Growth, Ferraris Ode and Economist

November 28, 2010

The Dutch Ode magazine of December 2010 covers some articles stating that there are NO limits to growth. One of the articles is by the British journalist Daniel Ben-Ami, who wrote the book “Ferraris for all: in defense of economic progress”. He states that the question is not how many planets we need to sustain humanity, rather how we can make this one planet more productive. Human thinking power and creativity will bring the solution. I haven’t read this book yet, but this message seems to be very much aligned with the Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley, see previous blog. Economic progress has improved the quality of life for many many people. A strategy that says that we need to scale down growth, and thus deny so many people a higher quality of life is not the answer to climate change. It will be an obstacle to finding breakthrough solutions. In another article in Ode Marco Visscher rightly states that development in poor countries is not to stop at a level which is subpar to what we are used to in the West. No farmer wants to settle for a ‘traditional lifestyle’. Poverty is a problem that needs to be tackled effectively, thus economic growth is a necessity. In this week’s edition of The Economist (November 27^th) it says: “The best protection against global warming is prosperity. But this magazine takes it one step further as it notes that development is not an easy solution to the problem of climate change. It requires good government policies (which is often especially challenging in poor countries) and one needs to realize that although development can help protect poor countries from climate change, it also threatens to make to problem worse initially. Therefore rich countries have to help by offering poor countries support for greener energy technologies. Beyond encouraging climate-friendly development, governments need to take some focused measures in three areas: infrastructure, migration and food.”
It is the first time that I read similar kind of messages in Ode and The Economist. I was very surprised by Ode’s agreement with the statement that there are no limits to growth. I never expected this from Ode, I'm even a bit confused. Very curious what the average reader of this magazine thinks about it. When Economist and Ode readers start having similar views, it seems more likely that we will find ways of dealing with global challenges (such as poverty and climate change) more effectively!

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