Analytical Paper Ii

Over the course of the semester we have been discussing our world and many of the problems with it. The beginning of the semester and the first three books more or less educated us about the problems within our country and in some respects what it happening around the world. The next three books, Deep Economy by Bill McKibben, Making Globalization Work by Joseph E. Stiglitz, and Mid-Course Correction by Ray C. Anderson. These books all talked about problems in the more global sense, they also presented different solutions than we read about before. It is very interesting seeing different perspectives and possible solutions to the challenges we face politically, socially, environmentally and culturally. We also face challenges when it comes to global consumption and our extreme use of natural resources. After reading these books and paying attention to the news you hear and seeing more of the challenges face and by interactively reading these books and then seeing other people talking about it, it really helps the message sink in. Throughout these books we see three different views and three different ways we can try to improve our ways along with everyone else’s to improve this planet for everyone who will live on it in the future.

At the beginning of McKibben’s book he talks about history much like Ishmael and how our economy has evolved over the course of history. He states “Keynes calculated, the standard of living had increased one hundred percent over those four thousand years.” (McKibben, pg. 5) He talks about how before history began humans did not know how to do anything new. We had the basic things down that we had to have in order to survive. In the early 1700’s McKibben explains that something “new” finally happened that would revolutionize the way we do business and transport goods in this country forever. The Steam engine, invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712. (McKibben, pg. 5) This produced steam power by burning coal and using the steam to run the pump. We began to produce goods with much less labor and economic growth from here on out grew by huge multiples to where we are now. Increasing efficiency played a key role in the development of businesses and economies. “The dynamic entrepreneurial actors unleashed by the new economic revolution soon showed that businesses could keep improving their operations, apparently indefinitely.” (McKibben, pg. 6) The fact that people were inventing ways to cut cost to make more money and then in turn grow is something that has still not changed now. We are starting to see the same sort of trend all over the world. The statistic the author gives is that eighty countries have seen per capita income fall in the last decade (McKibben, pg. 12) There is no good explanation for this really other than the fact that technology and the disappearance of a strong union base has driven many of the jobs that people would have here in the states overseas because they have figured out a way to produce goods more efficiently and at a much lower cost. McKibben in his book takes the side of fairness when it comes to this topic. He says, “I agree with the argument of fairness, that we should distribute wealth more equitably both here and around the globe.” (McKibben, pg. 14) And he argues on the same page that if we really wanted growth, we would try harder to distribute wealth more fairly so that the economy could benefit from everyone. While this is a problem and might help a little it is not one of the major problems that our economy faces today. These inventions and innovations are commonly looked on as a positive thing but McKibben takes the opposite side and shows us “Three Fundamental Challenges to the fixation on growth.” (McKibben, pg. 11) The first is political: “growth, at least as we now create it, is producing more inequality than prosperity, more insecurity than progress. Basically he is say in that although we have been growing as an economy for hundreds of years that we really do not have a whole lot to show for it other than many material things. The second argument he makes is science based and says that as scientists keep researching they are finding that we do not have the fossil fuels to keep our rate of growth going and that we will not be able to take care of the pollution that it produces even if we did have the supplies. The third argument McKibben makes is that the way we are growing is no longer making anyone happy.

McKibben states in his book “Though our economy has been growing, most of us have little to show for it.” (McKibben, pg. 11) He talks about how the lower 90 percent of American taxpayers have seen their income decline fairly steadily. (McKibben, pg. 11) He gives us some shocking statistics about how even the well educated people have seen their earnings decrease over the recent years. Earnings have been falling for a long time in the United States but now

When Thomas Newcomen engineered the Industrial Revolution with the invention of his steam engine I do not believe he knew the problems he would bring to the world when he did it. McKibben argues that the Industrial Revolution was “all about fossil fuel” (McKibben pg. 15) and everything that has followed in terms of our development and globalization has revolved and involved fossil fuels. McKibben admits that the fuel we use to power everything is truly amazing and that the means in which we can get these resources is really easy compared to many things. But now that the resources are beginning to get more scarce it is becoming harder and more of a burden to get the resources. “Every action of a modern life burns fossil fuel.” (McKibben, pg. 15) This could not be more true. We have talked in class about how everything we do revolves around the fact that we have fossil fuels. Whether it is transporting things, heating buildings, or even manufacturing goods we use these fuels and now that there is an enormous population on this planet we are using it more and more to get the things we need. We all know that we need to consume less of these fuels and as of recent years we have seen SUV sales go down and people car pooling more and the solar companies have seen their stock dramatically rise because people are realizing that it is getting toward the end of fossil fuels and we need to start using alternative energy.

McKibben’s next argument on growth would be that of population. He says, “Even before we run out of oil, we’re running out of planet.” (McKibben, pg. 18) He is concerned because of population growth and because of how we have basically trashed the earth for hundreds of years. Scientists have found that “human actions