ABSTRACT
Economic growth is both medicine and poison. Nations have come to rely on ever-expanding economic activity, measured in terms of gross domestic product, in order to create jobs, generate higher incomes for workers, fund government services, and provide returns to investors. This chapter explores reasons for the unprecedented economic growth of recent decades, especially during the latter half of the twentieth century. It shows that whether growth can be maintained, perhaps in other and less destructive ways than is currently the case. The chapter also shows that the insistence on unending economic growth is making climate change mitigation so difficult. An economy is a system whereby human beings use energy to extract and transform Earth's renewable and non-renewable resources; distribute and use goods; and dispose of wastes. The existence of money, banking, debt, and interest appear to have been necessary preconditions for significant capital accumulation.
