Although its influence on current research on the
economics of sustainability is mainly historical, 5 the
legacy of The Limits to Growth study continues to have
very considerable implications for environmental policy,
in part because of
the powerful appeal of
the study’s “apocalypseor-renewal”
rhetorical
framing in the context
of the contemporary
sustainability movement.
In debates over
climate change, for example,
environmentalists
sometimes argue
that, because the production
and consumption
of market goods
and services is the proximate cause of greenhouse gas
emissions, stabilizing climate will require some curtailment
or even the reversal of economic growth.6
In
response, critics argue that, because economic growth
is fundamental to the improvement of human welfare,
policies that negatively affect economic growth are
unworkable and undesirable.7
This contextualization of the issue has led to policy gridlock grounded in an
underlying ideological disagreement.
The present paper will address these issues by advancing
two separate yet interrelated arguments, focusing
especially on the example of climate change.