It's time we started living on Earth
as if we want to stay
Book Review by Roy LaBerge
from the The CCPA Monitor October 2006.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
Life, Money and Illusion, Living on Earth as if we want to stay
by Mike Nickerson, Seven Generations Publishing, Lanark, ON, 2006, $19.95
plus postage and handling.
Might the goal of sustainability more effectively meet the challenges
of our time than the goal of perpetual economic expansion? Life, Money
and Illusion: Living on Earth as if we want to stay answers that question
with an emphatic "yes!"
Author Mike Nickerson contrasts two schools of thought, one devoted
to "life" and the other to "money." Life is the biological
perspective. It sees humans as just one part of the planet's diverse biology.
Money is the material perspective. It is fixated on long-term financial
growth.
According to the "money" perspective, "the dynamics of
supply and demand in the marketplace will detect most problems and adjust
price in a way that will solve them... As long as our economic system is
expanding, we will have the financial means to address any problems that
are not automatically corrected by the market."
According to the "life" perspective, long-term well-being
requires "stabilizing the overall ability and tolerances of Earth's
life-supporting systems." The "life" perspective also requires
social justice: "If the system does not include everyone, those left
out will have no choices for supporting their lives besides taking from
others or encroaching further on already stressed ecosystems."
Nickerson points out one area in which we can grow indefinitely, and
that is the development of ourselves: "There is no doubt that we need
concrete material goods in the form of food, clothing, and shelter. When
these are not available, their provision is totally preoccupying. However,
once we have enough of these material basics, to be healthy and to have
the sense to know that we will not be wanting for them next week or next
month, there are other possibilities for personal fulfilment that do not
involve more 'things.' Once necessities are covered, there is reason to
believe that an afternoon with a friend can be more rewarding than another
basket of consumer goods."
Many environmentalists, climatologists, and other scientists have sounded
the alarm about the effects of continuing economic expansion, including
the Club of Rome in its 1974 Limits of Growth report and the UN's
World Commission on Environment and Development, which produced the 1987
Bruntland Report, Our Common Future. In 1992, the U.S. National Academy
of Science and Britain's Royal Society issued a joint statement warning
of the need to accommodate biological limits. In that same year, a similar
warning came from the Union of Concerned Scientists, which included 80%
of all living Nobel Prize winners in Science. And in 1995, the International
Panel on Climate Change also issued a call to action to counteract the world's
ecological deterioration.
Now we have an even more strongly worded warning from a writer who,
though lacking the international renown and credentials of previous eminent
alarm-raisers, is nevertheless as well-informed and articulate. Nickerson
is the founder of the Institute for the Study of Cultural Evolution, and
author of Bakavi: Change the World I Want to Stay On, in which he
explained the basic goal of sustainability. He lives with his wife, Donna,
and teenage daughter in eastern Ontario's Lanark County, where he supports
his studies and writing by designing and building custom furniture
Unlike many books authored by academics and specialists, Life, Money
and Illusion is written in lucid and compelling language. Nickerson
describes how humans moved from a state of harmony with their environment
to become greedy over-consumers of resources and degraders of the environment,
and does so with insights from a variety of academic disciplines, including
history, economics, political science, physiology, geography, geophysics,
chemistry, ecology, forestry, and nutrition - all expressed in easily understood
prose.
It is possible that "experts" with university degrees in the
relevant disciplines may dispute some details of Nickerson`s work, but they
will find it very difficult - should they be so inclined - to find fault
with his overall conclusions about life and money.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines "illusion" as "misapprehension
of the true state of affairs." It was in a state of illusion that the
world failed to respond to all the earlier warnings. Nickerson`s Life,
Money and Illusion merits a wide readership. No one who reads it will
be left with any illusion about the kind of future humanity faces if "money"
continues to be our society's predominate driving force. Nickerson outlines
the steps that have to be taken to help "life" replace "money"
as the goal of both public policy and private enterprise.
The author spent 10 years researching and writing Life, Money and
Illusion. A list acknowledging the persons who assisted him runs to
three-and-a-half pages. The book includes an excellent 10-page bibliography
and an eight-page analytical index.
(Roy LaBerge is an Ottawa-based free-lance writer and communications specialist.)
How to order this book.
Questions and comments are welcome.
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