Thread by @PaulEDawson

The biggest reason we are in the climate and biodiversity crisis we're currently in is:

GDP growth

We are focused on measuring something that doesn't mean what most people think it means.

Let me explain

🧵👇

GDP stands for Gross Domestic Product

Essentially it's a measurement of all the economic activity in a country during a given period.

Add up the total value of all the goods and services sold, and that's your GDP.

Almost every country is trying to grow their GDP

The problem is GDP doesn't measure, what's been lost!

Only what's created.

This made sense in World War 2 when we needed to build tanks and aircraft as fast as possible for our survival.

Let me explain how destruction adds to GDP growth 👇

Imagine your house gets destroyed by a hurricane, and you rebuild.

Congratulations, you've helped grow GDP.

You're worse off; you've probably spent your savings and had to borrow to pay for the rebuilding of your house.

This is what's happening with the environment.

In the last 50 years, populations of mammals, birds, fish, amphibians, and reptiles have declined globally by two thirds.

We've cut down 1 in 6 trees in the Amazon rainforest during the same period.

This destruction of nature has caused GDP to rise.

We need to ditch GDP and start measuring something that makes sense for the world we want.

Let's start by recognising that growth that destroys more than it creates is terrible.

Let me know what you think.

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