Economic growth, is the growth of the economy. It can be defined in more detail as an increase in economic activity, normally associated with, caused by and causing an increase in accumulated capital stock.
as long as you don't see the cliff coming that those "typically good" quarters are leading to.
It might be unseen because it isn't there.
An example would be trees... to say that not using them as measured by typical historical economic models is like they never existed?
They are used even if they are not burned as fuel, or used as construction materials. They are used as for the pleasure of viewing them, and to covert remove CO2 and add oxygen to the environment, and they provide habitat for animals, etc.
We don't get that type of use from oil in the ground. Some specialized microorganisms live in it, but that's not something that people are likely to care much about, and in any case there will always be some oil the ground (or close enough to always, eventually the sun might swallow the Earth, but if people are still around and that happens I doubt a lack of oil will be our biggest concern).
many types of cells live for a very long time and even grow (hair, nails, etc)
I've heard the claim, and then heard that it is false. The skin may shrink away from the nails making them look longer, but that doesn't mean they grow. Since death (absent something like being at ground zero for a nuclear blast, or being dropped in to a vat of sulfuric acid) isn't an instantaneous all at once thing, I imagine there might indeed be some growth of parts of the body, but without more nutrients and oxygen being pumped to them it wouldn't be all that significant. Nail and hair growth is slow, and would stop soon.
See
sciencebuzz.org
snopes.com
straightdope.com
So damaging the planet but not killing it doesn't really make much sense.
The damage over the very large scale (the planet) is minimal. On smaller scales particularly foolish actions (among other things see en.wikipedia.org ) can be devastating but such actions are not necessary for (or even helpful to, at least not in the mid to long run) economic growth. And in fact economic growth gives us extra resources to prevent and mitigate environmental harm, while giving more people enough of a surplus to care about it (near starving people aren't going to care, unless its the cause of their condition, and even then they might make it worse to continue to live). |
