Economic growth has without a doubt become the most fetishised public goal of our time. Every politician must promise it to get or keep elected office. It solves many problems. It is a goal shared by all. It reduces unemployment, provides governments with much-needed tax revenue, makes hard workers rich, reduces wrinkles, and clears up your complexion. Who in their right mind would not favor robust economic growth?

Our job is to take every brilliant pro-sustainability message that comes to us, and recommend it to our friends and colleagues. When I get this issue of SHIFT, I will post it to my facebook wall and tweet it to my followers. I do the same with Richard Heinberg’s Museletter. You, no doubt, have your own favorite sources.

Every night while you’re asleep, fairies enter your bedroom, put earphones on your head, and play a special endless-loop soundtrack. All night long, you hear, “Growth is good, growth is wonderful, growth is the path to prosperity, growth is success, there is a pot of gold at the end of the growth rainbow….”