Liberal economics’ legacy for the planet

Our society today is marked by what we might call ‘excessive liberalisation’. The social and moral limits and controls to human behaviour that have marked previous generations have been eroded or eradicated.

This is true in the case of personal ethics where the emphasis on what is apparently good is defined by the short-term effects on an individual person or group. Choices of diet or drink are left to personal choice in which it is assumed that we can all make informed and educated decisions, often based on nothing more than immediate satisfaction or happiness. Any later consequences or the effects on others are ignored.

But liberalisation goes much deeper, as we continue to see the de-regulation of economic control by a dominant, so-called free global market. This means that controls on, for instance, the movement of capital are lifted in favour of the immediate benefits to wealthy investors and corporations rather than for local communities or weaker countries.

The Retail Price Index which once protected small or independent businesses now works to their disadvantage. Planning regulations which once protected ‘Green Belt’ or the open countryside have been set aside to the advantage of developers. Financial controls and red tape for corporations are easier for a multi-national company to manage than a family farmer. And so on.

Why is this relevant to green issues? Because around Devon and across the world, there are huge dangers that the uglier face of capitalism puts profits before people and planet. Institutions and rules which might have protected the environment are now being pushed aside just at the time when they are most needed.

One example is the Government’s plans to reduce the capacity of the Environment Agency at a time of immense challenge from coastal and inland flooding. Another is the slackening of environmental protection from ‘fracking’ and the highly dubious offering of financial incentives to those who promote it. An even more serious example is the international failure to put into place an action programme to replace the Kyoto protocol agreements on global greenhouse gas emissions. Almost everywhere it seems that tame politicians are driven to reduce protective measures in the name of so-called economic growth.

Only last week in West Virginia, USA, more than 7,000 litres of a toxic chemical leaked into a river and public water supply that affected thousands of people and other creatures - a failure brought about by inadequate safeguards prompted by the freeing up of safety controls.

Just when we require difficult but necessary political drive to pull us back from ecological catastrophes, our leaders move in the opposite direction to appease economic demands.

De-regulation and liberalisation assist the immediate needs of bankers, big businesses and brash decision-makers but pull us to grater inequalities, more corruptive abuse, and a deep sense of uncertainty about the future of our human species.

At the start of a new year it is essential to recall that we need a longer term vision or we may easily destroy ourselves in a melée of short term resource conflicts. Where there is no full vision the people perish, said the prophet Jeremiah. We might say the same about the Earth, or at least its ability to carry life as we now know it. Where there is no truly sustainable future the planet will perish…