Can the economy continue growing for quite a while without bumping up against ecological limits?
There are two crucial considerations here and, unfortunately, each one is subtle and consistently overlooked by economic policy makers. First, consumers, firms and governments do not automatically seek the most efficient outcomes. In fact, when the goal is increasing production and consumption, moderate levels – not maximum levels – of efficiency are selected. Physicists and systems ecologists may recall the maximum power principle. Getting serious about increasing efficiency requires a policy goal of something other than economic growth.
