Bill McKibben
Peace to fam.
An interview... http://www.salon.com/books/int/2007/03/23/mckibben/
So how did the mantra of economic expansion gain such momentum?
Because it works up to a point. Economists have been extremely good at showing us how to produce more. But they have confused that with an end. They've decided that because they're good at doing it, therefore that's what should be done. The basic idea goes back to Adam Smith, who was prescribing for the human condition in his time, a condition of essential scarcity. We moved away from that a long time ago in the U.S. The marginal utility of another stuffed animal for my daughter, for example, is unbelievably low, but for the girl working in a shower curtain factory in China, whom I describe in the book, who brims over in tears the second she sees it, it's very high. One of the confusions of economics has been that getting a stuffed animal is the same experience for both.
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You also write about the way in which the Christian religion, at least in America, has been co-opted by this vision of market capitalism. Is that something that you see changing?
I do. In the last year there has been a sudden engagement of religious communities, including evangelical ones, in environmental politics, particularly in the fight over climate change. It reminds us of the potentially subversive role that they might play, since they draw their inspiration from a gospel that, if taken seriously, would blow the minds of most Americans. Organized Christianity had largely succumbed to the hyper-individualist view of the world, which is ironic for a religion whose central tenet is to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. We'd gotten away from that, but there's potential for getting back toward it.