Rethinking the future - Risks of lifestyles based on economic growth and consumerism and possible alternatives
Symposium of the Denkwerk Zukunft on September 16, in Bonn
Economic growth has led to an unparalleled increase in wealth of the populations of early industrialised countries. This was only made possible through the consumption of natural resources - in particular fossil fuels -, environmental destruction and the exploitation of both nature and people. In addition, material wealth was to a large extent debt-financed. It is becoming increasingly clear that our current economic model is not sustainable.
Large parts of the population and many politicians hope that technology and its innovative breakthroughs will yield a solution. But can we really master those new technologies? What do we understand about their side-effects? What ethical framework do we have to develop in order to use the creative potential of science and research in a way that does not threaten our future but opens up new perspectives?
Do we need new lifestyles and of what kind? Which idea of man and society should guide them? What can civil society contribute?
These questions were discussed by the laureates of the Alternative Nobel Prize, Professor Dr. Hans-Peter Dürr, former director of the Werner-Heisenberg-Institute at Max-Planck-Institute for Physics und Astrophysics in Munich and Pat Mooney, co-founder and executive director of the ETC Group on September 16th at a symposium of the Denkwerk Zukunft - Foundation for Cultural Renewal in Bonn. The symposium was held on occasion of the "30th Anniversary of The Right Livelihood Award"