Gross Domestic Product is a measurement of all economic activity in a given time period and region. Basically, anytime anyone spends money in America, it increases our national GDP. In another frame of mind, GDP represents the exact deduction our economy has made from the ecosystem. Understanding how the GDP works is vital to understanding how our economic choices effect the Earth. This is due to the fact that the value of our currency is directly related to our GDP. Remember that the value of a fiat currency is determined by two factors alone: that we all agree it has value, and what amount of any given commodity a dollar (in the case of America) can buy. There is no real value until the commodity has been bought, thus raising the GDP. GDP is the new version of the gold standard in American economics. If no new bills are printed and GDP rises, it means that the buying power of the dollar has risen, and prices drop. There are not very many new bills introduced in the economy each year, but there are some. Thus, if the GDP doesn’t increase each year, the buying power of a dollar decreases and inflation occurs.
All of this adds up to say that our economy demands that our GDP increase each year. This is a direct result of the entire system that controls almost every aspect of our public lives. Productivity must increase or the system that distributes food, healthcare, housing, clothing, etc., falls apart at the seams very quickly (see the 1930s). So what about dear old mother Earth?
When GDP rises, Earth loses value. That value is added to the economy, but it is frequently used to further insulate us and the system from the ecosystem. This is especially true when that GDP comes from single-use commodities like energy or disposables. However, even if these single-use commodities were completely done away with we would still be in a system with a definite end: ecological death.
The Earth has a limited amount of value. There’s only so much gold, cobalt, nickel, oil, copper, etc. on the planet. Once that value is completely used, GDP has nowhere to withdraw from, and you end up in a global, ecological depression. On an individual level we can only effect real disruption of this system by refusing to spend money in excess. If we only buy that which we need and forgo luxury the GDP that we contribute decreases. Spend less money, produce less GDP. Unfortunately a decreased GDP does not mean added value to the ecosystem; only if a GDP was negative would it mean that value was actually returned to the ecosystem, but that is impossible. So decreasing our GDP and increasing the portion of the GDP that comes from sustainable practices lengthens the amount of time until the ecological collapse of the Earth, but it does not prevent it. The unfortunate consequence of decreasing the GDP is that those who end up paying the most for the decrease are those who are already without the means to absorb additional costs.
If only there were a way to reconcile our relationship with mother Earth so that we weren’t so abusive of her and each other….