The Eco Road to Economic Recovery

There’s one major worry in the current economic crisis.

Not “Shall I lose my job?” Not even “Will the banks keep my savings safe?”

But “What short-cuts will we take to get the world’s economy growing again?

All round the world companies are failing or cutting back output, and people are having to survive on much less income than they had last year. In developing countries people are going hungry. In the developed world some very rich people now have fewer billions to worry about than they did before. And more poor people are dependent on state assistance than before.

At least our planet is getting a break from relentless ruin. Fewer people working in industry, driving their cars and trucks about, making steel and aluminium, and turning their heating or cooling systems onto maximum, means that less fossil fuel will be burned in the next year or two than was forecast last year. You can see the indications of this now, in falling oil and commodity prices, and falling deep sea shipping rates.

There’s an eco downside as well, however. News from the UK this past week, for example, was of a small company recycling cardboard that has hit the buffers because demand for toys in the USA has dropped. The toys- all of them!- would have been made in China and packaged in boxes made from recycled cardboard, including some shipped from the UK. So the global recession is hitting global recycling already, and China isn’t even in an official recession yet. More hits on local eco efforts are very likely in the months to come.

The really big danger is that in their efforts to “kick-start” the world economy, the world’s politicians will relax their previous attitudes to carbon emissions, on the basis that economic recovery is more important than the greening of the world economy. It isn’t, of course, it’s just more immediate. But politicians find it very difficult to focus on the long term important issues when the newspaper headlines are screaming about today’s trouble.

In the western democracies the financial crisis is dominating the news, and politicians don’t want to risk their possible non-election by seeming not to act. So there will be a huge temptation to throw money at immediate projects, and damn the consequences. Or to relax environmental rules to help struggling businesses save on costs. Or to cut taxes on fuel to help struggling families.

But now would be the perfect time for government to put resources into eco projects. Major economies should focus their anti-recession spending on the green agenda. No one will complain about extra resources being focused on job creation in new eco industries at a time when every job counts. The global recession is a perfect excuse for finding the extra funds to do this.

It’s also the perfect time for a decisive shift in private consumption towards eco goods, and away from mass-produced environmentally damaging products.

Biome Lifestyle is a UK-based retailer which has the environment at the heart of everything it does. Some of the stories behind its products are inspiring. All of its products avoid the pitfalls of the mass produced, environmentally damaging, stuff you find on the High Street. And all its suppliers are the kind of businesses that will grow without damaging our precious planet in the process.

Find out more about Biome by clicking: ethical products