Why Recession is Costing the Earth

It is hard to hate an institution or a mood.   We like to personalize our villains. At least the 26 January, 2009 Guardian piece, 'Twenty-five people at the heart of the meltdown...' outlined the structural backdrop to their rogues gallery of politicians, bankers, hedge fund managers and speculators.  The list even accused the entire American and British public.  Though this high sugar diet of debt and denial made addicts of all of us it is hard not to conclude that the chief beneficiaries and architects of the boom were most responsible for the bust. 

But we are still in denial, not only around debt but about growth.  Whilst News 24 picks apart the marginalia of our Eurozone crisis in banal detail, the ecological crisis unfolds almost without comment.  Even the elephant in the room is in danger of extinction!  Growth, that holy grail of capitalism, has made an unholy mess of the planet.  In a classic example of false consciousness 'growth' is defined as  GDP;  bagged and tagged at the checkout  as consumer spending.  High Street share prices rise and fall, sometimes on a single day of pre-Christmas consumption.  Thus narrowly defined the only response to our current predicament is a 'return to growth'.  The addict languishes in withdrawal but still craves the high.  Biodiversity, equality, justice and sustainability seem at best expendable or worse, simply unintelligible. 

Saying that recession is good for the environment is ethically simplistic.  But responding to the bust shouldn't mean reinstating the boom.  The way our system works punishes the poor, in good times or bad.  I believe in growth, but not necessarily the kind that flatters a bank balance.  Perhaps the development of philanthropy, equity, quality of life or treasures in heaven.   

The price of our narrow definitions is appalling.  At risk of belittling a crisis comparable to the 1930's, it could be that the current slump will prove a fatal distraction.   For a political culture in the grip of narrow agendas and cowardice getting our priorities right seems too much to ask.  Which twenty-five people are most culpable for the ecological meltdown?