If modern society ever had a core taboo it is against speaking favorably of limits, especially with respect to growth. To accept limits, to question growth is to upset a myth that has sustained the industrial world for a century and more. But that 'sustaining' has been through fossil fuels and problem displacement, not living within ecological means. That time is over, and so should be the taboo. Higgs thus performs a valuable service with her thorough and carefully crafted history of the ideas of limits and growth. It is well worth reading even for those who feel they know the arguments. -- Thomas Princen, author of The Logic of Sufficiency and Treading Softly Important, wonderful, and shocking. The conspiracy theory that we all thought too fanciful to be true was not so crazy after all, and here is the evidence to prove it. Higgs explains brilliantly how our ideas about economics and the environment have been carefully warped and manipulated over decades, just so a small minority could get rich. This book is essential reading. -- Graeme Maxton, Member of the Club of Rome and best-selling author In Collision Course, Kerryn Higgs skillfully traces the history of the limits to growth controversy, focusing on the question of resource adequacy to sustain future growth in human consumption. This is an important book with a highly unique perspective that cuts across conventional disciplines and history. -- Dennis Pirages, Professor of Political Science, University of Nevada, Las Vegas Collision Course is a well-documented, insightful, and sweeping assessment of economic growth: its inescapable past, perilous present, and impossible future. -- Brian Czech, founder and President of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE)
Kerryn Higgs is an Australian writer. She received her PhD in Geography and Environmental Studies from the University of Tasmania, where she is now a University Associate. She is a Fellow of the International Centre of the Club of Rome.
This clear and cogent book is an important wake-up call. It should
not need saying that it is impossible for human populations and
economies to grow without limit on a finite planet, but that
delusion is widespread. This book is a reminder of the inconvenient
truth that should be informing our leaders, as well as an excellent
analysis of the way public understanding of our global predicament
has been systematically subverted for decades by powerful vested
interests.
*Australian Book Review*
This is an excellent book, full of historical depth and analytical
insights.
*Resurgence & Ecologist*
Higgs' gentle, thoroughly researched, insightful book could easily
become a foundation text in history, philosophy, economics,
politics and, of course, in the biological sciences. All university
and public libraries and indeed the members of all political and
social institutions who wish to be taken seriously in debates about
our future should read and discuss this work if we are to avoid the
collision for which Higgs suggests we are on course.
*The Economic and Labour Relations Review*
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