49th ABS Annual Conference

Khazzoom-Brookes Postulate, which observes that greater efficiency in resource use often leads to increased, not reduced, consumption, has been unfolding at an accelerated rate. As innovation has relentlessly driven efficiency gains, it has simultaneously accelerated the scale of production and consumption, fueling economic growth.  But this model—where efficiency feeds expansion-is on collision course with planetary boundaries and principles of social justice. We examine (a) sources & persistence of poverty despite economic growth, where the wealthiest five individuals now have more wealth than the bottom half of world population; (b) the impact of this unfettered growth on climate change in face of planetary boundaries; and (c) how certain principles of the Bahai Faith provide a new global construct to address this outcome.