A top Russian presidential advisor calls the greenhouse gas regulating Kyoto Protocol “an assault on human civilization”, because “it is harmful for economic growth”.
At the same time, Australian Prime Minister John Howard laments that uncontrolled consumption of imported goods by the public is actually driving Australia into recession. He says: “Retail stores are buying increasing amounts of goods from overseas because their customers want them.”
That’s “human civilization” for you… uncontrollable and unsustainable expansion followed by collapse, or is it? This article over at Wired examines whether we should ditch the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and other such economic indicators and adopt a different indicator of National prosperity - the “Gross National Happiness” indicator. At least one country has been doing exactly that since 1972, the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.
