Continual growth is completely unsustainable and heightens inequality

Continual growth is completely unsustainable and heightens inequality

Last week I discussed some of the problems that result from our focus on the economy rather than on ecologically sustainable human and social development. This week, I turn to a more in-depth exploration of the impacts of continual economic growth, and in particular the way in which growth, if unchecked, will dramatically increase inequality.

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We need to get over our obsession with the economy

We need to get over our obsession with the economy

I recently came across an eloquent and powerful passage by Carl Sagan, the famed cosmologist, written in response to an image of Earth taken by Voyager 1 in 1990, from beyond the planet Neptune. The Earth was just a pale blue dot, which inspired the title of his 1994 book from which the following passage is quoted. Sagan wrote: “You see a dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us…

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We just overshot our fair share of Earth for 2023

We just overshot our fair share of Earth for 2023

Just a few days ago, Canada overshot its fair share of Earth’s biocapacity and resources, as measured by the ecological footprint in 2018, the latest year for which data is available. By March 13, Canada had already consumed its fair share of the Earth’s bounty for the year. Collectively, humanity passed its 2022 Earth Overshoot Day on July 28.

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Learning self-care should start in school

Last week, I suggested self-care should be a strategic priority for Canada’s health system. Done well, it can reduce unnecessary demand for professional care while at the same time improving outcomes, empowering patients and enhancing personal and community capacity for caring.

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Public policy as if health matters

Public policy as if health matters

Back in the early 1980s, building on the work of others, I came up with the concept of “healthy public policy,” which has since been taken up by the World Health Organization and many national and provincial governments. Canada even has a National Collaborating Centre on Healthy Public Policy.

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Time for a radical re-think of health care

Time for a radical re-think of health care

Having worked as a family physician in primary care, as a public-health physician in health planning and as a medical health officer, as an advisor and consultant on health promotion to the World Health Organization — mainly in Europe — as a medical consultant in population and public health at B.C.’s Ministry of Health…

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Ecological sanity and social justice — we can’t have one without the other

Ecological sanity and social justice — we can’t have one without the other

More than 40 years ago, in my major paper for my master’s degree, I sought to identify the fundamental principles underlying public health. I concluded there are two: ecological sanity and social justice. The pursuit of these principles has defined much of my work to create a healthier society ever since.

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Don’t blame Victoria for other governments’ failures

Don’t blame Victoria for other governments’ failures

There is a concept in health promotion called victim-blaming — blaming smokers for their habit, for example, when in reality they are the victims of a sophisticated marketing campaign. The same concept applies to the tendency by many to blame the City of Victoria for problems such as homelessness, mental health and addictions problems, park camping and crime and violence.

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Conventional economic growth is unsustainable

Conventional economic growth is unsustainable

Rising concern about the impact of humanity on the environment led to the first UN conference on the environment in 1972. However, the issue of sustainability itself was barely touched on at the conference, with only one mention in the 80-page conference report. Nonetheless, publications prepared for the conference, such as Only One Earth and The Limits to Growth, as well as the conference itself, led to a much-heightened awareness of the challenges we faced.

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Speeding development of non-profit housing is good for health

Speeding development of non-profit housing is good for health

Housing is fundamental to health. That should not be a surprise, especially in a country with Canada’s climate. The health impacts of being homeless or living in poor-quality housing are well understood, and must be obvious to anyone. But it is not just homelessness that is a concern — there is a much larger ­problem of affordability. Lack of ­affordable housing can markedly affect people’s physical, mental and social ­wellbeing.

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