Shaun's contribution was especially refreshing, though all speakers had something positive to say. Shame it wasn't organised so us viewers could see the slides!
Let's hope some of this talk is translated into action. It's about bloody time - for instance, the focus on road building throughout the EU has to stopped, even twenty years too late of course. Something that struck me is the barely-mentioned 'energy independence'; I know they were talking in terms of energy reduction but still,
fracking.
A politician friend of mine harps on about the 'poor parking facilities' in our county town, when it's actually awash with them. I look forward to some of the thinking outlined in the presentation filtering down to our level.
I liked the first question from the audience - from Andy Myles of Scottish Environment Link:
Would you agree that, in Europe and North America in particular, we're really more than rich enough already; we have vast quantities of wealth; there's about 72 trillion dollars sitting untouched in tax havens and that is the product of our economic growth over recent decades. Would you agree with me that the time has come to understand that economic growth, which we seem so desperate to return to, is not, in fact, the solution. It is the problem. Economic growth and the endless pursuit of economic growth seems to me to be the paradigm that we really require to shift. If it's not the paradigm that requires shifting, what is?
This man needs to talk loud and clear to everyone. More power to him.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
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