lifecycle- and cradle to cradle- is so important and that the planned death must be a “natural” one or one that truly gives birth to the next generation of technologies and products. Again, it seems like nature is the perfect system to mimic. Will we buy less if it is part of the regenerative economy? Or is the regenerative economy still going to lead to the need to replace, but without the massive inputs?

- 2nd Green Revolution

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