To make the argument, Growth isn’t Possible uses a hamster to illustrate what would happen if there were no limits to growth. Hamsters double in size each week until around 6 weeks old. But if it grew at the same rate until its first birthday, we’d be looking at a 9 billion tonne hamster, which would eat more than a year’s worth of world maize production every day. As things are in nature, so sooner or later, they must be in the economy. Growth is pushing the planet ever closer to, and beyond some very real environmental limits. Yet politicians and economists are seemingly convinced that the economy can grow without end in a finite planet, no matter what the costs.
Interesting stuff from The Impossible Hamster Club
