Richard Douthwaite – Ireland

Linked with Three Key Steps to Sustainability, and with Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability.

He says: ”Sustainability needs to be achieved in two time-frames. One is short-term and largely economic. We need to eat tonight. Employees have to be paid at the end of the week. Interest has to be paid at the end of the half-year. The second time-frame seems less urgent but is no less important. The natural environment has to be preserved. Capital equipment, buildings and infrastructure have to be kept up. Health has to be maintained. Knowledge and skills have to be preserved and passed on. And social structures such as families, friendships and neighbourhoods have to stay strong ». (full text).

Read: Short Circuit.

Download and read in pdf: the economy of money, by Richard Douthwaite.

Richard Douthwaite - Ireland one.jpg

Richard Douthwaite – Ireland

Link to some of his articles about sustainable energy.

Richard Douthwaite is an economist and writer with special interest in energy issues and local economic development. He was born in Sheffield in England. He worked as a Journalist, before studying economics at the University of Essex and the University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica. He was a former economic advisor to the governments of Jamaca and Montserrat before moving to Westport in Co. Mayo in the early 1970’s. He has made a special study of rural sustainability and his book Short Circuit (1996) gives examples of currency, banking, energy and food production systems which communities can use to make themselves less dependent on the world economy. He was a founder of Feasta, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability, a registered charity which aims to establish the characteristics that an economic system would have to possess to be truly sustainable.

He is co-editor of the Feasta Review, which appears every second year. He has also acted as economic adviser to the Global Commons Institute (London) for the past twelve years, during which time GCI has developed the Contraction and Convergence approach to dealing with greenhouse gas emissions which has now been backed by a majority of countries in the world. In 2002 he organised the conference Ireland’s Transition to Renewable Energy for Feasta, with the Tipperary Institute and Sustainable Energy Ireland. He edited and published conference papers in 2003 as the book, Before the Wells Run Dry . He is a founder of the Mayo Community Wind Energy Group. He was also editor of To Catch the Wind , a report on the feasibility of such community investments in current conditions in Ireland, which was published in June 2004. Richard Douthwaite is now working on an EPA funded research project to develop scenarios for an energy scarce future. (text).

Read: Sustainable Territories.
Read: Douthwaiteova ekologie peněz.
Read: Členy poradního sboru jsou.

Government support schemes: Government support schemes are emerging for renewable energy installations. The EU is targeting an increase in renewable sources from 6% to 12% by 2010, and is encouraging member states to support projects and the emerging industry. While behind other EU countries, Government schemes with a specific focus on heating projects using wood are now being discussed in Ireland.(full text).

About the failed hope to stop economically the 2003 war-on-Iraq (some of his many, mostly long texts at these times. They are in any way a kind of economic study, or reflection, for normal people):

His books on amazon.

links:

Local Exchange Trading Systems;

Civilizing Society, by David C. Korten, The FEASTA annual lecture, July 4, 2000;

the yes-magazine;

the transitioner, and their homepage.