STWR - Share The World's Resources

Policymakers are edging towards recognising that GDP is not an adequate index of our economic or societal well-being. Do we need to completely rethink the economic system to prioritise sustainable prosperity over economic growth? Articles from The Ecologist and New Scientist.

Countering the rapid progression of climate change requires a swift mobilisation not seen since the Second World War. With internationally negotiated agreements faltering, grassroots pressure may be the catalyst for the social and economic changes needed, says Lester Brown.

Implementing global food reserves should be part of a genuine multilateral response to the food crisis. A new Global Convention on Food Security could offer an institutional framework for the governance of food and agriculture, argues a presentation by Robin Willoughby.

The fall of the Berlin Wall was hailed as the triumph of free market ideals. But even as the financial crisis exposes the weakness of this simplistic approach to economic management, the debate has yet to move beyond it, writes Michael Hirsh.

An increasing number of people worldwide are at risk from forced displacement due to climate change. A legally binding international agreement is required to recognise and address the needs of these ‘climate refugees’, argues a report from the Environmental Justice Foundation.

The Indian government recently announced a military operation, purportedly against Maoist rebels in the mineral rich hills of Orissa. But the real beneficiaries of this violence will be the mining companies driving India’s economic growth rather than local people, writes Arundhati Roy.  

Africa’s relatively small contribution to global warming comes mainly from natural resource extraction. Yet even this role could be reduced if governments and foreign companies heed the warnings from local environmental activists, write William Minter and Anita Wheeler.

A persistent pattern of violence is inherent in the institutional structure of our existing economy. We need a top to bottom redesign to build a new economic system that shares power and resources for the well-being of all, argues David Korten.

The dominance of neoliberalism in the economic policies of the Philippines resulted from a number of wider political developments. Dismantling this ideological hegemony will require reconnecting economic theory with the real world, says Walden Bello.

New approaches to economic thought are challenging classical theories based on self-interested individuals whose decisions can be reduced to mathematical equations – building a more realistic discipline with the potential to improve the human condition, writes Paul Ormerod.