> The book... says there are four main forces... that enable decoupling in mature economies:
> * the efficiencies driven by capitalism
> * technological progress that has allowed us to “dematerialize” our consumption (by, for instance, cramming atlases, compasses, calculators, recorders, cameras, stereos, and other gadgets into a single device in our pocket)
> * public awareness of environmental damage
> * governments that respond to those concerns by putting regulations in place to reduce those harms
> So, McAfee argues, what we need to address climate change and prevent other environmental catastrophes, while maintaining modern living standards for billions of people, is … even more of each of these [four forces], working in concert.
There currently seems to be a big hole in this approach, which is that rich jurisdictions need to be aligned with poorer ones to work in concert toward these goals, otherwise rich jurisdictions can just “pretend” they’re meeting goals when they’re just moving them to poor jurisdictions.
> * the efficiencies driven by capitalism
> * technological progress that has allowed us to “dematerialize” our consumption (by, for instance, cramming atlases, compasses, calculators, recorders, cameras, stereos, and other gadgets into a single device in our pocket)
> * public awareness of environmental damage
> * governments that respond to those concerns by putting regulations in place to reduce those harms
> So, McAfee argues, what we need to address climate change and prevent other environmental catastrophes, while maintaining modern living standards for billions of people, is … even more of each of these [four forces], working in concert.