“Absolutely bonkers”

Tim Jackson, one of the British government’s leading advisers on sustainability, has publically called me crazy.  Responding to my contribution from the floor to a debate at the RSA in London (comment after about 61 minutes) on his work he said that: “From the things you’ve written and indeed from the title of your book, I thought you were absolutely bonkers”.

Interestingly he went on to say that he agreed that economic growth could have benefits in principle. However, in his view the possibilities of growth are constrained by natural limits. “The finite earth cannot be a place in which everyone can aspire to Ferraris”, he said.

Of course this idea of growth constrained by limits is exactly what Ferraris For All is about. It is the essence of growth scepticism.

Jackson was speaking on a panel on the subject of “Is prosperity without growth possible?”  on 24 February (I have only just had time to listen to the audio and write it up).  His latest book is called Prosperity Without Growth (see posts of 30 March 2009 and 21 June 2009).

In my view a fair description of his argument would be “absolutely bonkers”.