According to CNN Money, The National Retail Federation (NRF) of the US estimated sales 2009 holiday sales will decline by 1% overall, compared to last year. (2008 holiday sales were down 3.4% over 2007.) In other words, this year's projected outcome appears to reflect that the economy (as gauged by holiday sales) is on the upswing.
Compare that news with The Financial Times September 21, 2009 front page article about the fall in industrial emissions in 2008:
"The recession has resulted in an unparalleled fall in greenhouse gas emissions, providing a unique opportunity to move the world away from high carbon growth, an International Energy Agency study has found. In the first big study of the impact of the recession on climate change, the IEA found that CO 2 emissions from burning fossil fuels had undergone a significant decline this year - further than in any year in the last 40. The fall will exceed the drop in the 1981 recession that followed the oil crisis."
Two ideas resound for me above the clash of these economic and environmental cymbals:
1) If we consume less, we have less carbon emissions, which may soften global climate catastrophe somewhat.
2) If we are to do better than survive global climate catastrophe, it will involve our changing the way we measure success. Metrics like the gross domestic product (GDP), being in the black and the consumer price index (CPI) will have to account for how much or how little carbon is emitted, natural resources used and toxins are released into air, water and land. Government subsidies and tax breaks will have to reward those efforts that regenerate and replenish the natural and human resources upon which we depend.
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