Green Growth, Smart Growth, livre ebook

The positive economic and environmental arguments for a shift in paradigm to ‘smart growth' using efficient technology, smart energy policy and proactive innovation

This book is not another warning about the end of the world. It is neither a penitential sermon on environmentalism, nor an appeal to frugality and self-restraint. Far from having exhausted the era of technological, social and democratic progress, we are on the brink of a new stage of industrial modernity: a shift from a fossil-based to a postfossil economy, from the ruthless exploitation of nature toward growth in tandem with it. Decoupling economic growth from environmental consumption is an ambitious goal, but also an achievable one.

Drawing on the German policy experience of tackling climate change, ‘Green Growth, Smart Growth’ outlines a positive way forward in this great transformation and it does so in the conviction that the danger industrial civilization poses to our future can be overcome using the means of modernity: science, technology and democracy. It is by no means certain that we will win the race against climate change and dwindling resources. That will require nothing less than a great leap forward—a green industrial revolution.

Foreword by Anthony Giddens; Preface and Acknowledgments; Introduction: The Decline of Modernity or the Beginning of a New Chapter?; 1. A Changing World; 2. The Limits to Growth – The Growth of Limits; 3. The Malaise of Modernity; 4. The Green Industrial Revolution; 5. Bioeconomics; 6. The Future of Agriculture; 7. An Energy Revolution; 8. The Postfossil City; 9. Ecocapitalism; 10. The Politics of Environmental Transformation; Notes; Bibliography; About the Author; Index