A Club of Rome Blog contribution written by Ian Johnson, Secretary General of the Club of Rome
Oil and economic growth have been the inseparable twins of economic and social development for well over a century. An almost perfect relationship exists between the two: as growth goes so oil production follows. The more we grow the more oil thirsty we become. Even in an age when climate change worries abound, our determination to go the ends of the earth to find oil seems unstoppable. Our addiction continues unabated and unabashed.
And yet there are worrying signs. Herman Daly has long argued the plausible case that we may well be fast approaching the era of what he has termed “uneconomic growth”: an era when the marginal (or extra) costs of economic growth outweigh the marginal (or extra) benefits to society of such growth. Given the vital role that oil plays in economic growth then perhaps it is equally plausible that we are entering an era of “uneconomic oil”.
Click on this link to read the full text: Will uneconomic oil promote uneconomic growth?
