Exit Ramp to Sustainability: the plenitude path

Abstract

Juliet Schor, a well regarded economist and professor of sociology, identifies vital signs of resistance andhope in a world confronted by extreme ecological challenges. In her very lucid and well-documentedwork, the author shows the interconnection among a threatening ecological collapse, global poverty andeconomic crises. While evidence on the intensity of global stressors on our biosphere keeps mountingprevailing economic structures, theories and policies, rather than offering meaningful solutions, keepexacerbating human contribution to the degradation of our planet’s environment. While economists inwealthy societies keep treating the environment as a luxury good, scientific evidence tells us thathumanity does not have the luxury of waiting for some people to feel rich again before taking effectiveaction. There is an urgent need to find new ways to reduce our eco-footprints and green house gasemissions while solving the economic problems of the global north and raising the standard of living ofpoor people in the global south, she explains. This is the real problem of our time and the core of socialconflict and change ahead. As Juliet Schor demonstrates in her article, we need an exit ramp, an economicvision of the transition towards a sustainable planetary economy based not only on a clear understandingof where we have been, but on the resistance of an emerging and expanding movement of people who areforging a path to a new plenitude.