The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality

Advance Praise for
The End of Growth

Heinberg draws in the big three drivers of inevitable crisis—resource constraints, environmental impacts, and financial system overload—and explains why they are not individual challenges but one integrated systemic problem. By time you finish this book, you will have come to two conclusions. First, we are not facing a recession—this is the end of economic growth. Second, this is not our children’s problem—it is ours. It’s time to get ready, and reading this book is the place to start.

— P
AUL
G
ILDING
, author,
The Great Disruption
,
Former head of Greenpeace International

Richard has rung the bell on the limits to growth. This is real. The consequences for economics, finance, and our way of life in the decades ahead will be greater than the consequences of the industrial revolution were for our recent ancestors. Our coming shift from quantity of consumption to quality of life is the great challenge of our generation—frightening at times, but ultimately freeing.

— J
OHN
F
ULLERTON
, President and Founder, Capital Institute

Why have mainstream economists ignored environmental limits for so long? If Heinberg is right, they will have a lot of explaining to do. The end of conventional economic growth would be a shattering turn of events—but the book makes a persuasive case that this is indeed what we are seeing.

— L
ESTER
B
ROWN
, Founder, Earth Policy Institute
and author,
World on the Edge

Heinberg shows how peak oil, peak water, peak food, etc. lead not only to the end of growth, and also to the beginning of a new era of progress without growth.

— H
ERMAN
E. D
ALY
, Professor Emeritus,
School of Public Policy, University of Maryland

The End of Growth
offers a comprehensive, timely and persuasive analysis of the reality of ecological limits as they relate to economic growth. Filled with facts and figures and very readable, the book makes a rational case while paying attention to nuance and counterarguments. A must-read for anyone who depends upon economic growth, which means all of us.

— L
ESLIE
E. C
HRISTIAN
, CFA, President and CEO Portfolio 21 Investments

Heinberg has masterfully summarized and updated the case against economics, and its fraudulent scorecard—GDP. He explains why conventional economic growth is ending now, and why growth of human populations and material consumption will follow suit. Yet we all can still grow in wisdom and continue expanding the knowledge of our universe, while growing greener technologies capturing the sun’s daily free photon flow as we transition to the Solar Age.

— H
AZEL
H
ENDERSON
, author,
The Politics of the Solar Age
(1981)
and other books, President of Ethical Markets Media (USA and Brazil) and its
Green Transition Scoreboard®

Dig into this book! It is crammed full of ideas, information and perspective on where our troubled world is headed—a Baedeker for the perplexed, and that’s most of us.

— J
AMES
G
USTAVE
S
PETH
, author of
The Bridge at the Edge of the World:
Capitalism, the Environment and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability

Read this book and have the light switched on.

— C
AROLINE
L
UCAS
, Member of Parliament (UK)

Richard Heinberg is not one to shy away from difficult topics and The
End of
Growth
is no exception. Heinberg explains today’s environmental and economic realities—which are scary to face. But believe me, not facing them is a whole lot scarier. And as Heinberg explains, the sooner we have this critically needed conversation about how to live in a healthy, fair, and meaningful way on this one planet we have, the better it will be for all of us.

—A
NNIE
L
EONARD
, author,
The Story of Stuff

A vitally important book—it helps clear away many of the mistaken assumptions that clutter our heads when we think about ‘obvious’ and ‘natural’ facts of our economic life. You really need to read it if you want to understand the next few crucial years.

— B
ILL
M
CKIBBEN
, author of
Deep Economy
and
Eaarth

From all my research, I’m come to appreciate how much the expectation of unending growth dominates public policy — and how ephemeral that goal is likely to prove. Until now, however, no one has had the foresight to address this critical topic. Congratulations to Richard Heinberg for providing such a lucid account of the natural limits to growth and the urgent need for a new economic model.

— M
ICHAEL
K
LARE
, author,
Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet

THE END
of
GROWTH

post
carbon
institute

The End of Growth
is a “living book.”

Additional materials are being posted and updated
regularly at
endofgrowth.com
.

Also, you can join the conversation about EOG at
facebook.com/richardheinberg
facebook.com/postcarbon

THE END
of
GROWTH

RICHARD
HEINBERG

Copyright © 2011 by Richard Heinberg.
All rights reserved.

Cover design by Diane McIntosh.
Balloon: iStock © kutay tanir. Pin: iStock © Keith Webber Jr.
Background texture: iStock © toto8888 Printed in Canada.
First printing May 2011.

Paperback ISBN: 978-0-86571-695-7
eISBN: 978-1-55092-483-1

Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of
The End of Growth
should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below.

To order directly from the publishers, please call toll-free
(North America) 1-800-567-6772, or order online at
www.newsociety.com

Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to:

New Society Publishers
P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada
(250) 247-9737

New Society Publishers’ mission is to publish books that contribute in fundamental ways to building an ecologically sustainable and just society, and to do so with the least possible impact on the environment, in a manner that models this vision. We are committed to doing this not just through education, but through action. Our printed, bound books are printed on Forest Stewardship Council-certified acid-free paper that is
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Heinberg, Richard

The end of growth : adapting to our new economic reality / Richard Heinberg.

ISBN 978-0-86571-695-7

1. Economic indicators. 2. Economic forecasting.
3. Economic development. 4. Natural resources. I. Title.

 
www.newsociety.com

DEDICATION