A New Kind of Growth

The emerging science of happiness tells us that money and possessions do not make people happier, unless this lifts them out of extreme poverty. Some generations ago, our forbears lifted themselves out of poverty… that growth was needed, as it is today for billions. For so long, we’ve measured growth as simply having and doing more stuff. But now we’ve come so far along that having too much and doing too much can stress people out, leaving them less happy.

Let’s find a way of measuring the kind of growth that actually makes life better. We’ll need to decide what it is that we value, what truly makes us happy, to find the smaller, more fulfilling life. Friends close by, gardens all around, summer’s first peaches on our lips. Let us remember the sacredness of place and community across generations and vast ages.

Let’s make things of great quality that we keep for generations, and find a way to recycle and return everything so we produce no trash at all. We can make our world more beautiful and joyful, our work and our cities more efficient, and say “this is growth.” And most of all we can grow in our ability to preserve what is left, and clean up the damn mess we have made of the world.

Mother Earth is very strong—she will survive a brief pulse of carbon dioxide, as she has in the past. But our civilizations are fragile, and a change of a degree can send noble empires down to ruins. And worst of all, our children and grandchildren must pay the highest price. We face an extra-ordinary challenge that will last a century or more. To avoid catastrophe, we need to make a steep reduction in our emissions right now. And we can, this very year, reduce our emissions by quite a bit.

Americans have the biggest changes to make, the biggest debt of past emissions. It’s a huge challenge, but if there’s anything Americans love, it’s a challenge. Even if we don’t want to admit we were wrong in the first place, we can still lead the world in cleaning up our past mistakes—since we’re the most wasteful, we can make the biggest reduction. Go U.S.A.! Fixing the mess left by the 20th century is one of the biggest economic opportunities for the 21st.

If you feel like 80% is overwhelming, how about half? I bet you can reduce your carbon emissions by half, right away, without giving up too much. I believe in you, and the world is counting on you. It’s necessary, it’s your patriotic duty, it’s the right thing to do.