kulu and Bronwyn,

Fair arguments, both.

There is definitely a trade-off in everything people and nations do. I think the best thing is to improve trade relations with nations that have historically gone without in the past, while the Western economies concentrate more on quality rather than quantity.

We do live in a finite-sized world and there is a limit to which we can collectively go before aspects of our society start to creak and groan and finally collapse. Hopefully nations and societies can arrest this decline in time.

My idea of progress is different to that stated here.
I speak of improvements in medical treatment, food , so very many things we say are good that are driven by profit not good Wil.
India once taxed to harvest its own salt, existing for England's profit, is trading its way to much better life for its people.
If trade is not a tool for less war what is?
The average length of our lives is a result of a way of life supported by capitalism.
Yet yes we must change the rules, stop the rot or we all go down.
We do not have free world trade, it is a dream that never will be ours.
Self interest and greed stops it.
America stops it.
This crisis truly challenges each of us, how long will it last? how bad will it get? are we even near the bottom?
What ever the answer we have to ask how did it get this bad? and so quickly?

RobP,

You mentioned carbon capture and storage as a possible technology to deal with CO2 emissions. I doubt it very much indeed. Read the excellent article on this forum by John Harborne, "Clean coal is not what it seems to be". He is a climate change skeptic but he certainly seems to know his stuff on "clean? coal?".

I don't think technology is likely to play a very big part in bringing about a world that doesn't overuse its natural resources, even with renewable energy. With some notable exceptions, such as computers, genetic engineering, and nano-technology our increasing consumption is of material things, the manufacture and use of which leaves a relatively large ecological footprint.

All this so-called infrastructure expenditure designed to save us from economic collapse is pushing us instead to an earlier environmental collapse. Did you know for instance that the manufacture of a tonne of cement results in the release of about a tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere?

The whole thing is a bit of a Catch 22.